Category: commuter rail

Bike-ped trail along rail route hits the ground running

I had just spent 2 1/2 hours listening to Charlotte City Council members talk about the upcoming city budget – with the specter of the proposed streetcar hanging overhead, in the gov center’s windowless Room 267. And that was after Mayor Anthony Foxx and City Manager Ron Carlee, in his second week into the job, said any streetcar discussion should be off the table for the day.

The discussion before the non-discussion of the streetcar was not exactly optimistic. As the Charlotte Business Journal reported this week, (“Consultant: Charlotte transit plan at least $3 billion short“) the income from the county’s half-cent sales tax for transit isn’t enough to allow any more of the proposed transit system to be built after the Blue Line Extension. No money for the Red Line commuter rail to Davidson (although the problem there is lack of federal money). No money for the Southeast Corridor, whether it ends up as light rail or bus rapid transit. No money for the West Corridor. (Remember it? I thought not. The 2030 Transit Plan calls for a streetcar to the airport. Yes, the plan calls for TWO streetcars, in case you had not noticed.) No money for the East-West streetcar – which, yes, has been in the adopted transit plan for a decade and which the city has proposed building without waiting for the Metropolitan Transit Commission to find any (nonexistent) money.

In any event, Foxx told the council, referring to the “promise” to build the transit system using only the sales tax: “When people say a promise was broken, I’m asking which promise are they saying was broken? The promise to do it within the half-cent sales tax? The promise to get the plan built in 2030? ‘Cause one of them’s going to get broken.”
I left that, yes, depressing meeting to go another one, much more sparsely attended, which also focused on a long-range transportation proposal that doesn’t, today, have money to be built. But this one was, strangely, more cheering.

See below for link to click for larger map

The venue was, if possible, even bleaker than windowless Room 267. This was a public workshop at the extremely utilitarian (and remote, unless you live in northwest Charlotte) Mecklenburg County Park and Recreation Department building on Brookshire Boulevard. It was held to share information and listen to public comments about a proposed Mooresville-Charlotte Trail. 

The trail would  be a 30-mile bicycle and pedestrian path running, roughly speaking, along the proposed route of the Red Line commuter rail line from Charlotte to Mooresville (although the train wouldn’t go to Mooresville unless Mooresville or Iredell County ponies up some money).
Maybe it’s because the trail is so young in terms of  planning and so far under the publicity radar, but people in the room – the few people in the room, let me say – were excited and optimistic.

Imagine being able to hop on your bicycle in Mooresville and ride an off-road trail 30 miles into uptown Charlotte – no traffic lights, no fighting cars and trucks. Eric Gorman, a planner with consulting firm Parsons Brinckerhoff, estimated that an experienced rider going 20 mph could do the trip in about 90 minutes. In other words, commuting to on bicycle could be a real alternative for residents – well, very fit residents – all along the trail.

Some details:

Time frame: “It will be decades for the whole thing,” said county greenway planner Gwen Cook.
Where, exactly, it would run: Hasn’t been fine-tuned. It would start uptown along Irwin Creek near Ray”s Splash Planet. Much of the route is proposed to run along the Norfolk Southern rail right of way between Mooresville and Charlotte, but no negotiations have begun with the railroad. Click here for a  pdf map with some details of the early thinking.
Who’s paying for planning so far? The project won a $35,000 planning grant from the Mecklenburg Union Metropolitan Planning Organization (MUMPO).
How is it connected to the proposed Red Line transit project: It isn’t, other than being referred to by some people as the Red Line Trail, and by its hoped-for location near or in the Red Line right-of-way. Funding and planning don’t rely on the transit project.
Who would pay for it? According to planner Cook, funds would be found the way they have been for other greenway projects: Local government partnerships, land dedications from property owners and developers, grants from various state and nonprofit sources. In other words, piecemeal, over time.The group anticipates about 60 percent of the needed easements would not need to be purchased. For example, land has already been dedicated for it in the Brightwalk development on Statesville Avenue.
What happens next: The last scheduled public workshops were this week, although more might be scheduled. With consultants Parsons Brinckerhoff and Alta Greenways, a report will be finished in June. Then, all seven  local governments involved would be asked to include this trail into their plans. Cook noted Mooresville and Iredell County have already have such a trail in their pedestrian and bicycle master plans, and it is included in the nonprofit Carolina Thread Trail plans.
Then, as money becomes available, she said, some “low-hanging-fruit” projects that would get a lot of immediate use are likely to be launched first.

Want to know more?
See a map, a presentation, a video and a fact sheet by clicking here.

New transit rules from the feds, part II

John Muth, chief development officer for the Charlotte Area Transit System confirms that yes, as I speculated in “New transit rules from the feds” yesterday, the rules changes being proposed by the Federal Transit Administration do “cover how fixed guideway projects such as commuter rail, light rail, and bus rapid transit are evaluated for possible federal funding.”  He said in an email that he hadn’t yet reviewed the notice of proposed rule-making but will do so.

