[bouldercouncilhotline] Hotline: FasTracks update

[cmosupport at bouldercolorado.gov]

Sender: Appelbaum, Matt

Colleagues,

There were two important FasTracks meetings last week.  The first was a special meeting of the US 36 Mayors and Commissioners Coalition (MCC) with RTD, and the second was with the FasTracks Futures Task Force (FFTF) of the Metro Mayors Caucus.

I've attached the minutes from the FFTF meeting, which includes the RTD presentation.  I'll add a few comments:


*        The minutes begin with a summary of Don Hunt's (CDOT) remarks regarding a regional sales tax increase that would potentially be part of any RTD ballot issue.  As I noted before, I have some very serious concerns about this, but it seems clear that CDOT is quite interested in pursuing it.  It would need legislative approval.  Oddly, while one of my main concerns is that such a regional tax would, inevitably, result in current CDOT funding to be even more skewed away from Denver metro, the legislature usually shuns regional CDOT taxes because they feel that Denver metro would then be less likely to later support a statewide transportation tax.  Regardless, we may need to watch this carefully and be able to act quickly.  In the minutes, under "questions for Don," I asked the first two questions, and you'll see (accurately) that none of the four questions that were asked got solid answers.

*        RTD provided some very early concepts of alternative (to NW Rail) scenarios, as we had asked.  This does not mean that the MCC has, in any way, decided whether or not to agree on supporting an alternative approach - but those conversations will be held over the next 45 days.

*        Option #2 continues to fund NW Rail but delays it, while providing early/better funding for corridor bus service.

*        Option #3 removes NW Rail from FasTracks, replacing it with some combination of alternatives (a few ideas are proposed) that provide significantly expanded BRT service in the corridor.

*        The MCC asked for, and apparently got, an extension to a March 1 (from an absurd Feb. 1) "deadline" to come to consensus on which, if any, approach to support.

*        With the possibility that some form of BRT would now serve the eastern county, I've discussed with Mayor Cutler of Lafayette the need for them to join in the MCC discussions.

*        Although nothing has been decided, it seems clear that the MCC will require, at a minimum, that the capital and operating funding that is allocated for NW Rail (before the huge cost increase) be "guaranteed" to be available, in a timely manner, to the corridor.

*        There is also a serious question as to how the corridor would be treated if a tax increase failed.  Current plans would indicate that we'd get no additional funding for BRT and no rail until 2042 (or, I would expect, much, much later, if ever).  That isn't acceptable.

*        There are many details that will need to be worked out.  Just as an example, it seems that RTD's alternative BRT proposals show the bus heading up Foothills Parkway instead of 28th St.  I've already spoken with Tracy Winfree about this; clearly we'd want a 28th St. connection with even better/faster bus service, and (I think) a managed lane (with noise barriers!) all the way to Baseline.

*        The very last page of RTD's presentation is important to consider.  It shows the cost per rider of all of the incomplete FasTracks corridors.  Important note: even though it doesn't say so, these costs, according to RTD, are all normalized (as the MCC requested) to remove inflation.  NW Rail has long been harmed by using costs that include the inflation caused by building our corridor last; in other words, NW Rail gets to eat all of the inflationary costs due to going last, instead of having those costs spread out over the entire system.  Unfair thought that clearly is, at this point it will be hard to undo the damage.  And - even worse - the uninflated costs (according to RTD) on this chart indicate that NW Rail is still extremely expensive, at least per rider (the cost per mile is "reasonable"; there just aren't enough riders).  And, remember that the service is 30-minute headway at rush hours and 60-minute otherwise, with no easy way to increase that regardless of ridership, since BNSFS makes the rules.

Please let me know if you have any comments or concerns.  We'll probably need to talk about this at one or more upcoming council meetings since things are moving so quickly and it is essential that we as a council are as united as possible on a preferred approach.  Whether the MCC corridor can reach consensus remains to be seen, but I'm optimistic that we can.
--Matt
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: 1-11-12 FTTF Meeting Record.pdf
Type: application/octet-stream
Size: 3218792 bytes
Desc: 1-11-12 FTTF Meeting Record.pdf
Url : http://list.ci.boulder.co.us/pipermail/bouldercouncilhotline/attachments/20120117/e39b9a95/attachment.obj