FasTracks could make $25B impact Rocky Mountain News June 12, 2004 The $4.7 billion FasTracks rail and bus plan that will go before voters this November could be the largest transportation initiative of its kind moving forward in the country, a national speaker said on Friday. “Most plans are doing only one corridor at the time, so I would say this will be the largest this year,” said David Leland, principal of Portland, Ore.- based Leland Consulting, after speaking to about 200 people at a workshop sponsored by the Colorado chapter of the Urban Land Institute on the north Interstate 25 corridor portion of FasTracks. His firm, which has a Denver office, has consulted on more than 70 developments around rail stations across the country. Leland said the total economic impact of FasTracks could approach $25 billion. Typically, $4 to $5 from the private sector is invested for every dollar of a public investment, he said. Developers, however, will make decisions based on market conditions, not on the proximity to new light rail or commuter-rail stations. The challenge facing new developments is that it might be 10 or 15 years before the rail lines are running. If low- density developments are built initially, the opportunity may be lost to build more appropriate high-density developments later, he said. He said public-private partnerships are key. In some cases, it might even make sense for a local municipality to buy the land around stations, so it can control the development. Another speaker, Craig Carlson, whose family is one of the largest landowners in the area, said the northern metro area has long suffered from an “inferiority complex.” He said the south suburbs, for the most part, have typically had bigger and nicer homes, office parks and retail. Part of that reason, Carlson said, is that the areas north of Denver have been used for rail yards, refineries and other industrial uses.

Development rolls with streetcar, boosters say; Council will decide on South Lake Union project SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER June 12, 2004 Debbie Carlone strolled a couple of blocks from her home in Tacoma yesterday, waited mere minutes for a free streetcar to arrive and was whisked to a notary office to take care of some business. Along the short route, she could have stopped at a museum, a restaurant or a university campus. And never have to worry about parking or traffic. Portland, Atlanta, San Diego and, yes, Tacoma have streetcars. Supporters say the sleek trains spark development. They say the modern trains give their cities a certain progressive image. This summer, the Seattle City Council will decide whether the time is right for a streetcar in South Lake Union. The $45 million project is being touted as a key in bringing development to the neighborhood next to downtown. Microsoft billionaire Paul Allen and others are developing South Lake Union as a biotechnology and medical research hub. But to make the project work, some say, it needs a streetcar. “A streetcar sparks growth in developing neighborhoods and leads to private investment,” said Jim Gore, chief executive officer at Seattle Biomedical Research Institute in South Lake Union. More important, he said, the 2.7-mile streetcar line would make it easier for researchers and scientists throughout the biotechnology community to meet to exchange ideas. For now, the proposed route stretches from Fairview Avenue through the Denny Triangle to Westlake Center. Supporters hope it will someday continue on to the University of Washington campus and maybe to other neighborhoods or the Seattle waterfront. But some say too many unanswered questions remain. The most vocal opponents say the streetcar is just another toy Allen wants. Wouldn’t a couple of buses dedicated to that route work just as well? Why spark development, they ask? It is already exploding in South Lake Union. They also worry that it will further drain the city’s bare-bones general fund. How to pay for the project has been only partially worked out. Under the proposed plan, property owners along the route would be expected to pay $25 million. An additional $7 million would be paid with federal, state and regional transportation money. That would leave $13 million that could fall to the city. It’s still unclear how maintenance and operation costs would be paid. In Tacoma, that bill is $3.2 million annually. By the middle of August, the Seattle City Council is expected to decide whether to move ahead with the streetcar or drop it altogether. “I have to be convinced how much city money should be put into it,” said Richard Conlin, head of the City Council’s transportation committee. “In principle, streetcars are great, but it has to be part of an integrated system, and it has to be cost effective. I need to know if we can make it work.” John Fox with the Seattle Displacement Coalition has been critical of the South Lake Union development plans, including the streetcar. “It serves absolutely no city or region-wide need whatsoever,” he said. “At a time when our city has an identified backlog of over $500 million in neighborhood transportation needs, it would be obscene to tap one dime from our city’s general fund to pay for it.” But supporters say the investment would lure development that will bring big tax revenue to the city. The Tacoma streetcar travels 1.6 miles through the renovated downtown, historic and theater districts. It attracts about 2,000 riders per day, well above the original projections. Riding it is free. The Tacoma streetcars are roomy and bright, with big windows. Like the cars that glide through Portland’s Pearl District, they were built in the Czech Republic. The Tacoma trains ride on a dedicated track in the center of the street. The plan for South Lake Union calls for street-level tracks built into a regular traffic lane that would be shared with cars. “When you have a streetcar, development happens pretty quickly, retail builds on it pretty quickly,” said Michael Pearce, with the city of Tacoma’s economic development office.

Va., Firm Sign Pact On Dulles Rail Line; Spur Would Be First Not Built by Metro Washington Post June 12, 2004 Virginia officials signed a contract with a private firm yesterday that sets it on course to engineer, design and build the extension of Metro to Tysons Corner and the Dulles corridor, marking the first time that a Metro extension would be built by a private company instead of the transit agency. The unusual arrangement between the state and Dulles Transit Partners LLC follows more than a year of confidential negotiations. It is the first application of Virginia’s 1995 public-private partnership laws to a transit proposal. In all other instances, the state has used the law for road projects. There are few similar arrangements nationwide, which has drawn the notice of federal officials as well as the transit industry. The stakes are high. The $4 billion Dulles project is the third most expensive rail proposal in the country, surpassed only by two projects in Manhattan — a $17 billion plan to build a subway along Second Avenue and a $5.2 billion plan to extend the Long Island Rail Road from the East River to Grand Central station. Dulles Transit Partners is composed of two engineering giants, Bechtel Corp. and Washington International Group. A third company, West Group, dropped out of the partnership this year amid concerns by federal officials about a possible conflict of interest. West Group is the largest landowner in Tysons Corner and would have been helping to build a rail line that would increase its property value. It also owns land along the right of way that will likely be purchased by the state. In the contract signed yesterday, state officials agreed to pay Dulles Transit Partners $45.5 million for preliminary engineering for the 23-mile rail extension from West Falls Church to Route 772 in Loudoun County. The work is expected to take about 15 months and result in a more detailed plan that will include stronger estimates for construction costs. The state and the firm would then have to negotiate a separate agreement for final design and construction. Yesterday’s action came a day after the Federal Transit Administration approved Virginia’s request to begin engineering, but only for the first phase of the project — an 11-mile stretch from West Falls Church to Tysons Corner and Wiehle Avenue in Reston. The federal government is expected to pay some of the engineering costs for the first phase but has made no commitments beyond that. Karen J. Rae, director of the Virginia Department of Rail and Public Transportation, said that the deal with the private firm gives the state greater control and that the project will be completed faster and at a lower cost than if Virginia had allowed Metro to do the work. The $45.5 million price charged by Dulles Transit Partners for preliminary engineering is 8 percent less than estimates for the work given by an independent engineering firm, Rae said. In addition, the private firm has agreed to forgo $15 million of that payment if the state decides after the preliminary engineering that it doesn’t want Dulles Transit Partners to perform the final design and construction, Rae said. In addition, the private firm has pledged to invest $25 million in the project. Virginia will reimburse the firm only if the state selects it to perform final design and construction. Still, the figure is more than the $42 million that Metro estimated it would cost the transit agency to perform preliminary engineering. Rae said that Metro’s estimate was too speculative to be measured against the price charged by Dulles Transit Partners and that it is only one factor among several in the state’s decision. “This is about a package,” Rae said. “Dulles Transit Partners have made a huge, upfront investment that’s at risk; they negotiated a price that’s 8 percent below the number given us by independent engineering consultants. It’s a whole package. And I don’t think the traditional [Metro] approach would have gotten us this far. . . . There are very few companies out there willing to invest major dollars upfront to get a project like Dulles up and moving.” Spokesmen for Dulles Transit Partners did not return telephone calls for comment yesterday. Under the deal, Metro will get paid $12.5 million to oversee the preliminary engineering work by Dulles Transit Partners. The Federal Transit Administration required Virginia to use Metro’s expertise because the state Department of Rail and Public Transportation has not managed construction of a major rail project. The state’s Public-Private Transportation Act was enacted to get transportation projects built more quickly and efficiently and to encourage private investment. Typically, a company pays for a road or other improvement and, in exchange, gets the right to collect toll revenue to pay back its costs and make a profit. The Dulles rail line differs because it is a transit project, and a private contractor would not be able to recoup costs and make a profit by collecting fares. In this case, the partnership agrees to build the project at a fixed price with built-in profit margin. If costs increase during construction, as they tend to do on mega-projects, the state and the private firm share the financial risk, Rae said. Meanwhile, a Fairfax County Circuit Court judge dismissed a lawsuit yesterday filed by landowners from the western part of the county who argued that Virginia officials violated state law when they selected rail to serve the Dulles corridor. They are considering an appeal, their attorney said.

New light-rail stations open to little fanfare Sacramento Bee June 12, 2004 The cars in the vast parking lot at the new Sunrise light-rail station measured in the dozens, not hundreds, on Friday morning. Sacramento Regional Transit had expected that all 487 spaces would be filled up on opening day. But former President Reagan’s funeral was Friday. The station’s grand opening ceremonies were canceled. Because Friday was declared a federal and state holiday, many people stayed home from work. After months of planning, the three new light-rail stations in Rancho Cordova at Sunrise Boulevard, Olson Drive and Zinfandel Drive, opened Friday with few riders and little fanfare. Come Monday, “We’ll see ridership take off,” said Mike Wiley, assistant general manager of planning and transit system development. “We’re confident that we’ll see this station (Sunrise) heavily used.” The estimated cost of the 2.8-mile extension from Mather Field to Sunrise is $89 million. Next year, the line will be extended another 7.8 miles to Historic Folsom, with stops at Hazel Avenue, Iron Point Drive and Glenn Drive. The entire route from downtown Sacramento to Folsom is expected to attract more than 6,000 new riders by the end of 2005, said RT spokesman Bill Draper. That doesn’t surprise Evan Miller, who rode from his downtown home to the Sunrise station for work, an approximately 30-minute trip. “It is easier than fighting all the traffic,” he said. “You can kick back and read.” Despite the complimentary tickets and frequent stops - every 15 minutes - the rail cars at the Sunrise terminus were nearly empty. A few people got on board out of curiosity. “I’m going no place in particular. I just wanted to ride the train,” said Evelyn Kendricks of Fair Oaks. “I’m 68, so anything I do is exciting these days. Most of the people at the Sunrise station Friday morning were not riders but RT officials stationed there to direct people and pass out schedules, or contractors putting the finishing touches on the landscaping and painting. Dave Wilson, a contractor with Pyramid Sheet Metal, said he was grateful for the slow first day at the Sunrise station. He said his company has another week’s worth of work to complete. “With all the people, it would have been a mess,” Wilson said. “It’s nice that we got extra time.” One of the few morning light-rail riders was Tom Mathes. He used to power his wheelchair three miles to get to the Mather station. Now, he only has to go three blocks from his home near the Zinfandel station. “I don’t have to worry about how much battery power I’m using to get to light rail,” Mathes said. “That cures about 90 percent of my transportation woes.” Rancho Cordova Mayor Linda Budge expects light rail to reduce traffic congestion on Highway 50 in the future and spark redevelopment of Folsom Boulevard, which runs parallel to the tracks. Budge also noted the new landscaping, soundwalls and artwork and the clean appearance of the light-rail corridor along the south side of Folsom Boulevard. Part of getting people to use light rail, Budge said, is making sure there are buses and shuttles to help people get from the stations to offices and homes. RT bus service from the new stations will begin Sunday.