“We will be using most of the time between now and the March 26th deadline to review the guidance, compare notes with others in the industry, and prepare our comments,” Muth reports.
The latest news on the Red Line proposal is that the consultants are saying the letter from Norfolk Southern railway is not the final word on the project. Here’s a report from DavidsonNews.net.
Interesting tidbit inside that last link: Note that on Feb. 8, Randall O’Toole from the conservative/libertarian Cato Institute is giving a presentation and analysis of the Red Line plan at 9 a.m. at Cornelius Town Hall. That’s, er, interesting.

Charlotte transit plan makeover goes beyond cosmetic surgery

The stalled-for-years proposal to build a commuter rail line from downtown Charlotte north to the booming suburban towns of Huntersville, Cornelius, Davidson and Mooresville is getting a significant makeover, not just cosmetic surgery. The state and local officials involved are looking to find funding with freight-oriented development, a sort of cousin to the more widely recognized transit-oriented development (a.k.a. TOD).

The project has been stalled because it hasn’t qualified for federal funding, which typically pays half the cost of a transit line. After years of patiently sitting by, towns in northern Mecklenburg County and Mooresville in Iredell County formed the Lake Norman Transportation Commission, which succeeded in kick-starting a fresh look at the so-called Red Line (which honors the Davidson College school color).

A Wednesday meeting of the Metropolitan Transit Commission heard a detailed presentation of the financing plans. I couldn’t make it, but here are several looks at the presentation: The Charlotte Business Journal’s Erik Spanberg “Red Line rolls toward 2012 vote”  and DavidsonNews.net/CorneliusNews.net’s Christina Ritchie Rogers’ “Homeowners won’t see tax hike in Red Line plans, consultants say.”

Here’s a link to the various presentations and handouts from the MTC meeting.

Nothing’s been decided yet, of course. The Lake Norman Transportation Commission will hold a four-hour summit on the proposal Dec. 13 in Mooresville (10 a.m.-2 p.m. at the Charles Mack Citizens Center, 215 N. Main St.).

Then the different governments, who’d have to agree to create a joint powers authority, must study the proposal and decide whether to opt in. From my observations, I’d predict Charlotte, Mecklenburg County and the Mecklenburg towns are on board. The trickier discussions will be in Mooresville and Iredell County. Although many in Mooresville have favored the transit idea, Iredell County commissioners have traditionally been wary of anything that might be viewed as a tax increase.

This proposal would create a sort of self-imposed tax assessment on owners of income-producing property (that is, not residential property) along the line. A part of the tax revenue from the new development would be used to help pay the costs of the rail construction. A portion of the new tax revenue generated from rail-related development would go to local general funds. This proposal would create a sort of self-imposed tax increase on property owners along the line, although it would send a proportion of those extra revenues into local general funds. (2:50 p.m.: Wording refinement on details of the proposal.)

Adding the freight proposal, which takes advantage of a national boom in freight rail fed by rising gas prices rise and freeway congestion, makes the Red Line plan more clearly an economic development maneuver. Luring freight-oriented industry might be a strategy Iredell leaders can be comfortable with, as opposed to simply building a commuter rail line that will draw more Charlotte-bound workers, which will bring homes and children needing county-funded services.

Like the $5 million regional HUD planning grant, the Red Line joint powers authority proposal is one more example of the need to treat the Charlotte region as more than a disconnected set of individual governments, but as, well, a region.

Old depot may yet escape bulldozer

Photo courtesy Charlotte-Mecklenburg Historic Landmarks Commission

The historic passenger depot off Freedom Drive, the Thrift P&N station, may yet be saved from demolition. A complicated property deal is in the works, involving the depot’s owner, CSX railway, as well as the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Historic Landmarks Commission and the N.C. Department of Transportation.

As I first wrote in November (City may seek landmark demolition) the station dates to the Piedmont and Northern electric suburban rail system developed by power company and tobacco magnate James B. Duke and power company executive William States Lee (who ran the forerunner of Duke Energy). The railway opened in 1912; passenger service ended in 1951. The station, designed by prominent Charlotte architect C.C. Hook (he designed the Duke Mansion and old City Hall), is the last P&N passenger station in Mecklenburg County.

It’s a designated landmark, but in North Carolina designated landmarks can be demolished if the owner desires. The old depot was caught up in the city’s new, well-intentioned nonresidential building code, adopted last April and aimed at cleaning up dilapidated, blighted buildings. CSX hadn’t kept the old depot in good repair, and after an inspection the city ordered repairs or demolition. CSX applied for a permit to demolish. The city-county landmarks commission has power to delay demolitions for a year and did so.

