CATS Long Term Transit Plan - Silver, Red Lines

[kermit]

The March FTA Quarterly Report is now available:

http://charlottenc.gov/cats/about/boards/FTA%20Quarterly/FTA-Quarterly-Agenda-180322.pdf

* As of 3/1/18 the BLE appears to be around $64 million under budget
*I am shocked at how uninteresting the BLE section has become now that it is open so I am skipping ahead….

*Gold Line Phase 2 is 17.4% complete (based on cost of completed work)
* GL 2 current target revenue service date is May 31 2020
* The largest current risk to the GL2 project is Gateway Station bridge construction will interfere with GL2 catenary. CATS is considering additional (temporary) wireless operation of GL2 while construction is underway
* The second largest risk seems like an even bigger one: “Civil Contractor is ineffective in project specific trades like project management, rail installation and bridge construction resulting in poor budgeting, scheduling, construction, and/or quality.” Yikes! Did no one do any due diligence of low bidders?????
* All the rail for GL2 was delivered to the contractor's yard in Charlotte in January

* TOD Technical Assistance grant (for West End area):
o   It appears that the initiative will provide some design guidelines for TOD development in the area
o   One recommendation to maintain housing affordability is to “capture a portion of the revenue growth that will come with new development in the West End and dedicate it to mitigation of displacement pressures” (basically a TIF strategy to fund subsidized housing)

* Gateway Station:

o   100% of design for track, drainage, grading and transportation management complete
o   100% design for bridge structures should be complete the month
o   Construction on Phase 1 to begin “Spring/Summer 2018”
o   RFP for master developer to be issued Summer 2018 – contract awarded Spring 2019
o   Construction on master development to begin 2020
o   2021 complete construction of South Block (CATS bus facility)
o   2021-2022 Begin construction on the Main Block, locating Amtrak at CGS

* Corridor System Plan Update:
o   The North/West/Center City corridor study will include identification of additional portals and street alignments that would serve additional future corridors beyond those included in the 2030 corridor plan. “The goal of this effort is to identify potential transit needs for a 50-100 year future and be able to coordinate with future center city development.” Hallelujah! I do like the idea of packaging a Big Bang proposal in the context of a 50 year plan
o   Anticipated completion of above study is December 2018
o   It sounds like North Corridor alignment alternatives will be presented at the MTC meeting this month

* Regional Transit Public Engagement
o   CCOG has been working on collecting information from Cabarrus, Gaston, Iredell, Lincoln and Union counties about regional transit.
o   The COG reports that there is “a strong desire for immediate development of a regional transit plan that has both a region, system-wide focus while honoring the needs of individual counties.”
o   Sounds like the first part of this effort will be coordination of existing transit option (e.g. the CCX) and fare integration
o   A Regional Transit Summit will be held at UNCC (main campus) on May 17

 

* Transit tax revenues are about $600,000 ahead of last year’s collections

[EDIT: sorry about the format explosion]

Edited March 17, 2018 by kermit

[tozmervo]

39 minutes ago, kermit said:

* The second largest risk seems like an even bigger one: “Civil Contractor is ineffective in project specific trades like project management, rail installation and bridge construction resulting in poor budgeting, scheduling, construction, and/or quality.” Yikes! Did no one do any due diligence of low bidders?????

You can do due diligence all day long, but unless the bidder has fundamentally broken a rule or procedure in bidding there's not much you can do by public law. The contractor should be bonded, though, so the project is financially protected if things really go south. 

[kermit]

26 minutes ago, tozmervo said:

You can do due diligence all day long, but unless the bidder has fundamentally broken a rule or procedure in bidding there's not much you can do by public law. The contractor should be bonded, though, so the project is financially protected if things really go south. 

are city / state agencies required to always choose the low bidder? Is there no clause in the selection rules for 'character references' etc.?

If public agencies have no flexibility in the bids they select then I have even more appreciation for this Alan Shephard quote:

Quote

It's a very sobering feeling to be up in space and realize that one's safety factor was determined by the lowest bidder on a government contract.

 

Edited March 17, 2018 by kermit

[kermit]

A quote worth repeating from today's Observer Editorial supporting the Big Bang:

Quote

“The question,” Walker told the Observer editorial board Friday, “will not be whether we can fund a good transit system. It’s how can we not do it? How can we tolerate the outcomes of not investing in transit?”

http://www.charlotteobserver.com/opinion/editorials/article205596739.html

Edited March 17, 2018 by kermit

[jednc]

On 2/28/2018 at 8:18 AM, rancenc said:

The Mayor of Nashville had her bodyguard????