Community’s Trolley May Roll Again; Residents of Angelino Heights hope to resurrect a rail link to downtown. They’re refurbishing a Yellow Car to make the point Los Angeles Times June 12, 2004 Residents of Los Angeles’ oldest suburb say they know how to steer their forgotten neighborhood back on track. They want to resurrect a trolley line that for 60 years carried passengers between Angelino Heights and downtown. Service on the Angelino-Crown Hill Line lurched to a halt in 1946 after Los Angeles Railway Corp. was sold to a consortium of automobile, truck and tire companies and oil firms that replaced its trademark Yellow Car electric-powered trolleys with buses. But Angelino Heights residents have acquired an 84-year-old Yellow Car that once clang-clang-clanged past their neighborhood’s elegant Victorian homes. And they’ve launched a campaign to refurbish the old coach and get it running once more. The goal of nonprofit Angeleno Heights Trolley Line Inc., is to construct a 5 1/2-mile rail loop that will once again provide passenger service between Angelino Heights, Echo Park and downtown. In Angelino Heights itself, restarting the trolley could be as easy as scraping the asphalt off the old narrow-gauge tracks hidden beneath hilly neighborhood streets and stringing a 600-volt electric line overhead, advocates say. New tracks would be required along busier streets that have been repeatedly dug up and repaved since the original trolley service was discontinued. The trolley would connect their historic neighborhood with such tourist sites as Olvera Street, light-rail and subway commuter service at Union Station, the Civic Center and Chinatown. It would also cross Grand Avenue, which some urban planners are touting as the future Los Angeles version of Paris’ Champs-Elysees. Now lined by such showpiece structures as the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels, the Music Center — including Walt Disney Concert Hall — and office towers, the street has been targeted for $1.2 billion in new development. That means that antique cars, riding on tracks and powered by low- voltage electricity drawn from an overhead wire, could someday connect L.A.’s newest with its oldest: Laid out in 1886, Angelino Heights is considered the city’s oldest suburb. “It would be something people would ride,” predicts Bruce Lash, president of Angeleno Heights Trolley Line. “It would connect a lot of the attractions that draw people to downtown Los Angeles.” Trolley backers say restoration of the line could help introduce new generations of gingerbread-architecture lovers to their colorful, Midwestern-looking neighborhood. Tucked between the Hollywood Freeway and Sunset Boulevard, it is close to downtown, forcing its residents to fight to protect the quaint, small-town look from overdevelopment. Trolley supporters estimate that it would cost $15 million to build the line. But they say grants from various urban renewal, historic preservation and transportation funding sources could easily cover that cost if governmental agencies got behind the project. So far, $6,000 in seed money “raised by Angelino Heights garage sales” is being used to launch the campaign, said David Goldsboro, the nonprofit group’s vice president for fundraising. It was the donation of old Yellow Car No. 1030 to Angelino Heights neighborhood leaders in late 2002 that sparked the trolley line plan, however. The austere, slat-seated Birney Safety Car was built in St. Louis in 1920 and rumbled along neighborhood streets until June 30, 1946. That the 28-foot-long, wood-sided coach survived at all is amazing. It was sold for scrap after its last run. But collector Ray Younghans and a friend pooled together $100 and bought it from a Vernon salvage yard before its cab could be crushed and its three-ton metal undercarriage melted down. Younghans’ friend kept it in Pasadena for 10 years before moving it to Younghans’ Cypress Park home. Younghans hoped that the old car would eventually be placed in a proposed trolley museum at El Pueblo de Los Angeles Historic Monument. That never materialized, however. And No. 1030, along with Younghans’ extensive collection of memorabilia — Pacific Electric Co. blueprints, Los Angeles Railway destination signs, Red Car timetables and Yellow Car tokens — ended up in the possession of the Electric Railway Historical Assn. of Southern California after his death three years ago. It was the railway historical group that persuaded Angelino Heights residents to take on No. 1030. The trolley was donated with the stipulation that it be refurbished and put into working order once more, said John Heller, association vice president. Rebuilding the car will cost an estimated $600,000. At least two other Birney-style cars would be needed for the line to operate, and Lash said his group was already negotiating to have a second car donated. Eduardo Santiago, secretary of the Angelino Heights group, said preliminary talks had been held with the Metropolitan Transportation Authority about resurrecting the line. At the suggestion of U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein’s office, his group is initiating a formal feasibility study into renewed trolley service, Santiago said. “They are to be applauded for their determination and effort. But they have a long way to go before getting off the ground,” said Guillermo Gonzalez, deputy state director for Feinstein. Robin Blair, transportation planning manager for the MTA, said his agency offers its moral support. He said it would be up to Los Angeles officials to decide whether trolleys once again shared city streets with automobiles, however. “If a community, in a political sense, can reclaim those tracks, they can reclaim the right of way,” Blair said. But though supporters contend that vintage coaches would mix easily with traffic along Sunset Boulevard, West Cesar Chavez Avenue and Echo Park Avenue, Blair noted that “the real critical issue became whether they can convince the city that what they want to do is worth relocating traffic” or that the slow-moving trolleys can be operated at “off-peak times.” Pointing to a new Red Car trolley operation begun on former railroad tracks near the harbor in San Pedro, Blair said things like local trolleys are “the stuff we like to see communities do — they do a nice job of bringing a signature image to a community.” City Councilman Ed Reyes, who represents the Angelino Heights area, agrees. He has written a letter expressing “strong encouragement” of the trolley plan, saying reconstruction of the line could be “a fitting addition to the city’s first Historic Preservation Overlay Zone,” which was created in the 118-year-old neighborhood. “The possible reestablishment of this vintage trolley line is worth examining, if for no other reason but to remind our city’s residents of our wonderful transportation and cultural history,” Reyes said. For now, No. 1030 sits covered by plastic sheeting in a vacant lot a few steps from the paved-over tracks it once traveled on East Edgeware Road. Fittingly, the lot is empty because Angelino Heights residents recently banded together and bought it to block construction of an oversized building. “Now we own the land and are putting deed restrictions on the property, which will prevent forever a condo project or any building plan that would seriously damage the integrity of this city historical zone and this delightfully diverse and unique neighborhood,” said resident Planaria Price. Someday, the neighbors may own their own trolley system, too.

TRAIN-CAR FIRM BARRED FROM BIDS ON RAIL CARS The Daily News of Los Angeles June 12, 2004 The company that has built every Metrolink train has been disqualified from bidding on as many as 30 new rail cars needed to keep up with the growing demand on the popular commuter system. Bombardier Transit Corp. will not be allowed to bid on the contract - worth as much as $60 million - because its technical plan failed to meet about 200 of the specifications, Metrolink officials said. Bombardier officials say their proposal was designed so new rail cars would be compatible with those they have supplied since 1992. They maintain they should have been invited to vie for the contract along with United Transit Systems and Kawasaki Rail Car Inc., whose technical proposals were approved by Metrolink staffers. “We’re not saying there should not be competition,” Bombardier spokeswoman Helene Gagnon said. “It’s very surprising for us, the manufacturer of the current fleet, that we would not be able to qualify and be able to submit a price.” Bombardier has until June 16 to file a formal protest with the Southern California Regional Rail Authority, which operates Metrolink, and is weighing its options. The protest could result in an order for potential bidders to redo their technical proposals. Getting into the Los Angeles market would be a boon for UTS, a South Korean-based company whose Rotem division has built rail cars for systems in Hong Kong, Taiwan, Turkey and Greece. However, it has not built rail cars for a U.S. operation since 1989. UTS also has proposed building an assembly plant in Southern California employing up to 80 people as part of its Metrolink bid. The company has brought on as its legal counsel in the bid attorney George Kieffer, chairman of the board of the Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce. “I’m sure that SCRRA will fairly evaluate all of this,” UTS representative Hats Kageyama said. “We remain interested in this project and, hopefully, these things will be settled very quickly to the interest to the public.” The rail-car procurement is the first in five years for Metrolink, which wants as many as 30 new rail cars - which average about $2 million each. Other transit agencies may also join the bid, increasing the potential size of the contract. Bombardier’s technical plan failed to meet more than 200 specifications, including the location of emergency windows and the kind of lighting that would be used, said Metrolink spokeswoman Sharon Gavin.

Handicapped people delighted with the subway system Thai Post June 12, 2004 The handicapped and the senior citizens feel very delighted after using the Subway system. The Ministry of Society and Human Resource Development invited 130 handicapped and the senior citizens from Social Welfare Houses to try using Subway (photos). Major Sirichai Subsiri (the head of Thai Handicapped People Association) said there is no problem using the Subway system. The restrooms, the fire escape routes, the arrows pointing to the entrances and the exits as well as the security guards to assist the handicapped are adequate. It is a very good beginning compared to the inadequate elevators for the handicapped at the BTSC Skytrain stations and the red tape involved in using their elevators. However, Mr Monthian Buntan (head of Thai Blind Peoples’ Association) tells MRTA that MRTA has not installed the speaking TVMs to help the blind buying the tickets. The deaf would like to see running messages on LED monitors so that they could come to use Subway without asking their relatives and other passengers to help them. It should be a law to install facilities inside the bus, Skytrain and Subway stations for 5 types of people: the blind, the deaf, the handicapped, the retarded, and pregnant women, senior citizens, children and foreigners who can speak neither Thai nor English (Japanese and Korean expats are a few good examples). Furthermore MRTA has not implemented reserved seats for the handicapped yet, thus they have to stand for about an hour at the platforms and wait to ride the subway. Those who have no wheelchairs and the senior people will have very hard time waiting for the subway. Commentary by Wisarut: This should alert BTSC to install the elevators for the handicapped and senior people in all Skytrain Stations and dispense with the hassle of having to ask officers to turn on the elevators. Furthermore, the TVMs should be upgraded so that the TVMs can speak to the customers and accept 20, 50 and 100 baht banknotes. KL STAR LRT (Malaysia) has smart card readers installed only in some stations while KL Putra has the smart card system in all stations. This has created lots of problems when the passengers try to exit stations on KL Star which have no smart card system. Therefore, BTSC may have to invest more on smart card system installation in all stations, not just the interchange stations. KL Kommuter stations has station names written in English, Bahasa Melayu (only Rumi scripts [Romanized Melayu] — not Jawi scripts used in Pattani circle and Kelantan) and Japanese. Seoul Subway systems have the station names written in Korean, English and Japanese. Therefore, it is logical to add station names in Japanese and Chinese, but the companies have to install additional signs to carry Japanese and Chinese characters.

Route 10 Weekdays; Overbrook to Center City via Lancaster Avenue SEPTA Travel Advisory June 13, 2004 Beginning Sunday, June 13, Route 10 trolleys will not operate. Buses will provide Route 10 service between 63rd & Malvern Loop and 33rd Street Station. Free transfers will be provided for customers making connections with Subway-Surface Routes 11, 13, 34 and 36 at 33rd Street Station or the Market-Frankford Line at 34th Street Station. These changes will continue until trolley service is restored on 59th Street between Girard Avenue and Callowhill Street. Eastbound buses will operate from 36th & Market Streets and then down Market to 34th St (Market-Frankford station); 34th to Chestnut; Chestnut to 33rd, and 33rd to Market. Westbound buses will operate from 33rd & Market Streets and then up Market to 36th; 36th to Lancaster Ave.; regular route along Lancaster to 63rd & Malvern Loop.