Walter Abernethy, the city’s code enforcement manager, told the City Council on Monday that an agreement had been reached to save the depot. He might have been a wee bit prematurely optimistic. Dan Morrill, the consulting director for the landmarks commission, says that CSX has
has agreed to withdraw its demolition application for a year to let NCDOT and the landmarks commission try to put together this scenario:

• NCDOT acquires property nearby, across track. If it succeeds, NCDOT allows the depot to be moved onto that new site.
• CSX would then donate the station to the HLC. The HLC would move the station to the new site and restore it for an interim adaptive reuse. CSX might donate some money for the move and restoration, Morrill said.
• If and when NCDOT acquires the former P&N track for passenger use (it owns about 15 miles of the railway, some near uptown Charlotte but mostly in Gaston County where re-opening freight operations) then NCDOT would buy the station from the HLC for use as a passenger. But currently NCDOT has no plans for passenger rail along the line.

Obviously, the plan hinges on NCDOT acquiring land. But if all the pieces fall into place – still a big if – in a weird sort of irony the demolition threat may well end up having saved the old depot from what was starting to look like “demolition by neglect.”

Old depot may yet escape bulldozer

Photo courtesy Charlotte-Mecklenburg Historic Landmarks Commission

The historic passenger depot off Freedom Drive, the Thrift P&N station, may yet be saved from demolition. A complicated property deal is in the works, involving the depot’s owner, CSX railway, as well as the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Historic Landmarks Commission and the N.C. Department of Transportation.

As I first wrote in November (City may seek landmark demolition) the station dates to the Piedmont and Northern electric suburban rail system developed by power company and tobacco magnate James B. Duke and power company executive William States Lee (who ran the forerunner of Duke Energy). The railway opened in 1912; passenger service ended in 1951. The station, designed by prominent Charlotte architect C.C. Hook (he designed the Duke Mansion and old City Hall), is the last P&N passenger station in Mecklenburg County.

It’s a designated landmark, but in North Carolina designated landmarks can be demolished if the owner desires. The old depot was caught up in the city’s new, well-intentioned nonresidential building code, adopted last April and aimed at cleaning up dilapidated, blighted buildings. CSX hadn’t kept the old depot in good repair, and after an inspection the city ordered repairs or demolition. CSX applied for a permit to demolish. The city-county landmarks commission has power to delay demolitions for a year and did so.

Walter Abernethy, the city’s code enforcement manager, told the City Council on Monday that an agreement had been reached to save the depot. He might have been a wee bit prematurely optimistic. Dan Morrill, the consulting director for the landmarks commission, says that CSX has
has agreed to withdraw its demolition application for a year to let NCDOT and the landmarks commission try to put together this scenario:

• NCDOT acquires property nearby, across track. If it succeeds, NCDOT allows the depot to be moved onto that new site.
• CSX would then donate the station to the HLC. The HLC would move the station to the new site and restore it for an interim adaptive reuse. CSX might donate some money for the move and restoration, Morrill said.
• If and when NCDOT acquires the former P&N track for passenger use (it owns about 15 miles of the railway, some near uptown Charlotte but mostly in Gaston County where re-opening freight operations) then NCDOT would buy the station from the HLC for use as a passenger. But currently NCDOT has no plans for passenger rail along the line.

Obviously, the plan hinges on NCDOT acquiring land. But if all the pieces fall into place – still a big if – in a weird sort of irony the demolition threat may well end up having saved the old depot from what was starting to look like “demolition by neglect.”

And commuter rail for North Mecklenburg lives?

Here’s a business-focused wrap-up of reasons no one should count the proposed commuter rail line to North Mecklenburg as dead. Business Today online writes “Economic Development Prospects Put North Line Rail Back on Track.” Although there’s not much new news in it, it’s a good wrap-up of why the North Line (a.k.a. the Red Line) remains an excellent plan, and one that the business community should get behind.

Now if they could just wire up some of that federal money for commuter rail …. That’s been the sticky wicket all along. The Bush administration’s transit-funding rules were written in such a way as to rule out virtually all proposed commuter rail transit, including this project. Those rules are changing. Stay tuned.

Commuter rail in Triangle? Study finds riders

The N.C. Railroad Co. commissioned a study that found up to 8,238 riders per weekday by 2022 projected for a possible commuter rail line between Durham and the Johnston County town of Wilson’s Mills. It looked at the whole Greensboro to Goldsboro stretch and concluded a 50-mile section in the Triangle had the highest possibility for ridership – up to 2 million riders per year.

Here’s the Raleigh N&O article. And here’s WRAL TV’s version.

Note the projected cost to construct the line $5 million to $7 million a mile. That’s eye-popping to be sure. But according to N.C. Department of Transportation Secretary Gene Conti, building a mile of interstate highway is $30 million to $50 million a mile. Makes the rail look awfully cost-effective, doesn’t it?

