The Triangle Transit Authority has cut back its sprawling plan for a regional railway system from the state Capitol in Raleigh to Ninth Street in Durham and is looking toward a more manageable future.
After hitting patches of local and federal budget turbulence, TTA announced last month that it had decided to put its projection for 2011—three key commuter stops in Raleigh and one more at the Duke University Medical Center—on indefinite hold. The move shortens the long-term monorail project to only 12 stops, but TTA General Manager John Claflin said the loss of these stops remains a positive development.
“We believe that revising the scope of the project is the best decision at this time to ensure that the Regional Rail Transit System moves forward,” Claflin told TTA’s board of trustees. “These revisions will allow us to strengthen our project and keep it competitive with the more than 184 other projects vying for federal funding.”
In scaling back, TTA was able to lower the total cost of the railway from the original $849 million to $631 million—a move TTA officials believe will improve opportunities for the project to receive federal support. If all the figures are worked out before spring 2005, TTA can expect to open the railway on schedule in 2008.
TTA is now awaiting a decision from Congress, which just recently returned from an August recess. The Federal Funding Grant Agreement will provide 50 percent of the railway’s costs, and the light rail has been placed in FY 2005—both of which are positive signs for TTA management, who hope to begin construction by next spring.
If Congress passes a bill to fund the TTA project, construction of the light rail would begin immediately. But Brad Schulz, a communications officer for TTA, said Congress would be “reticent to sign” the necessary funding due to a transportation budget that may fluctuate after the November elections.
Funding for the project originally relied on a 5 percent rental car tax collected in Durham, Wake and Orange Counties that once generated $7.5 million per year but has fallen in the past two years to $6.7 million. With the 12 stops for 2008 looming on an already far-off horizon, the light rail’s eastern and western ends were the first to feel the budgetary constraints.
Claflin added that plans for the four stops—including the only one for DUMC’s huge workforce—have not completely been erased.
TTA hopes that the public will be more supportive and hold a referendum, if the initial funding bill passes, to support taxes that will put the stalled four stops on the map.
Some local officials are less optimistic about the railway’s future. Durham City Council member Eugene Brown said the “first leg has to be successful” or any future projects will prove problematic.
Although the four missing stops greatly reduced the costs of constructing the light rail, Brown said he did not consider the savings “realistic” since a diminished system would likely have less importance in the region and less appeal to Congress.
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