Feds force revision, rail line delayed; Problem determining ridership costs $7 million, may slow funding The Charlotte Observer June 13, 2004 Problems in predicting how many passengers will ride Charlotte’s first light-rail transit line have cost $7 million in planning and construction delays. And the cost could rise. If the city’s computer model that predicts ridership had passed federal scrutiny and delivered forecasts on time, Charlotte likely would have been promised the federal money needed to build its $398.7 million train line, say Mayor Pat McCrory and Charlotte transit chief Ron Tober. Instead, the Federal Transit Administration told Charlotte early last summer that the city’s ridership forecasting model was unacceptable. Tober remembers the message: “You’ll have to junk this and make wholesale changes.” The ridership-model problems illustrate the difficulties behind the city’s first effort to build rapid transit, which county voters endorsed in 1998 with a half-cent sales tax increase. The projects are technical and complex. Charlotte plans to build five lines of rail and rapid-bus transit by 2025 and dramatically upgrade bus service, spending $2.9 billion. It would be one of the state’s largest capital projects ever, the equivalent of 11 uptown arenas or 2.5 outerbelts. One crucial element is winning federal money. Charlotte can’t afford to build the lines unless the federal government agrees to pay about 50 percent. But competition is fierce. Missteps and delays are costly. After Charlotte was told to rebuild parts of its ridership forecasting model last year, months of delays resulted. Then in February, President Bush’s budget was announced. Charlotte officials were disappointed to see the South line wasn’t recommended for a Full Funding Grant Agreement, in which the federal government would promise to pay for 50 percent of Charlotte’s South line. FTA staff members say the city wasn’t far enough along in “planning and technical capability.” They wouldn’t elaborate. Now, as planners hope to start construction in September on the electric- powered train line from uptown to Interstate 485 near Pineville, the City Council faces a difficult decision. Does it wait for the grant agreement, delaying construction further? That would add an estimated $1.2 million in cost each month. Or does it break ground, hoping the federal money will come? Before he’ll support starting construction, McCrory says, “I’ve got to have some pretty strong assurances that we’re getting the federal money.” He blames two city departments for assuming the ridership model was right. Tober’s transit department, in charge of building and operating the line, and transportation, which oversees the model that predicts ridership. “I think the mistake should have been caught earlier,” McCrory says. “I had some strong words. … How did this happen? Why did this happen? Make sure it doesn’t happen again.” Memos, e-mails and other documents obtained by the Observer reveal problems with the computer model since at least early 2001. They include complaints that ridership forecasts were months behind schedule and FTA’s concerns that the model didn’t meet standards. The FTA said early this year it was satisfied with changes the city made to its model. Officials with Charlotte’s Department of Transportation say the FTA began seeing problems with the city’s ridership forecasting model only after adopting new measurement standards. “The FTA changed its mind,” says transportation department deputy director Danny Pleasant. But a March 5, 2003, e-mail from the FTA says the new standards “only helped to identify significant underlying problems with your ridership forecast. It is not the problem here.” Pleasant also says it’s debatable whether the modeling delays cost Charlotte federal dollars. “You’re really into a lot of speculation,” he says. “I don’t think it’s as clear- cut as that.” McCrory, however, sees it this way: City transportation planners were racing last year to get the South Corridor Light Rail Line included in the president’s budget for fiscal year 2005. Transit planners would have needed to complete 65 percent of design work by late last year. “When we found out that the model wasn’t acceptable, we knew that wasn’t going to be possible,” McCrory says. Tober says ridership forecasting problems have delayed planning by at least six months, at $1.2 million per month in inflated construction and material costs and longer contracts for consultants. The FTA remains positive about Charlotte’s transit plans. The South line has the agency’s “recommended” rating. The federal agency successfully asked Congress to provide $40 million and has proposed an additional $30 million of the city’s $35 million request for 2005. More than two dozen cities were hoping for federal transit money next year and didn’t get the FTA’s support. But it’s critical, say Tober and McCrory, for Charlotte to get a promise that the federal government will pay half the line’s cost, an additional $129 million. Without that promise, it would be risky to proceed much further, McCrory says. “I take nothing for granted,” says McCrory. “Nothing is guaranteed.” The value of modeling UNC Charlotte Professor David Hartgen calls modelers the “battlefield commanders of the transportation profession.””They do the basic work of justifying every major transportation project,” says Hartgen, who teaches ridership forecast modeling and transportation planning. The computer models juggle millions of calculations to predict how many people will ride transit lines that aren’t yet built. They’re based on assumptions: future numbers of households and employment and the travel they would generate, where the travelers would go, whether they might choose to drive or ride, and what routes they would take. Hartgen describes modeling as a craft — part science, part art. It’s also critically important. The model’s ridership predictions play a key role in whether the federal government decides to help pay for transit construction. In early 2003, the Federal Transit Administration focused on a section of Charlotte’s model that predicts why people might choose autos, buses, trains and other means of travel. An FTA staff member says that part of the model wasn’t properly designed to measure hard-to-calculate factors, such as comfort and security, compared with easier-to-calculate ones, such as cost and travel time. Norman Steinman, who oversees the transportation department’s modeling staff, says differences of opinion exist within the field on that issue. Charlotte’s computer model followed one established line of thinking, he says. But another won out at the FTA. “This was an area where people disagreed,” says Steinman. Computer models in several cities were under close scrutiny about the same time, according to Charlotte planners and the FTA. In an interview, one FTA staff member who specializes in ridership forecasting said Charlotte’s model “didn’t meet standards.” “Charlotte took a fundamentally different approach that is outside conventional practice. … It had a problem based on its design,” said the staff member, who spoke on the condition that his name wouldn’t be published. New standards at FTA The problem came to the FTA’s attention as the agency was settling on new standards to measure the benefits of future transit systems. Previously the key measurement was cost per new rider. Now the agency was moving toward a more complicated calculation that measures dollars per hour of benefit. It’s called the Transportation System User Benefit, or TSUB. One reason behind the change was that competition for federal rapid transit dollars was growing. Currently, the FTA has applications for 32 transit projects costing $17.2 billion. But only $2.4 billion is expected to be available over six years. The TSUB measure was a way to standardize calculations from city to city, to “level the playing field,” Charlotte and FTA experts say. Charlotte transportation department staff members say they felt pretty good about their model: “We used it to get a `highly recommended’ rating the year before,” says Pleasant. But by February 2003, FTA staff members were making ominous- sounding statements. “The overall modeling issue is a major FTA concern,” says one report from a March 20 meeting. Joe McLelland, the city’s senior modeler, says Charlotte held three meetings with the FTA in early 2003 trying to persuade them to accept the model. “We spent some time and some testing trying to document to the FTA that our model was good,” says McLelland. At some point, the FTA’s top modeler, Jim Ryan, told Charlotte’s staff that it wouldn’t work. “He’s the most important person in the process,” McLelland says. “He said, `I don’t like the model.’ We said, `Yes sir.’ “ `What the heck is going on?’ McCrory got the news last summer, meeting with the FTA’s top administrator, Jennifer Dorn, in Washington.Charlotte’s mayor vividly remembers being with Tober and others from Charlotte at the Old Executive Office Building, part of the White House complex. Dorn agreed to drive over to talk. “She said, `Pat, we’ve got to have a model that’s consistent with our standards,’ “ McCrory says. Afterward, he remembers asking Tober, “What the heck is going on?” McCrory says he was most worried that changes to the city’s ridership model would result in forecasting lower numbers of passengers. Fewer passengers likely would have made the South line less cost effective and unacceptable to the FTA. But Tober said the passenger numbers with the new model would be higher. And the forecast did go up from 16,200 to 17,900 trips per day, according to transportation planners. Then Tober delivered the bad news. “He told me it would be hard to meet the date” to qualify for a promise of 50 percent federal funding, McCrory says. Tober says now he should have brought in consultants earlier to fix the model. “Today, I would have gotten them a year earlier,” he says. “I would have insisted on it.” A consulting team helped rebuild the model last year to FTA’s satisfaction. By January 2004, the FTA wrote, “there are no remaining issues.” `It slowed us down’ But issues do remain for Charlotte’s first light-rail line planned down South Boulevard. Tober estimates the project is a total of nine months behind schedule, six due to the modeling problems. “The fact that we had to completely redo our model — it slowed us down, cost us time,” he says. City officials had said publicly for months that they expected a promise for the federal money in February 2004. Now that they still don’t have it, McCrory and Tober are left worrying and waiting. Federal legislation that authorizes transit money is stalled in Congress. A presidential election looms; any change in administration would likely mean new faces at the FTA and further delays. The city has bought rights of way for the South rail line and 16 rail cars costing $53 million. Construction needs to start this fall to meet the announced starting date of October 2006. The local money to build the rail line is in place, 25 percent of the cost. The state money is in place, another 25 percent. The city has to get the other half from the federal government. Without that promise by the end of this year, Tober says, the project could be delayed significantly. A spokesperson in U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Dole’s office says that despite some potential challenges, she’s confident Charlotte will get the money by year’s end. The FTA’s Dorn says the federal government has made a “robust commitment” already to the South light-rail line. She says she believes Charlotte will eventually get the rest of the money. But she adds: “We are not going to be rushed.”

HEADLINE: LIGHT-RAIL LINE KEEPS ‘OVERBROOK’ IN NAME ONLY Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (Pennsylvania �June 13, 2004 The Port Authority has opened the Overbrook light-rail line that replaced the old streetcar line that replaced railroad passenger and coal trains that once shared the tracks hugging the hills along Routes 51 and 88. The Overbrook line is a misnomer, however, because it provides little good service to Overbrook. Maybe that’s why the authority has renamed the 42Library as the 47Library via Overbrook and why the 42S South Hills Village will become the 47L South Hills Village via Overbrook this fall. “As an Overbrook resident, I am amazed by the name,” Colleen Englert said via e-mail last week, disappointed there is only one stop left in the neighborhood where people had been able to conveniently hop a streetcar or a train for 130 years. “The McNeilly stop is a joke,” she said. “No one can get there. There are no sidewalks, nowhere to park your car and a ton of steps” to walk to the hillside station. “A lot of senior citizens would like to ride, not to mention all the working-class people who need transportation to town.” When the Port Authority rebuilt the 5.2-mile Overbrook line between Castle Shannon and South Hills Junction, it replaced 22 small “walk-on” stops with eight stations to build badly needed speed into what I’ve criticized for so long as light-snail transit. What Englert says is true. The station above the Route 88-McNeilly Road intersection is the only one convenient to Overbrook residents, as inconvenient as it is. A light-rail station at the Route 51-88 intersection would have been a good choice. But authority spokeswoman Judi McNeil said, “It would have been almost physically impossible,” requiring more steps than McNeilly, probably an elevator to comply with federal requirements to make transit accessible for handicapped and infirm riders, and with no parking at that location, either. She pointed out that Overbrook residents had good bus service as a result of the South Busway, which parallels the light-rail line through part of the city neighborhood. So, Judi, why does the Port Authority still call it the Overbrook line? Why not call it the Suburban Line? “Overbrook is a historic name and we wanted to keep it,” McNeil said. Even with the via. Mall Maze. Too many things happening at the same time around South Hills Village Mall are challenging drivers and light-rail riders. “They’ve blocked off parking spaces, created detours to nowhere and made everything generally a huge mess,” lawyer Eric T. Smith e-mailed. “You really have to see it to believe it.” Dear Eric and others with the same complaint: The Port Authority is paying $63,700 to the Simon Properties Group Inc. to lease 600 spaces in the Lazarus-Macy’s lot for use by T park-n-riders displaced by construction of a seven-story, 2,200-space, park-and-ride garage. Before it issued a building permit, Bethel Park officials demanded the authority make a number of road improvements, also under way. Meanwhile, Simon Properties is doing work, including expanding the food court and renovating the mall interior. Contractors are taking up parking spaces for their workers, equipment and materials. Commuters using Route 19 north are unhappy because intersection widening prohibits them from making a right turn onto Village Drive. Work also has restricted Fort Couch Road on the other side of the mall. Upsides: You better believe the mall work will be done in time for the Christmas $hopping $eason. The new parking garage remains on schedule. And I’m hearing the Port Authority will charge $1 a day to park there.

Storm causes street flooding, power outages KHOU-TV June 14, 2004 HOUSTON — A thunderstorm caused a downpour Sunday that quickly flooded several Houston area streets including Allen Parkway. Drivers caught off guard were forced to detour around waterlogged streets all over town but some had to give up and abandon their vehicles. Others were simply slowed by the tide. Downtown the water came up quickly. At Louisiana and Polk, it got Venita Graves attention. “Any other time I’d be in my truck!” Graves said. Not this time. “I tried to wade through this water out there.” She says. “It was way up to my knees.” It was enough to make some downtown parking spots considerably less desirable. For blocks, traffic signals were out with the rest of the power. Some buildings were able to go to emergency generators. Others, like the Hyatt Hotel downtown, were just in the dark. Chuck Thompson was on the 20th floor. He was told to come to the lobby by way of the stairs. He explains he didn’t have the longest walk, “Some people were on 24.” But, he’s philosophical. “Yeah, it was different but at least it was light out.” Centerpoint says a substation was having problems. Those problems could be seen from the Hyatt hotel blocks away. That’s where Thomson says he saw the big flashes of fire that came off a transformer. Light rail was stopped for close to an hour. The train stopped at the end of the line. Metro officials told everyone they couldn’t run the train because of the high water. The solution was to bring in a bus. Heavy rain also shut down Intercontinental Airport. Flights were delayed by as much as two hours and some travelers were even forced to spend the night. More traffic signal trouble kept police busy all evening. A lightning strike also knocked out the city’s 311 helpline causing additional frustration. Still with natures brief fury comes nature’s beauty. The sunset was glorious.