As the N&O article says,
If the forecast is accurate, the Triangle would have a busier rail line than the commuter trains that now serve such cities as San Diego and San Jose.
“Look at other high-growth areas around the country,” said Scott Saylor, the N.C. Railroad president. “There aren’t many that don’t have commuter rail.”

All together now: We know of a big one! We’re living in it.

In hindsight, maybe bridge idea not so hot

Even hindsight isn’t always 20-20 of course, but if you look at the breakdown of which transportation projects across the U.S. won pieces of that $1.5 billion in federal stimulus money, it’s pretty clear the feds were favoring transit, rail and pedestrian projects. The top-ranked highway-only project was 10th on the list.

So did N.C. officials miscalculate by putting their big weight on repairing highway bridges over the Yadkin River, instead of making a big push for Mecklenburg County’s languishing-for-lack-of-federal-money commuter rail line? Charlotte and CATs submitted the request, of course, but in order to be team players with N.C. DOT and the governor they weren’t pulling out the big guns to lobby for it.

New York City’s project to improve dowdy Penn Station (the “Moynihan Station, Phase 1”) got $83 million. The “Tuscon Modern Streetcar” project won $63 million. A commuter rail project in Massachusetts (“the Fitchburg commuter rail extension and Wachusett station”) won $55.5 million. The DC area got $58 million for bus enhancements, and Philadelphia got $54 million for pedestrian and bicycle improvements. A lot of the money went for freight rail improvements, too.

“Selected projects must foster job creation, show strong economic benefits, and promote communities that are safer, cleaner and more livable,” the press release said. Later, it said the 22 so-called “livability projects” were “aimed at giving Americans more choices about how they travel and improving access to economic and housing opportunities in their communities.”

I think North Carolina’s Yadkin River bridge project, although a sorely needed repair job, failed to score on the “cleaner and more livable” factors. And I think it’s quite possible the shovel-ready but fed-funding-lacking North Corridor commuter rail line to Davidson would have hit high marks for “cleaner and more livable,” because of its obvious connection to more environmentally sound development, and for taking a load of traffic off I-77. It’s an example of regional cooperation, too, with four municipalities (Charlotte, Huntersville, Cornelius and Davidson) involved.

Conti demurred when I asked him to second-guess the request on Thursday. “It would have been just as hard to get any significant funding for the North Corridor,” he said. I wonder.

In any case, now that the state has learned the bridge repair project gets only $10 million in stimulus money, it’s moving to start the repairs in a few months.

NC wins “honorable mention” grant for Yadkin bridge

Might the N.C. DOT have made a bad call in applying for $300 million in stimulus money to rebuild the Yadkin River bridge on I-85, instead of using the opportunity to try to snag more mass transit money? DOT Secretary Gene Conti doesn’t think so.

The grants – made public Wednesday – were part of the $1.5 billion in so-called TIGER Grant funding, for transportation projects, all part of the federal stimulus bill. North Carolina got $10 million for the Yadkin bridge project.

Here’s a complete breakdown from the U.S. DOT.

I just hung up from a phone interview with Conti, who said in total, 10 projects from North Carolina were submitted, including a request from Charlotte and the Metropolitan Transit Commission to fund the proposed-but-got-no-money commuter rail line between downtown and Davidson. Conti said N.C. projects were worth $845 million. Across the country, he said, $57 billion worth of projects were requested.

Looking at the projects that got the big bucks – and it’s worth remembering that when you’re talking transportation projects, $1.5 billion really isn’t very much to spread around the country – transit and multimodal and rail projects seem to have done better than highway projects. The organization Reconnecting America did a breakdown: highway projects received 23 percent of funding, while transit projects 26 percent, multimodal projects received 25 percent, rail projects won 19 percent and ports 7 percent.

Note that a $45 million streetcar project in New Orleans won – $45 million. A $58 million downtown streetcar project in Dallas, Texas, got $23 million. Tucson, Ariz., got $63 million for a $150 million, 4-mile streetcar line.

You’ll see some language on the US DOT document, if you read it, about North Carolina being eligible for “optional innovative financing enhancements to support a direct loan for up to one-third of the project costs.” I asked Conti what that meant. “That’s a good question,” he said ruefully. It means, he said, that N.C. could cash in the $10 million now for a $100 million loan. But without a revenue stream to repay the loan (such as a toll road might have) it’s best to just take the cash, he said.

The state does have $180 million money set aside for Phase 1 of the Yadkin bridge project. It can start work as early as June, he said. That money will pay to replace and widen to eight lanes the I-85 bridge, the U.S. 29-70 bridge and reconstruct the N.C. 150 interchange. So I-85 will go from eight lanes to four, as it does now, then widen to eight again over the bridge.