I fixed that for you...

[navigator319]

On 3/16/2018 at 8:59 AM, CLT2014 said:

Wow, 1.5 cents sales tax increase would be needed to self fund it... it is going to take some creative revenue planning to find other sources of revenue to make this possible. 

Can someone quantify this for me?  I spend $100 today at Target or wherever and I pay $7.50 in tax.  Inside this $7.50 is CATS portion already so adding in 1.5 cent increase for CATS what would that make the $7.50?

Edited March 17, 2018 by navigator319

[kermit]

2 minutes ago, navigator319 said:

Can someone quantify this for me?  I spend $100 today at Target or wherever and I pay $7.50 in tax.  Inside this $7.50 is CATS portion already so adding in 1.5 cent increase for CATS what would that make the $7.50?

$9

I don't think we would see an additional 1.5 cents (making 2 cents total). Perhaps another half cent (1 cent total) plus some other revenue streams -- value capture and possibly some taxes on driving. 

Edited March 17, 2018 by kermit

[navigator319]

3 minutes ago, kermit said:

$9

Thank you!... so 7.5% sales tax to a 9% sales tax.   Ok yea I could see selling that a tad hard even to people that REALLY want.  Personally I'm cool with it, provided it goes to building what it is suppose to.

[CLT2014]

13 minutes ago, navigator319 said:

Thank you!... so 7.5% sales tax to a 9% sales tax.   Ok yea I could see selling that a tad hard even to people that REALLY want.  Personally I'm cool with it, provided it goes to building what it is suppose to.

9% would put us in the top 15 cities for sales tax nation wide with cities like Chicago and the California cities (and more than high cost of living cities like New York City, San Francisco, etc..). The other cities in the top 15 are largely in states with no income tax like Washington, Texas, and Tennessee (so they derive most of their income from sales tax). 

It is interesting that Denver built all of their rail system with a 7.65% sales tax rate, which is just slightly higher than our 7.25%, but we would need 9% to accomplish building a smaller system. Colorado also has a flat income tax of 4.63% versus 5.75% in North Carolina AND they have lower property taxes than Mecklenburg.

Do we just not operate as efficiently as Denver and Colorado because it seems they accomplish more with less. 

Edited March 17, 2018 by CLT2014

[elrodvt]

I think, but don't know, that unlike NC businesses are expected to carry their fair share of the tax burden. Remarkably they still want to be there! Plus mining mineral rights & drilling  income. Plus MJ taxes. BTW, my overall taxes were less than 1/2 of Charlotte's in Denver. On top of that public services are much better as well. I also wonder if deferring maintenance for a 100 years isn't catching up with the East while the West has newer infrastructure in general.

[kermit]

The Nashville transit plan which will be voted on in May proposes to build about $5.4 billion in LRT. The revenue streams that they are planning on are as follows [I have added some comments in brackets]

• $3.4 billion — Four local option tax increases (37.8 percent) [they are starting with a half cent and bumping up to one cent in 2023]
• $192 million — Farebox revenue (2.1 percent)
• $3 billion — Financing through bonds and public-private partnerships (33.8 percent) [not many details offered on this revenue source -- I suspect that there is TIF in here]
• $500 million — Transportation Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act (TIFIA)  (5.6 percent) [IMO this is the equivalent of a bond from the transit agency's perspective]
• $1.43 billion — Federal Capital Investment Grant program (16 percent) [New Starts grants from the FTA, based on the first two budgets from this administration this funding will require regime change in DC]
• $153.3 million — Federal formula and capital replacement grants (1.7 percent)
• $262 million — Nashville International Airport participation, Nashville Convention Center Authority, and investment income (2.9 percent) [An interesting budget line. One of their revenue sources is a new hotel tax, something that I think would be quite reasonable in Charlotte. It is also likely that the airport could make some in-kind contributions of land]

From: https://www.tennessean.com/story/news/2018/01/04/mayor-barrys-transit-plan-balloons-9-b-nearly-double-construction-price-tag-when-totaling-other-cost/1004229001/

Other revenue sources that are currently being used in the US include:

• Seattle: a car value tax. It is collected with car property tax payments, looks to be around 1.1% of car value per year -- its been very politically controversial
• Portland: A payroll tax on employers within the TriMet service region. Tax rate is currently 0.007737
• Kansas City: Special assessment districts, property owners who are within the transit service district vote on adding an additional property tax increment to pay for transit -- if property owners vote no, then no transit in that area.
• Various cities: Highway toll revenue

Other sources that are theoretically possible:

• Driving taxes (tire, gas,emissions or weight tax)
• Parking taxes (perhaps combined with a storm water runoff surcharge or a land value tax)
• Developer impact fees (since suburban developers are responsible for putting additional cars on the road they should contribute to transport alternatives for people who are impacted by that congestion)
• Real Estate transfer tax

Shrug, glad this is not my job

 

Edited March 19, 2018 by kermit

[elrodvt]

I think the lodging taxes are a good idea. Here is Denver's split which includes 1% for transit. Their total rate is almost 15% and it sure doesn't seem to hurt tourism or the convention business.

 

https://www.thedenverchannel.com/news/local-news/where-denvers-hotel-tax-revenue-goes

Edited March 18, 2018 by elrodvt

[tozmervo]

Well this is just a depressing page on many levels

https://usa.streetsblog.org/2018/03/23/only-a-few-american-cities-are-growing-transit-ridership-heres-what-theyre-doing-right/

[southslider]

Too many bus routes within the first mile of Uptown, where gentrification has displaced those who truly rely on transit.

[UPNoDa]

^This

[Spartan]

I'd like to see 1.5¢ in total sales tax revenue for transportation, so 1¢ in new sales taxes. Give 1¢ to transit and the other .5¢ to roads/sidewalks/bike facilities, etc. 

[elrodvt]

2 hours ago, Spartan said:

I'd like to see 1.5¢ in total sales tax revenue for transportation, so 1¢ in new sales taxes. Give 1¢ to transit and the other .5¢ to roads/sidewalks/bike facilities, etc. 

I like it although it's a regressive tax and would prefer to also have something income based to grab the SC people who work here. Combine with a lodging tax increase.

[CarolinaDaydreamin]

On 3/24/2018 at 1:28 PM, tozmervo said:

Well this is just a depressing page on many levels

https://usa.streetsblog.org/2018/03/23/only-a-few-american-cities-are-growing-transit-ridership-heres-what-theyre-doing-right/

Its all about the economy. When it begins to fall ridership will spike. 

[Desert Power]

On ‎3‎/‎17‎/‎2018 at 11:53 AM, kermit said:

*Gold Line Phase 2 is 17.4% complete (based on cost of completed work)
* GL 2 current target revenue service date is May 31 2020

 

Is this a new delay?  I thought this was expected sometime in late 2019

[kermit]

 

[soumith050118]

Do you think WSP will recommend a transit tunnel in Uptown? http://www.charlotteobserver.com/news/politics-government/article159347634.html

If so, would you be in favor of it?

[EllAyyDub]

A tunnel could allow the Silver/West line to link to both CTC and Gateway, something no other alignment could accomplish.  

[15895]

5 minutes ago, EllAyyDub said:

A tunnel could allow the Silver/West line to link to both CTC and Gateway, something no other alignment could accomplish.  

I rather an unground project hit CTC blue line, Romare Park/300 South Tryon & BofA stadium/BBT stadium 

[dubone]

I'd far prefer a link around uptown for the silver and airport (which I hope is just a part of the silver line).   A tunnel directly under the streetcar?  Redundancy to the max.   

 

A route like one of the ones they have drawn on their plans either around uptown to the north or south would add new service areas to the system, be far less expensive and not cannibalize another transit line.    The streetcar can circulate to points in the heart of downtown, while the light rail loops around to either the northern or southern edges of uptown. Looping along CSX to NS would still get to the Gateway Station, but add transit to NC Music Factory, Belmont, Lockwood, and First and Fourth Wards.  Looping around a new corridor to the south adds in Midtown and northern Dilworth that is already rapidly densifying and could support the transit.  

 

[Scribe]

I like the idea of a tunnel from US 74 -- CTC -- Romare Bearden out to Wilkinson.

But I think the Silver line will wrap around I-277 and go through CGS (Gateway Station) with a possible connection to Blue Line somewhere on the NE side of Uptown.

Agree with @dubone there is no way a tunnel under CityLynx makes any sense.. so cannot hit CTC and CGS with Silver line, have to chose one.