MetroRail back on track after rain; Normal service restored in time for Monday morning rush hour Houston Chronicle June 14, 2004 MetroRail service returned to normal Monday with little evidence of Sunday evening’s storm that brought trains to a halt for about an hour, the first time the Main Street light rail line became flooded. The 7 1/2-mile line went under water in three stretches downtown, in Midtown and the Museum District. The line suffered minor damage from the heavy storm, which dumped up to 3 inches of rain along Main and adjoining streets between 6 and 7:30 p.m. Dozens of yellow reflectors placed along the tracks were washed away, and mud and debris were spread over the rails, streets and sidewalks. Sunday’s rain again raises questions about the wisdom of constructing rapid transit at street level. “An elevated rail system would not have had any problems with this storm,” said Don Gallagher, a longtime advocate for monorail in Houston. Monorail trains run atop a concrete structure, similar to cars traveling on an elevated freeway. Gallagher said Sunday’s incident proves the “weakness of at-grade rail in a flood-prone city like Houston. This topic had been brought up to the Metropolitan Transit Authority and the city years ago and went unheeded and largely ignored.” Some Midtown intersections were covered in a foot of water by 7 p.m. Sunday, with the worst flooding concentrated at Main and Elgin. A southbound train with about 10 passengers became stranded there for about 30 minutes as water rose around it. The tracks are built in the center of the street and a few inches higher than automobile lanes to help prevent such an occurrence. Metro said that several bus routes also were disrupted because of the high water. “We feel the performance of the (rail line) was good considering the magnitude of the flooding,” said Rich Krisak, senior director of rail operations. “Delays were present throughout the system.” Metro procedures require trains to suspend service when water is 4 inches high, Krisak said. Since the tracks are designed to drain onto the street, it takes a massive rain for 4 inches to accumulate atop the rails, he said. In addition to high water, cars illegally stopped on the tracks presented another obstacle to restoring train service Sunday evening. Near Elgin, about a dozen vehicles sought refuge on the rails. One sedan got stuck in the muddy median and had to be towed out; a minivan taxi also had to be towed after it stalled on the rails. Metro police officers allowed most of the cars to wait until the water receded, Krisak said. However, he said, parking on the tracks is never advisable, regardless of the situation. Some stranded passengers were led to buses on adjacent streets that were passable. Electronic signs at three train stations, which are supposed to be able to notify riders of such service disruptions, still don’t function correctly. Krisak said the vendor will return next week to work on them. Metro staff will meet to review the incident and evaluate lessons learned. Planners working on four voter-approved light rail extensions to be built by 2012 are examining the feasibility of elevating the future routes, but that option is not considered likely because of the higher cost of elevated tracks.

A not-so-big bang for toll road bucks Austin American-Statesman June 14, 2004 Texas 130: costs too much, does too little? Those of you who have been around Austin for at least four years will probably recognize the last half of that sentence. In 2000, opponents of Capital Metro’s light rail plan centered their campaign on that slogan and managed to persuade a bare majority to vote down the 52-mile, $1.9 billion system. Gerald Daugherty (now a Travis County commissioner) and his merry band of rail foes argued that the price tag was too high to move the 43,200 people a day (one-way trips) that Capital Metro estimated would ride the trains in 2010. Better to spend that money on roads, they said, where you get more bang for your tax buck. That brings me to Texas 130, the toll road being built around the east side of the metro area. Coincidentally, that road will be about the same length as the defeated rail system, 49 miles, and its cost is in the same ballpark, $1.5 billion. So how much transportation bang is that buying us? Based on the traffic estimates given to the private investors who lent money for the building of Texas 130, that road will have average daily traffic of about 15,000 vehicles in 2010, its third year of operation, with a peak of 22,500 east of Round Rock. In 2025, after 18 years, the average traffic will be 27,689 vehicles with a peak of 40,116 a day, according to the estimates. So, in 2010, the numbers are: 43,200 one-way trips on rail for $1.9 billion, or about $44,000 per daily trip; or 15,000 one-way vehicle trips for $1.5 billion, or about $100,000 per daily trip. This fall, it looks as if Capital Metro is going to ask us to vote on a $60 million commuter rail line from Leander to downtown Austin, obviously a much more modest proposal than in 2000. Capital Metro hasn’t told us how many people it expects that first line to move. Coincidentally, again, the state has just finished spending about $60 million to expand three miles of U.S. 183 in Northwest Austin to six freeway lanes and six frontage road lanes. How many more trips a day did that road investment buy us? Well, none, actually. The same number of people would be looking to go north and south on U.S. 183 even if the upgrade hadn’t been done. They would certainly be going much slower, however, so most people would probably say the $60 million was money well spent. All this points up the difficulty of the rail-road debate. First, do you trust the numbers? Road folks will say that the Capital Metro ridership figures from 2000 were inflated and that their Texas 130 numbers are conservative. Maybe, maybe not. But we don’t get to vote on toll road proposals, only on passenger rail. So bond investors are the only ones who have to make up their minds about the accuracy of those Texas 130 traffic estimates. But as Austin and a slice of the suburbs embark on another round of deciding whether to make passenger rail part of the Central Texas transportation fabric, it’s worth remembering that although railroads can be expensive to build, most highway contractors are still charging to move dirt and pour concrete. And now driving that road and several others will come with a fare, just like the train.

Light-rail project to arrive on budget Minneapolis Star Tribune June 14, 2004 Safely avoiding one final potential budget derailment this winter, Hiawatha light-rail project officials are now confident the line will be finished within its $715 million budget. Approved at $400 million in 1997 dollars, the budget has grown to $715 million in today’s dollars. That expansion has not come from overspending but from inflation, project changes and added features. With half a season of construction remaining on the south end of the line, Mark Fuhrmann, project chief of staff, says all major hurdles are in the past. He is confident that the full line will open in December on budget. Metropolitan Council Chairman Peter Bell publicly commended the project staff this week: “For a $715 million project to be coming in on budget and dealing with the complexity of issues is a Herculean task.” Heading toward Ft. Snelling At the start of the project, managers were concerned about two big unknowns: First, would they encounter expensive problems in digging a tunnel for the rail line under the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport? Second, would Metro Transit have to pay for relocating Xcel Energy Co. underground utility cables out of the path of the rail line along 5th Street in downtown Minneapolis? Heading into 2004, the fourth and final year of construction, the answers were no. Two side-by-side tunnels were dug under the airport with few surprises, and Xcel failed in a court battle to force Metro Transit to pay millions in utility relocation costs. But then this winter, a potential budget-busting issue surfaced: Project officials clashed with contractors over fines. Project officials asserted fines of more than $2 million against Minnesota Transit Constructors because contract deadlines were not met. To avoid those fines, the contractors came back with $5 million in counterclaims for overtime and other costs associated with project delays. The two sides, Fuhrmann said, agreed in February to call it a draw, leaving the budget intact. At three critical junctures, money was added to pay for key features. In 2000, Rep. Martin Sabo, D-Minn., delivered an extra $60 million in federal funds to pay for extending the line past Nicollet Mall to the First Avenue Warehouse District in downtown Minneapolis. The same year, the Metropolitan Airports Commission provided $17 million to cover a higher-than-expected bid to build the airport tunnel. And in 2003, Metro Transit shifted $39.9 million from bus capital improvement to the rail line to pay for a snug connection at the Mall of America. Views on changes Although each change was approved at the federal and state level, Rep. Phil Krinkie, R-Shoreview, a key rail opponent, said the increased cost makes him skeptical that the project will be finished within budget. “If you keep changing the number, then of what significance is that?” Krinkie asked. He said he has never been satisfied that all road and development costs that support the project have been included in the total. “If you are someone like myself who is somewhat of a skeptic of this project, we will never know how much it costs.” Hennepin County Commissioner Peter McLaughlin, a supporter of the rail line, said some of the increases were unavoidable because of inflation, and other jumps were explained and approved as welcome enhancements. “It is coming in within the $715 million and coming in within the state’s $100 million contribution,” McLaughlin said, and credit is due. Notably, he added, the federal government funded more than 50 percent of the project. That money would have gone to other communities competing with the Twin Cities. Adding, subtracting After money was added for enhancements, the goal of coming within budget came down to a $29.5 million contingency cushion set aside to cover unexpected costs. The fund represents 4 percent of the project total, compared with 8 to 15 percent cushions in similar projects around the country, Fuhrmann said. Two years ago, he predicted expenses would top the contingency fund by almost $10 million. To reel back spending, he shaved land purchases by more than $3.5 million; reduced staff for a savings of $2 million; and negotiated a reduction of $900,000 in construction costs associated with station-design changes requested by Minneapolis. Finally, costs were reduced another $300,000 by using steel instead of glass for a stylish roof on the Nicollet Mall station. The project also turned more than $100,000 in fines for late delivery of train cars into savings of $640,000 on the purchase of two cars. When finished, the rail line will have two signature features, Fuhrmann said: unique stations at every stop reflective of the locations they serve and low-floor cars that allow low-profile platforms. The first leg of Minnesota’s first light-rail line is scheduled to open June 26.

Los Angeles MTA Receives FFGA Approval for Gold Line Passenger Transport June 14, 2004 On June 1, the Federal Transit Administration approved $490.7 million in federal funding for a six-mile extension of the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s Metro Gold Line from Union Station to the neighborhoods of Little Tokyo, Boyle Heights, and East Los Angeles. Following execution of a federal Full Funding Grant Agreement, LACMTA Chief Executive Officer Roger Snoble signed the construction contract to build the $898.8 million extension, which is expected to begin light rail service through one of the most densely populated areas of Los Angeles County in 2009. LACMTA noted that the eight-station Eastside Extension is its highest- priority rail construction project.

Sims accepts federal money for light rail SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER June 14, 2004 The first federal money for Sound Transit’s Link light rail project was presented in symbolic form yesterday by Federal Transit Administration Administrator Jennifer Dorn and U.S. Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash. King County Executive Ron Sims, a Sound Transit board member, accepted a check from the two for $43.8 million — part of the $75 million set aside for Link in the 2004 federal budget. The money previously was held up because of Congress’ concerns about cost overruns. The first grant will be used for final design of the 14-mile initial rail line, which will extend from downtown Seattle to SeaTac; construction on Pine Street; buying rights of way; developing a Beacon Hill tunnel, and other costs.

Travel Advisory: SEPTA June 14, 2004 Route 15 trolley service will operate with buses beginning Sunday, June 13 until further notice. During bus substitution, all vehicle boarding and exiting will be at curbside. Buses will not board from the center islands. This bus substitution is required until service is restored on 59th St between Girard Ave and Callowhill St.

