CATS chief Keith Parker thinks the 2030 Transit Plan — the one with four more corridors plus a streetcar system — should become a plan for 2018.
He told a transportation forum this week: “If we don’t build the 2030 plan before 2030, it will be hopelessly unaffordable.”
He said rising construction costs could price the expansions out of reach if the Metropolitan Transit Commission hews to its timetable. And with “a modest increase in revenue” it could be done within the next 10 years, he said.
The idea isn’t at all crazy. Denver is doing something similar. Its light rail debuted in the 1990s but never got expanded. A few years back a coalition of the Chamber of Commerce, mayors and environmental leaders backed a regionwide system of six lines at $4.7 billion, to be paid with a sales tax. Voters OK’d it in 2004, even without a commitment of federal support. (The estimated price now is $7.9 billion. You can see why Parker is worried.)
In Charlotte, Parker said, the success of the Lynx Blue Line has everyone demanding transit. “Everybody wants rail. Everybody wants it now.”
I’d gladly pony up a fraction more on the sales tax if it meant faster construction of trains to north Mecklenburg, University City and good transit service to the airport and out Indy Boulevard.