Riding the Monorail Won’t Be Free KLAS-TV Las Vegas June 14, 2004 (Jun. 14) — The monorail isn’t ready to roll yet. But when it is, it won’t be like other monorail systems on The Strip — it won’t be free. The monorail is set up to travel from Sahara Hotel to the MGM right now with stops at several other hotels along the way. But to get on, you will need a ticket. And to do that you won’t go to a counter and speak with a person. Instead, you’ll use a machine. It’s high tech and ready to serve the public when the monorail opens. Electronic machines are located at all monorail stations and hotels where the train stops. Todd Walker, with the Las Vegas Monorail, says, “We want to make it as easy as possible to collect fares that need to be collected to help pay for the system.” And it is pretty easy. You can use cash, coins, or a credit or debit card. After purchasing your ticket, you walk to the fair gates, slip it into the slot, wait a second, walk through the gate — and you’re ready to board. The most difficult part of the process is figuring out what type of ticket you want. The monorail has 1-day, 2-ride, 10-ride, and daily passes available. Prices are: 1-Ride is $3.00 2-Ride is $5.50 10-Ride is $20.00 1-Day is $10.00 3-Day is $25.00 Prices are only for the first three months and then the prices go up slightly. For the first three months the monorail will run from 8 a.m. to 12 a.m. After that it will run from 6 a.m. to 2 a.m., which is when the price hike goes into effect “The important thing is to allow additional hours of downtime for the system to make adjustments and to understand when and where our riders are wanting to go,” added Todd Walker. The 2-ride and the 10-ride passes are good for up to a year. So if you don’t use all of your rides in one trip, you can save the ticket and bring it back. There’s still no specific date for opening of the monorail. Officials say they are waiting to make sure everything is “perfect.”

Gridlocked Beijing unveils plan to push cars outside city center Japan Economic Newswire June 14, 2004 A city official announced Monday plans that include higher parking fees and remedial driver education to ease Beijing’s nagging traffic gridlock by 2008, when the city will host the Olympics and the number of cars is forecast to hit 3.5 million, up from about 2 million now. Plans include expanding parking lots downtown and raising peak-hour parking fees to discourage drivers from entering the city center while boosting the amount of car space in the suburbs so drivers can park and ride public transit, said Liu Xiaoming, vice director of the Beijing Traffic Commission. ‘If you choose to drive your own car, you will pay a high cost,’ Liu said at a press conference. By 2008, the city will have 300 kilometers of commuter rails, up from 140 km today, mostly six new subway lines, including one especially for the Olympics venues, Liu said. He said the city is also considering a ‘high-speed public transit system’ that would replace 16 bus lines and make bus rides more comfortable. Another proposed measure: better train-to-train or bus-to-train interchanges. The plans also include four years of teaching people how to drive better, Liu said without elaboration. Drivers commonly complain that illegal turns, sudden braking, erratic lane changes and other self-serving measures — taken by untrained or unconcerned motorists — threaten their safety and spark road rage. Citing precedents over the past half year, in which the city has decongested 45 of 84 notorious traffic backup spots, Liu predicted the city would reach its targets for 2008. ‘We totally have the abilities and prerequisites to solve this traffic problem,’ he said. Strategies to date include reducing or rerouting buses, building new lanes or stopping motorists that break traffic laws. Some of the ideas were advice from the International Olympic Committee, which told Beijing, for example, to add sensor-activated traffic signals, Liu said. Beijing has committed to ensuring smooth rides for athletes and their associates, Liu said, and the city hopes not to disrupt everyday people’s lives during the 2008 games. Most drivers will buy into the higher parking fees and additional public transit, said driver Tan Ying, a fashion magazine employee whose commute varies from 15 minutes at night to two hours during the day. ‘Most people will accept (these measures),’ Tan said in an interview on her car phone. ‘We hate traffic jams. It’s a big waste of time.’ But she said she would not park and ride unless the parking day rate was low enough for her. She also suggested the city widen expressway on-ramps, where traffic backs up during rush hours even as the city eases other gridlock hotspots. Traffic-clogged Jakarta starts construction of first monorail Agence France Presse June 14, 2004 JAKARTA : Work started on Monday in Indonesia’s capital Jakarta on a US$600 million monorail aimed at easing the city’s notorious traffic. President Megawati Sukarnoputri officiated at the groundbreaking of the project at Senayan in South Jakarta. “God willing, Jakartans will soon have an alternative transport system which will help them go around to do their activities more easily,” she said. Public transport in the city of eight million now consists mainly of buses, many of them elderly and smoke-belching, and minibuses. The project, scheduled to be completed at the end of 2006, comprises a 27-kilometre elevated railway divided into two lines called the Green Line and Blue Line. The Green Line will serve the business districts while the Blue Line will run along Jakarta’s outer areas. The two lines are expected to carry up to 270,000 passengers a day. Jakarta Monorail, the consortium carrying out the project, consists of Indonesia Transit Central and the Omnico Consortium. Omnico represents companies from Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand. “We are proud to say to everyone in the city, throughout the nation, and all over the Asian region that ‘Yes. This is for real!’” said Abdul Rahman, chairman of Omnico Consortium. Japan’s Hitachi will supply materials and technology needed for the construction and Singapore MRT will be a partner in the system’s operation, said Sukmawaty Syukur, director of Jakarta Monorail. “Indonesia has no experience in operating this kind of system. We need to have a leading operator to gain the confidence of financial institutions,” she said. Financing will come from equity, bonds and bank loans. Jakarta governor Sutiyoso said the project “proves that Jakarta is still an attractive investment destination in the eyes of foreign investors.” He said 10,000 jobs would be created during the construction. Sutiyoso said he hoped that “in not too long a time” a subway project will start and talks were underway with a consortium. In January, Sutiyoso launched a 12-kilometre busway operating along main streets. - AFP

Editorial: Rain delay: ‘Told you so’ premature on light-rail line elevation Houston Chronicle June 16, 2004 Heavy rains temporarily washed out MetroRail line service this weekend, prompting proponents of building light rail above ground to say, “I told you so.” However, few responsible taxpayers would agree that spending millions of additional dollars on elevated tracks would have been worth it to avoid last Sunday’s few minutes of transit downtime. The past few days’ rain served as a useful test of how well the Main Street rail line could cope with torrential downpours over the famously flood- prone Midtown and Texas Medical Center areas. Rail service was down only about one hour Sunday, despite a slow-moving storm that dumped several inches of rain along the rail route that day. High water along the 7 1/2 -mile rail prevented trains from passing at a stretches of track downtown, in Midtown and in the Museum District. It was the train’s first instance of impassable flooding. The interruption in service prompted a monorail advocate to point out that an elevated train would not have flooded. That’s true, but taxpayers would have shelled out millions of dollars more per rail mile to have avoided that scant hour of disrupted service. High water stalled buses along Main Street, too, by the way. A more massive storm, such as Allison in 2001, might cause much longer interruptions of rail service, but that sort of weather system is rare. It would take an awful lot of rainfall — more than even Sunday and Monday’s generous downpour — to cause flooding severe enough to stop trains for extended periods. If anything, the recent rains showed that elevating the four voter-approved light rail extension routes to be built in coming years is probably not worth the expense.

MONORAIL REQUISITES RAISE CONCERN THE SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER June 16, 2004 Seattle is demanding too much of its new monorail system, some monorail officials said yesterday, asking for upfront requirements it didn’t request of Sound Transit’s light-rail system. But Seattle’s deputy mayor said the street-use agreements should be different for the two systems because they’re being built differently, and because the monorail will more directly affect pedestrians and utilities. The question is being raised as City Council members consider the requirements the monorail will face building in the streets. Two monorail board members yesterday questioned the proposed “transit-way” agreement negotiated between the monorail and the city, governing how the monorail will use city streets to build and run its $1.75 billion system. At a monorail board meeting yesterday, board member Cindi Laws attacked the draft agreement, saying it required extra insurance coverage, additional notice for repair work, money for other transportation improvements and would cost the monorail $100 million just for steps to deal with its environmental impacts, among others. There were no such requirements of Sound Transit in a comparable street-use agreement, said Laws and board member Kristina Hill. “The cost could be well over $100 million,” Laws said of the total. “That could be spent on design (of the monorail system). I hope the taxpayers are paying attention.” Hill, who raised the issue earlier, said she’ll be pressing the equal-treatment point to City Council members who are considering the agreement now. Among other proposed provisions, the two board members said, were requirements that the city approve the construction sequence; that the monorail pay utility-service cost increases brought about by placing the elevated system near the utilities; that the monorail supply builders-risk insurance and a removal bond to cover damage and the cost of removal should the system be abandoned; and that the monorail finance improvements near monorail stations such as sidewalks, signals and landscaping. “The mayor is asking for things that are not necessarily reasonable costs,” Laws said. Monorail staffers who negotiated the agreement have stuck to it as closely as possible. Deputy Mayor Tim Ceis, reacting to Laws and Hill’s comments, said the monorail agreement is different from that for Sound Transit because the monorail is being built differently. Sound Transit is building its light-rail system using conventional design-bid-build procedures, in which segments of the system will be designed - some up to 70 percent - before they’re put out for bid. The monorail, by contrast, has far less design completed before it puts its system out for bid, and the successful contractors will complete the design, build and operate the system. That means “the city assumes more risk” while the system is built, Ceis said. The removal bond, Ceis said, will give the city greater assurances that a monorail can be removed if it’s abandoned, since contractors will assume more responsibility for it than contractors working for Sound Transit. Additional insurance for the West Seattle Bridge covers any construction damage; Sound Transit isn’t using city bridges. Sound Transit construction, occurring in shorter intervals, is approved as it progresses, Ceis said. The monorail is being asked to pay utility-service costs because it will make access to utilities such as power lines more difficult in some cases. Sound Transit’s system, he said, won’t interfere with power lines. Sound Transit also will pay for improvements near its stations, in a process separate from its street-use permit, in several steps, Ceis said. The monorail is being asked to do it upfront because its construction will occur all at once.

Isle mayors urge less focus on cars; County executives say it is a mistake to build communities around automobiles Honolulu Star-Bulletin June 17, 2004 Ensuring that residents don’t have to use their cars just to get to a grocery store or a movie would do more to ease traffic congestion than building more roads or widening highways, island mayors said yesterday. They urged better community planning to keep offices, essential shopping and entertainment centers nearer homes. “If we focus on improving infrastructure — roads, highways — I think we are doomed for failure. … We will never catch up,” Big Island Mayor Harry Kim said. Kim echoed a theme voiced by his colleagues at a forum in Honolulu designed to let island mayors exchange information and share ideas for easing the pain of urban growth. Kim, Honolulu Mayor Jeremy Harris, Maui Mayor Alan Arakawa and Gary Heu, administrative assistant to Kauai Mayor Bryan Baptiste, took part in the forum held by the Urban Land Institute of Hawaii, a nonprofit research and education group. Harris said Hawaii’s growing cities are no different from those anywhere else: All made the mistake of designing communities around automobiles instead of people. Bedroom communities for commuters need freeways, but once those are built, one of the only solutions to traffic is to build more, Harris said. Developers and government officials should instead look to provide residential communities with all the trappings of a self-sufficient city, such as office buildings, shopping centers and theaters, the mayors said. Doing so might encourage people to leave their cars in the driveway and choose alternative forms of transportation such as a bicycle, the bus or even their feet. “It has to be built around that,” said Maui’s Arakawa. By developing pedestrian-friendly communities with more bike, walking and — on Maui — equestrian paths, “a car will not need to be an option.” On Kauai, Heu said, the county is taking a two-pronged approach to relieving traffic woes: adding public transit and educating residents about alternative transportation. “It’s changing behavior and providing the means by which people can avail themselves of different transportation,” Heu said. Harris noted that mass transportation also is a key part of getting more cars off Oahu roads, adding that his proposed Bus Rapid Transit system to connect downtown with Waikiki is progressing. The first phase is expected to be running by the end of the year. Honolulu’s mistake in the past has been trying to establish a mass transit system with the aid of federal dollars, Harris said. “The federal process is such a labyrinth,” he said, “that by the time you reach the end and you’re ready to start construction, you’ve lost the political will.” One of the other topics addressed by mayors was how to build more affordable housing. Kim noted his disgust with a recent report on median resale prices for single-family homes in the islands. While the median price was $307,261 on the Big Island, the value has reached $620,000 on Maui. “That’s repulsive,” Kim said. He urged the mayors to work with all government officials and agencies to address what he called a statewide crisis in affordable housing.

$400 fee proposed for some traffic accidents; Austin considering hundreds of new, increased fees Austin American-Statesman June 17, 2004 Drivers in Austin might soon have to pay the city $400 to settle affairs after a traffic wreck, as part of a revenue-generating plan under consideration by city administrators. The proposal also includes hundreds of new fees or increases to existing fees in every city department, ranging from garbage collection to municipal golf courses to photocopies at city libraries. It would provide $1.1 million to help balance the 2005 budget, city officials said Wednesday. For city administrators, the fees are a way to ease the strain of a $19 million budget shortfall that will require harrowing budget cuts for the third consecutive year. But some people, including residents and insurance representatives, are skeptical of certain fees, including the Austin Fire Department’s proposed motor vehicle accident cleanup fee. Acting Assistant City Manager Rudy Garza said the fee increases are fair and are designed to adjust for inflation or recover lost money for services the city currently provides for free. The Austin City Council will deliberate the fees as it considers the budget later this summer. “It’s important that we look at the revenue side of the equation,” Garza said. “We’re not going to create new fees just for the sake of new money.” Most of the fee increases are nominal, ranging from 50 cents to a few dollars per service. That includes a small hike in greens fees at municipal golf courses, the cost of camps at the Austin Nature and Science Center and pay-as-you-throw garbage fees. At $400, the accident cleanup fee is far more significant and would be imposed on drivers who get into serious traffic wrecks that require city cleanup regardless of fault, Assistant Fire Chief Jim Evans said. The charge would be levied only when the department has to remove hazardous materials that had leaked, such as gasoline, oil or transmission fluid. Revenue from that fee is expected to be $480,000, nearly three-fourths of all other projected fee revenue combined. The fire department’s fee proposals also include inspections for sprinkler systems, fire alarms and facilities such as day-care centers, group homes and clinics. The fees would bring the department up to date with other cities, which already charge for those services, Evans said. Other specifics about the accident cleanup fee were being discussed in a meeting Wednesday between fire officials and city legal staff, Evans said. A similar fee is imposed in other nearby cities, including Cedar Park and Pflugerville. Officials with fire departments in Dallas and Houston, however, said they do not charge motorists for accident cleanup. And although insurance might cover the fee, it’s not a guarantee and could result in premium increases for drivers, said Sophie Harbert, a State Farm Insurance Co. spokeswoman. “Damages do have to be justified and reasonable,” she said. “If we feel that these additional fees are not justified or reasonable, then we may challenge that.” Some people interviewed at gas stations in Austin also disagreed with the fee, saying it seemed unreasonable. “I’d have to spend $400 on top of the cost of an accident,” said Barbara Humberger, a West Lake Hills resident. “They’re high enough already.” Richard Kirby, 45, a civil engineer from Austin, wondered about the feasibility of imposing a flat fee per wreck, as well as whether a fee would send a poor message to drivers. “If there’s a fatality and a loved one dies, is the city going to send the widow a bill for $400? That’s a little coldhearted,” he said. Other fees the city is considering are unusual, such as a “stormwater discharge permit program re-inspection fee” and a $50 permit for having an open flame as part of a theatrical performance. The fire department also has proposed a $100 public assembly fee for nightclubs, which would cover safety inspections, Assistant Fire Chief Kevin Baum said. That would be frowned upon by downtown bar and restaurant owners who are still hurting from the new smoking ordinance, said Bob Woody, president of the East Sixth Street Community Association. “This is a way to generate money to keep the bureaucratic beast going,” Woody said. “Do I have a problem with it? Man, I have a huge issue with it.” Greens fees at Jimmy Clay, Morris Williams and Lions Municipal golf courses would increase about by 50 cents or a dollar for walk-in play. Golfers at Lions were generally supportive of that proposal. “That’s not going to determine whether I come out,” said Dennis McFall, 35, an Austin resident. “If you’re talking $5, that’s going to affect my decision.”

The current Schuylkill Metro idea is doomed; a simpler idea might succeed. Philadelphia Inquirer June 17, 2004 By Richard L. Allman A recent attempt by local officials to revive the dormant Schuylkill Valley Metro rail service suffers from trying to accomplish too many things. First, it seeks to create an intercity commuter rail line between Philadelphia and Reading, essentially a revival of a service abandoned in 1981 because of low patronage. It also wants to provide a commuter rail operation between Pottstown, Royersford, Phoenixville and Philadelphia. Finally, it aims to provide a frequent urban-suburban operation between King of Prussia and Philadelphia. The third initiative is the most justifiable and should be pursued. Unfortunately, the truncated Schuylkill Valley Metro project that has now been proposed, with hourly diesel train service to Reading and change of locomotives or trains at Norristown, will generate even less traffic than the original proposal and omits the link to King of Prussia A more modest proposal that can provide rail service to King of Prussia is at hand, if there is the political will to carry it out. This would be the proposed five-mile extension of the SEPTA Route 100 Norristown High Speed Line. This extension would branch off from the existing line north of the Hughes Park station and rise onto the existing Norfolk Southern rail alignment, following it westward to the south side of South Gulph Road. From there, it would follow an elevated alignment across Route 202 to a station between the Plaza and the Court at the King of Prussia mall. It would remain on an elevated structure over the mall parking area and the turnpike, then take an abandoned railroad right-of-way past the Valley Forge Towers area, terminating at Port Kennedy, where the right-of-way intersects with the old Reading Main Line. Four new stations would be provided along the extension: at Hansen Road, at the mall, at First Avenue in King of Prussia, and at the terminal station at Port Kennedy, also called Valley Forge Station. This extension would cause no residential disruption and minimal commercial disruption, as it would use abandoned and minimally used rail lines for much of its route. Road closures during the construction phase would be minimal, as prefabricated elevated structures could be used. The line would link the Market-Frankford Subway-Elevated Line and the Route 100 High Speed Line out of Upper Darby with the high-volume work, shopping and entertainment destination, King of Prussia. It would provide employment access for people from eastern Delaware County and West Philadelphia. Like the Route 100, the Market-Frankford El has recently been modernized, with refurbished stations, state-of-the-art signaling and power distribution, new track, and new cars. A link of the El with the Route 100 King of Prussia service will allow the region to maximize its return on investment in the El. The service would also be attractive for students from colleges in West Philadelphia and the Main Line going to the mall complex for shopping and entertainment. When the Route 100 line was rebuilt in the early 1990s, new cars were purchased to equip a King of Prussia service, so no more cars would have to be bought, which could save considerably on the cost of the project. In 2002, the projected total cost of the extension was $268 million, a fraction of the nearly $2 billion price tag for the Schuylkill Valley Metro. This proposal is not perfect. A station near the theater complex behind the mall is not in the current SEPTA proposal. Key stations on the existing Route 100 line will need to be made accessible to the disabled. The operating schedule would need to be revised to accommodate retail and entertainment customers, as well as employees who start and finish work later in the day. Though it lacks the grandiosity of the overall Schuylkill Valley Metro proposal, this plan would allow the region to maximize its return on investments in the Route 100 line and the El. It is vastly superior to the half-baked remnant of Schuylkill Valley Metro, which, in its current form, promises only to restore a commuter service that was abandoned a quarter-century ago because no one rode it.

City in talks to buy land near rail sites; Officials want increased control, larger parcels for redevelopment Dallas Morning News June 17, 2004 Carrollton is in negotiations to buy three more properties near planned DART light-rail stations in an effort to have tighter control, and more appealing land packages, when redevelopment occurs. City officials say that the most successful developments around train stations have occurred with the city playing a crucial role in combining smaller land parcels into larger, more appealing tracts that developers can use in more profitable ways. “If you look at the larger transit facilities around the country large mixed- use districts and transit hubs there has always been a fairly consistent role that the city has as a partner in development,” said John Webb, Carrollton’s director of urban development. One of the three properties under negotiation is at 1435 Trinity Mills Road, next to the Home Depot property. It is a half-acre of unused land next to the former Arby’s and the old Home Depot parking lot. It is assessed at $174,200 by Dallas County. The other two are on Belt Line Road. The former Philippine Community Center at 1205 Belt Line sits on a half-acre and has a 5,120-square-foot vacant building. Dallas County set the value of the land and building at $150,000. The unused 0.92 acres at 1209 Belt Line is assessed at $200,630. Once the purchases are complete, said officials, the city may join the two properties and then possibly add to the parcel. Last year, the city bought the 12.5-acre Home Depot property on Trinity Mills Road for $3.5 million. The building is being leased to a furniture store, although city officials see that land as a prime location for offices or a hotel once the rail line and station are completed. Purchase of these parcels, said Assistant City Manager Marc Guy, “is a big step, part of that concept of making long-term investments. We have no expectation that they’re going to generate immediate value to the community. The value is going to be four or five years from now as light- rail transit gets closer to Carrollton and development interest continues to increase.” Mark Witte, Carrollton’s right-of-way agent, said the city is trying to “direct the redevelopment of property around those future DART stations” by acquiring various tracts. “We don’t have a lot of say-so unless we own the land,” he said. The city has the power to use eminent-domain if necessary to procure the land, although City Manager Leonard Martin said that is unlikely. But the power of eminent domain can have an underlying effect on the purchasing process anyway. According to commercial property broker Jim Peddy, who represents the owners of 1205 Belt Line, even the specter of eminent domain has a chilling effect on a property’s commercial appeal. “It immediately puts a cloud on the property, and nobody else is interested in buying or leasing the property because the city has the right of eminent domain,” Mr. Peddy said. “Once they express that interest, nobody else would want it.” Other strategic properties could be sought by the city as it identifies future development strategies, Mr. Webb said. Development around the Old Downtown Carrollton station could include high-density residential development mixed with retail and office space as many as 50 to 100 living units per acre, Mr. Webb said. The concept is to have buildings with four or more stories that incorporate retail on the bottom floor and residential on the upper floors. Some buildings might incorporate parking structures. “What is difficult to imagine is the amount of land that will be needed for structured parking,” Mr. Webb said. With 1.5 to 2 parking spaces per residential unit, 400 units could require more than 600 parking spaces. Some parking could be incorporated into the building, behind the building, in a courtyard, or “some of it might be off-site, a separate structured facility that a parking management company owns and operates,” Mr. Webb said. City officials agree that to see the concept become reality, the first step is to assemble smaller parcels into larger properties. “The more land you’ve assembled to make it simple to aggregate several parcels, the better the chance that you’ll get the really high-quality development,” Mr. Martin said. Said Mr. Webb: “We have the ability to start the process and send the signal to the development community that the city is taking a leadership role in that and ultimately can work with them in some type of a public/private partnership.”

IN THE SUBWAYS; Imprisoned by impulses Newsday (New York June 17, 2004 ‘I walk by the trains all the time,” Darius McCollum was saying on the phone last night. “I thought, ‘Why can’t I go on the trains and be a regular passenger?’ Well, it worked for awhile.” McCollum, 39, has spent more than a third of his adult life locked up, his current stay aboard an 800-bed jail barge on the East River. Since he was a high school freshman in Queens, McCollum has been in and out of jail for impersonating a New York City Transit worker. He has repeatedly fooled riders, subway employees and the police into believing him part of the transit system. McCollum first got caught at the controls of a subway train at the age of 15, delivering E train riders along six stops in Manhattan. Over the years, he befriended transit employees and attended NYC Transit workers’ rallies. Sometimes, he cleared debris from tracks and extinguished fires. Once, he volunteered as a tour guide at the Transit Museum. Wearing a transit-issue safety vest and hard hat, McCollum was arrested last week at the Long Island Rail Road yard in Jamaica - two months after being released from jail on a parole violation. He carried a key that would have started one of the LIRR’s new M-7 locomotives. “This is one of the most clearest and shining examples of what can happen when Asperger’s doesn’t get treated,” said Michael Carley, executive director of the Global and Regional Asperger Syndrome Partnership, a Manhattan support group. “This is a guy who is not a criminal.” Asperger’s is a neurological disorder similar to autism. It is sometimes marked by a consuming fascination with things like trains. Though McCollum exhibits telltale symptoms, his treatment has consisted entirely of jail time. “They don’t know what to do with him,” said Lori Shery, who knows McCollum and runs the New Jersey-based Asperger Syndrome Education Network. “They don’t have a clue.” A source familiar with McCollum’s recent incarceration said prison health professionals doubted that he suffers from Asperger’s. McCollum was released from prison in April. In his pocket was a letter from the Social Security Administration, denying him disability benefits because he had no work history. A few times, he attended Carley’s support group meetings. He was also working on getting a high school equivalency diploma. “It was surprising he lasted as long as he did,” before being arrested again, said the source familiar with McCollum’s prison history. “He may have spent more time on the inside than on the outside at this point in his life.” When McCollum was sentenced in 2001 for impersonating a transit worker, Judge Carol Berkman in State Supreme Court in Manhattan doubted Asperger’s was his problem. The judge said she read about Asperger’s on the Internet and concluded that he did not exhibit some important symptoms, including social dysfunction. He had many friends, she said. She also dismissed the notion that McCollum couldn’t control his impulses, a common Asperger symptom. “This man is a danger,” she said. “But in the meantime, we’ve made him a poster boy for the system’s lack of compassion for the mentally ill. Well, I have a lot of compassion for the mentally ill. You know, we don’t lock them up anymore.” Berkman sentenced McCollum to 2? to 5 years in prison. “Darius is a very articulate, super intelligent guy who, because he’s had absolutely no supports throughout his life or no knowledge of his own Asperger’s, all of his intelligence has been channeled into this one thing,” Carley said. McCollum seems to lack the capacity to understand the seriousness of his actions. “Darius does not seem to have a real great understanding of why it is that he shouldn’t be doing this and what the consequences are,” said Shery, who is trying to find a lawyer to take McCollum’s case pro bono. Carley, who along with his young son was diagnosed with Asperger’s in 2000, said about 400 people attend his meetings three times a month. Half experienced some fascination with trains sometime in their lives. “In essence, trains are basically the feeling of going forward, which we all want in our lives, but we don’t have to make decisions as to which way to turn,” he said. “It’s all been decided: We’re on a track.” Last night, in a brief phone conversation, McCollum admitted again that he needs help. “I need help desperately. I know the seriousness of this.”

Unrest at Metro St. Louis Post-Dispatch (Missouri June 17, 2004 WITH allegations of contractor shake-downs, conflicts of interest and bureaucratic back-stabbing, Metro’s management is a mess. This is no way to run a railroad. Last month the Rev. B.T. Rice resigned as a Metro commissioner on the board of the regional transit system as it was investigating allegations that he had solicited donations from construction companies working on MetroLink. Then Post-Dispatch reporter Shane Graber obtained a memo accusing Commissioner Betty Van Uum of conflicts of interest. The memo by Metro president Larry Salci said Ms. Van Uum talked to Metro staff members about projects affecting the University of Missouri at St. Louis, where she is assistant to the chancellor. Instead of conducting a detailed investigation of the allegations against Ms. Van Uum, Metro board chairman Michael Fausz dismissed them as baseless. Granted there is no allegation that Ms. Van Uum personally benefited from her actions. But Metro should carefully investigate the allegations and clarify its ethics policies. Mr. Salci’s memo says Ms. Van Uum had sought low fares for UMSL students, a ride-free zone for patrons of the university’s new performing arts center, and a $200,000 upgrade for brick veneer on a Metro garage so it would match other campus buildings. Ms. Van Uum “absolutely denies” Mr. Salci’s allegations and says she is hurt that he has tarnished her years of public service. She acknowledges talking to Metro’s staff about the issues, but says that she was supporting a continued partnership between Metro and UMSL — not just UMSL’s interests. Ms. Van Uum, in turn, raises valid questions about Mr. Salci’s motives. She points out that Mr. Salci had never voiced any concerns about conflicts of interest before writing the memo in January. And she says Mr. Salci wrote the memo shortly after he accused her of plotting with two Illinois commissioners and two African-Americans to get him fired — an allegation she says was false. Mr. Salci said he had “no recollection” of telling Ms. Van Uum that she was after his job. But he acknowledged that he had been aware of widespread rumors to that effect. Even if Mr. Salci’s motives are in question, his allegations deserve careful investigation. Whitewashing the allegations against Ms. Van Uum does little to clear her name. Metro needs to clarify its ethics policies about contact between board members and staff. Metro’s leaders are first and foremost stewards of public resources for the public good. They’re not there to have their palms greased, their egos stroked or to cadge extra goodies for their personal constituencies. (note: transit based development occurring world-wide)

Light railway extension boon to Cavite-based housing projects BusinessWorld June 17, 2004 With the first phase of the Light Rail Transit (LRT) Line 1 extension, from Baclaran, Pasay City to Bacoor, Cavite, set to start construction this year, Empire East Suntrust (Empire East Properties), a developer of energy-saving homes, expects to benefit from a surge in market interest in its Cavite-based community housing projects. Line 1 of the south extension will span about 11.7 kilometers and cover the areas from Baclaran to Bacoor, passing through the cities of Paranaque and Las Pinas. A proposed second phase will extend the line from Bacoor to Dasmarinas. Both projects are set to be completed in five years. The extension will be linked to the existing LRT line from Monumento, Quezon City to Baclaran, and to the Metro Rail Transit (MRT), which traverses North Ave. in Quezon City to Taft Avenue in Pasay City. “The LRT Line 1 extension will make Cavite more accessible to those working or doing business in Alabang, Las Pinas, Paranaque and Makati,” said Empire East Suntrust President Zenaida M. Marquez in a statement. “The second phase will also make it easy to commute from Dasmarinas to as far as Quezon City and Caloocan City through the MRT and LRT interconnection.” With an efficient rail system in place by 2009, residents of Empire East’s Governor’s Hills and Sunrise Hills projects can easily reach Metro Manila’s business districts and experience less traffic congestion and pollution. Governor’s Hills, the flagship community project, is along Governor’s Drive in Gen. Trias, close to Bacoor and Imus. The 89-hectare project features single-detached and duplex units of one to five bedrooms in six Mexican-Californian designs and European-themed triplex units with up to three bedrooms. The homes, which come with an attic, garden and carport, are available for as low as P4,300+ a month for the triplex units, P7,000+ for the duplex homes and P13,500+ for the single-detached houses through Pag-IBIG financing. Situated along Malagasang Road near the Aguinaldo Highway in Sabang, Dasmarinas, Sunrise Hills offers two types of residential units - Casa Montecilla triplex unit in phase 1 and Villa Savannah in phase 2. The homes may be expanded with the addition of a mezzanine level and come with a garden and carport. Both types are available through Pag-IBIG housing loans for as low as P3,900+ a month for Casa Montecilla and P3,300+ a month for Villa Savannah. The Pag-IBIG home loan is computed at 70% of the unit price, with 25 years to pay. Both community projects use Empire East Suntrust’s energy-saving technologies and materials such as concrete-and-steel wall panels with an insulating polystyrene layer. This technology reduces exterior and interior home temperatures, resulting in lower power costs and cooler homes.

Route concerns may stall rail plans Houston Chronicle June 18, 2004, Metro’s rail expansion plans, which had been zooming down the tracks since gaining voter approval in November, hit a sudden obstacle Thursday when board members expressed reservations about the alignments chosen for the next two lines. Directors ordered staff to take another look at previously rejected routes, which could delay the start of construction by more than six months because environmental impact statements are under way for those routes adopted by the prior transit board in December. “Looking at it, I say, `Whoa!’ “ said Chairman David Wolff. “I think there are just real problems with the way the analysis was done.” Members have raised concern lately about the wisdom of continuing to build light rail on the street, as done in the 7 1/2-mile Main Street line that opened Jan. 1. Though popular with many riders, MetroRail has been plagued by train-vehicle collisions and was shut down Sunday for an hour due to flooding. Directors last month asked their planning consultant to discuss alternate routes for the extension of the Main Street line to Northline Mall and the new Southeast line that would run in freight railroad corridors. That would allow for faster speed and less conflict with automobiles. Those concerns heightened again after the 45th train crash Wednesday night. Metropolitan Transit Authority police said a 37-year-old Kansas man in a southbound car on Main Street attempted to make a U-turn at Elgin, despite having a red light and a sign prohibiting left turns. His 2005 Jaguar rental car was crushed by a train. The luxury sedan spun onto the sidewalk, striking a lamp pole. Police cited the driver for ignoring the no-turn sign. He and two passengers were hospitalized with minor injuries. Wednesday’s wreck was the first involving an illegal turn in Midtown or the Museum District since the transit authority in March modified traffic signals there to all turn red as trains approach intersections, a safety measure meant to reduce crash potential. Consultant Steve Beard made it only a few minutes into his presentation at Thursday morning’s committee meeting when questions and criticism began flying for almost an hour. “I’m not satisfied the proper attention was paid to these alignments, and we need to take a fresh look at it,” said Wolff, who took office in February and is one of seven new board members this year. “It might wipe out some time, and we’ll have to take some flak. I’m perfectly comfortable with that. We have to make the best decision.” Director Jimmy Stewart noted the routes were selected before Houston’s first light rail line began service and now “we’ve got a different feel for how rail fits into our communities.” The discussion centered on the route selected from the University of Houston-Downtown, northern terminus of the Main Street line, to Northline Mall and on to the Greenspoint area and Bush Intercontinental Airport. Planners, concluding a two-year analysis of northern corridors last fall, rejected an alternate path to the east up the Hardy freight railroad corridor. While the Near Northside community has generally supported the existing route up Main Street and later onto Fulton Street to the mall, there has been criticism that it zigzags too much. Planners, in response to those concerns, have drawn up some slight potential changes. Those will be the subject of a public meeting June 26, part of the ongoing environmental study required before construction is scheduled to start in mid-2006. “All they are doing is showing minor variations,” said Director George DeMontrond. If the board prefers another alignment, “we would have to have additional meetings, obviously.” Numerous gatherings were held in 2002 and 2003 to solicit public comment on various corridors in north and southeast Harris County. “Certainly the community’s preference has been directed toward routes that we have now been focused on,” said John Sedlak, Metro’s executive vice president. City Councilman Adrian Garcia, a freshman who represents the Near Northside, said he’s worried about going back to the drawing board. Just last weekend he and other neighborhood leaders met with Metro staff to go over refinement of the chosen alignment. “Metro needs to understand they could lose credibility with the community by coming up with these kinds of disruptions,” Garcia said. “Although we are saying we don’t want to delay it significantly, once you put these brakes on, sometimes they don’t release too quickly.” Any major alignment change, such as shifting to the Hardy rail corridor, would force the existing impact study to be scrapped. Metro would have to begin a new environmental review to comply with Federal Transit Administration funding requirements. Jackie Freeman, one of only two holdovers from the prior board, stressed the urgency of moving forward. Metro must submit an application to the FTA in August if it is to get in line for federal money during next year’s appropriations cycle. “We need to make a decision, and we need to make it quick,” Freeman said. The planners “need a line drawn out they can concentrate on and do real work on.”

Tighter tax rules aid monorail project Seattle Times June 18, 2004 The Seattle Monorail Project’s sagging revenues have begun to show gains from some new regulations to close tax loopholes. One rule extends the monorail’s car-tab tax to out-of-state vehicles as soon as the owner moves to Seattle, instead of giving owners a one-year break. Those cars accounted for 6 percent of the $2.7 million collected in May, finance director Jonathan Buchter reported yesterday. Also, fewer city residents are switching their car-registration addresses to an out-of-town postal box to avoid the tax. However, there is nothing to stop Seattle drivers from using an out-of-town mailing address until November, when a computer upgrade will enable the Department of Licensing to begin enforcing its new proof-of-residency rule. Tax revenues to build the $1.75 billion Green Line had been one-third below predictions, prompting fears of cash shortages or shortcuts in design.

Sound Transit board disturbed by high bids; The latest low offer is 22 percent more than estimates SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER June 18, 2004 Another Sound Transit bid has come in well over the engineer’s estimate, and some board members are disturbed at the trend. The latest is a contract for the planned Federal Way Transit Center, where the low bid by PCL Construction came in at $21 million compared to the $17.2 million that Sound Transit engineers had estimated — a discrepancy of 22 percent. Jim Edwards, chief engineer for Sound Transit’s Regional Express Bus program, said the market for steel, concrete and asphalt has been volatile recently. “I guess China is buying up every bit of concrete and every bit of steel it can get,” he said. Contractors’ bids reflect the most current market conditions, while the engineer’s estimate was prepared about six months ago, Edwards said. Last month, Sound Transit staff were disappointed when a major light rail contract — one to bore the Beacon Hill tunnel and build two light rail stations — came in 17 percent over the engineer’s estimate. In that case, light rail staff blamed both industry jitters about steel prices as well as the fact that only two companies bid on the highly specialized tunnel work. They noted that earlier light rail contracts had come in well below estimates and that the project as a whole was still projected to be under budget. But with at least three other light rail contracts yet to be bid on and steel, cement and other materials prices escalating, some board members are anxious. The $2.4 billion14-mile light rail line will run from Westlake Center to just short of the Sea-Tac Airport. “We need to figure (materials inflation) into next year’s budget,” Kenmore City Councilman Jack Crawford told staff yesterday. He is vice chairman of Sound Transit’s finance committee Light Rail Director Ahmad Fazel said Sound Transit recently began to include provisions in its contracts that if steel prices go up or down more than 5 percent, Sound Transit will adjust the contract. That is intended to keep contractors from inflating their bids unnecessarily to cover the possibility of inflation. And the agency also has included an extra contingency in the engineer’s estimate for steel. Kiewit Construction, one of the first contractors to be awarded a light rail contract, has already demanded compensation from Sound Transit for the increased cost and delays caused by the steel shortage. But Fazel said Sound Transit has told Kiewit the contract was a fixed-price bid and Sound Transit will provide no relief. However, Sound Transit, after testing, is allowing Kiewit to switch from steel piles to pre-cast concrete piles at the maintenance base on Airport Way South. The finance committee recommended yesterday that the Sound Transit board award the Federal Way Transit Center contract to PCL Construction. Work is scheduled to begin as soon as possible so that earthwork can be done in dry conditions. The transit center, to be located at South 316th Street and 23rd Avenue South, will have six bus bays, bus layover areas for 11 to 13 buses, and a five-story parking garage with 1,200 stalls. A separate but related project will build direct access ramps that pour buses onto Interstate 5 high- occupancy vehicle lanes. That project came in under the engineer’s estimate, Edwards said. The transit center project has generated controversy within the community. Though the Federal Way City Council repeatedly endorsed the planned location for the transit center, some neighboring businesses and residents mounted a campaign against it and the city council made an11th-hour pitch to change the location. But Sound Transit said all buildings had been demolished, permits issued, and the project 100 percent designed. The agency had already spent $16 million and refused to change to change the location. Federal Way council members then asked Sound Transit to build a road between 316th and 320th, to let new office and retail developments use the garage, as well as the community on weekends. King County Councilman Pete von Reichbauer, whose district includes Federal Way and who is a member of Sound Transit’s board, held up the project for two weeks at the finance committee to encourage negotiations on those requests. Chief Executive Officer Joni Earl and Pierce County Executive John Ladenburg, chairman of Sound Transit’s board, and von Reichbauer met recently with Federal Way officials. City Manager David Moseley said yesterday meetings have been “very constructive” and he hoped agreement could be reached in the next month or two. Bellevue City Councilwoman Connie Marshall, also a Sound Transit board member, called the talks a “victory in community diplomacy.”

Down the Tubes The Times (London June 18, 2004 The City knows a gravy train when it sees one coming, and the Government’s plan to privatise the London Tube has proved to be one of the juiciest gravy trains in recent history. While commuters sweat in 90F heat, reading posters advising them to carry bottles of water in case the real train breaks down, Tube bosses have been paying Freshfields, PricewaterhouseCoopers and other City firms for advice that should have been equally unnecessary: how to create a bewilderingly complex system of new infrastructure companies. While it is easy to poke fun at the advisers who reaped eye-watering fees, more blame should lie with a State which is so often a hopelessly inefficient commissioner of tricky projects. The figures in this week’s National Audit Office (NAO) report are staggering. The £455 million bill to taxpayers before significant improvement has been made would have built half of the East London Line Extension that ministers have recently put back on the shelf. London Underground ended up almost seven times over budget through a typical combination of confusion and back-covering. The NAO describes the “delay and drift” as Whitehall failed to realise the extent of the work needed, and set over-optimistic timetables. The original budget for Freshfields and PricewaterhouseCoopers was £4 million apiece. In the end Freshfields was paid £29 million and PWC £21 million, despite both firms having started out agreeing to cap the number of hours they could charge. Freshfields had even agreed an average hourly rate for all its lawyers irrespective of seniority. But it eventually upped fees back to standard commercial billing rates: not just out of opportunism, but also out of frustration. The political need to justify privatisation, coupled with the unexpected persistence of London’s Mayor in challenging the project’s legality, led Whitehall to duck, weave and commission gold-plated analysis to make its case. London Underground felt that it was on such shaky political ground that it carried out 20 rounds of “consultation” and commissioned an extraordinarily detailed “public sector comparator” to try to show that privatisation would be cheaper than keeping the Tube in public ownership. The NAO concludes that this expensive analysis, including a shiny-sounding “Monte Carlo simulator” was unnecessary. Common sense disappeared in an orgy of spreadsheets and statistics. The Government’s reluctance to let the project fail also meant that at one stroke it added £275 million to the bill by underwriting the bidders’ costs. It also guaranteed to return at least 95 per cent of investor cash in the event of termination. This failure to transfer risk is a repeated feature of many large public projects. The Tube PPP is uniquely complicated and politicised. But similar mismanagement has afflicted many other public projects. The Jubilee Line Extension went £1.4 billion over budget and cost £250 million in consultants’ fees. Ministry of Defence and technology projects are repeatedly dogged by cost overruns. Advisers benefit from failures as well as from successes: last year, the Government admitted that it had not even requested fee estimates from the three banks and two law firms involved in restructuring British Energy. Most worryingly for the Tube, the NAO concludes that there is no certainty that part-privatisation will bring the promised improvements, even after all the expense. A new London Underground report concludes that Tube passengers will have to wait until 2025 for the network to be returned to a good state of repair. Unless the Government spends our cash more wisely, the Tube could run into the budget buffers before it has even set off.

ON TRACK FOR TRAM ROUTES Nottingham Evening Post 23 June 2004 The expansion of Nottingham’s tram system has taken a leap forward with Nottingham City Council approving a proposed route to Chilwell. But there are still issues to thrash out, reports LYNETTE PINCHESS Plans to build a tram route from the city to Beeston and Chilwell have been overwhelmingly backed by councillors. The ten-kilometre route would terminate at a 1,400-space park-and- ride site at Toton. It would take in the ng2 development site, University of Nottingham, Queen’s Medical Centre, Beeston town centre and Chilwell High Road. Yesterday city councillors approved the £160m scheme, following the county council’s support last week. A proposed route to Wilford and Clifton, costing a further £140m, was backed in April. Next month the two authorities will meet to consider submitting a Transport and Works Act Order to the Secretary of State in August - with the likelihood of a public inquiry in the spring. Pat Armstrong, NET tram project leader, said: “This marks another stage in a long process and we will continue working towards getting approval later this year from both councils for our application to Government.” The route would start from Nottingham railway station, passing homes in The Meadows, parts of Lenton, Beeston and Chilwell. But NET is keeping its options open on some sections of the route. Further investigations into noise and vibration will be carried out before deciding on whether to take the tram to the front or rear of the University of Nottingham’s Lakeside Arts Centre. Building to the rear would mean land being taken from properties in Greenfield Street and Highfield Road. Audrey Sellears, 82, and her 91-year-old husband Albert would lose 12ft from their back garden. Mrs Sellears said: “Why can’t they take it from the other side of the arts centre?” The university wants the route to run behind the centre because trams and traffic in front would be impractical. But spokesman Philip Dalling said: “We are urging NET to re-engineer that option so the land it takes would be university land and not gardens.” The route also has implications for matches at Beeston Hockey Club, off University Boulevard. After talks between sports leaders and NET officials, the alignment was revised, taking the track 5.3m to the north of the pitch and putting in a barrier to screen the tramway. But the club is opposing the plans until they have written consent. To allay the fears of Nottingham Tennis Centre and the Lawn Tennis Association, NET is proposing to put speed restrictions and noise barriers during major tournaments. About 8,750 detailed booklets went out to the public during consultation. Responses were received from 530 people. A further 197 gave feedback at an exhibition in Beeston Square. Petitions were submitted over the impact on properties in Chilwell Road, Beeston, and the route between Broxtowe College and Cator Lane, Chilwell. There would also be major changes at the QMC. The main building would be served by a tramstop but plans for an interchange at the hospital, where buses and trams stopped, has been dropped. Mr Armstrong said the geography of the site had caused problems. A QMC spokesman said: “This will be an exciting opportunity to radically improve the thousands of journeys to and from the site every day for patients, visitors and staff.” A new viaduct would carry the tram over the River Leen, QMC car parks and the A52 Clifton Boulevard before descending into Science Road in the university grounds. It would mean the loss of buildings housing Merrivale Nursery School and the university’s Play Centre. Widening Abbey Street in Lenton would see the demolition of six residential and four business properties in Abbey Street and Gregory Street. Beeston Square would change with the demolition of 14 retail units to make way for an integrated tram and bus station. The threat remains to Kings Meadow Nature Reserve if a tram and vehicle bridge is built over the railway at Lenton Lane. Notts Wildlife Trust has expressed concerns about losing half the reserve.

Controversial RAV line dead; RAV is dead. Again. Global BC, Canadian Press June 18, 2004 It was killed for the second time in an even closer vote than the last one. Only one Lower Mainland mayor - Coquitlam’s Jon Kingsbury - changed his vote Friday, so it wound up being a tie. It wasn’t enough to save the $1.5 billion megaproject. TransLink directors also considered two other Richmond-Airport-Vancouver rapid transit line proposals which featured less tunnelling, a major expenditure in the original proposal. But both of those proposals were voted down as well. Last month, the same board voted 7-5 against moving ahead with the original RAV proposal. RAV supporters got their hopes up after Premier Gordon Campbell and Transportation Minister Kevin Falcon said the province was willing to assume all risk for the project, but the promise wasn’t enough for some TransLink directors. “[Premier Gordon Campbell] never said he would deal with all funding shortfalls, he said he would deal with construction risks,” Burnaby mayor Derek Corrigan said after the vote. “I don’t know why the media is buying into this spin. He has not committed to dealing with the shortfalls.” Falcon was surprised by the board’s decision. “You really are left kind of shaking your head,” Falcon said. “Because at the end of the day, they apparently don’t want the province to make transit decisions, and yet they are incapable of making those transit decisions.” TransLink chair Doug McCallum said he didn’t think any other major Canadian city would have turned down the kind of funding that was offered for RAV. “I will tell you, literally, every big city mayor in Canada is shaking their heads in this decision,” McCallum said. “Every other city in Canada - the big cities, anyways - would grab this and run as fast as it can.” McCallum said it would impossible for TransLink to fund a similar project on its own, without funding from the provincial and federal governments. Opponents of the RAV line say it’s a Cadillac system the Lower Mainland can’t afford, and say ridership numbers are inflated. TransLink board members argued for five hours before the final vote, expressing concern about those ridership numbers and potential cost overruns. They said there is still a funding shortfall, although some directors felt a private sector partner could potentially remove that risk. Late Friday, the B.C. government said it would not attempt to take control of the project from TransLink. The transportation minister promised the money would be there for another project … just not right away. “There is no likelihood of those dollars being available prior to 2010,” Falcon said. “The reason is that we are not going to be inviting the world to the largest construction zone.” It isn’t clear whether money pledged by the Vancouver International Airport and the federal government would be available for another project. Vancouver mayor Larry Campbell said he suspected the money was gone, but Pitt Meadows mayor Don Maclean said he thought the federal government would keep the money on the table, if only in an attempt to assuage western alienation. “I suspect that if the federal parties, the federal candi