After spending most of the past two decades drawing plans for a three-county rail transit network - and then scrapping them - Triangle Transit rolled out a mix of learned lessons and new ideas last week for trains that could help serve and shape heavy regional growth expected over the next 25 years.
Wake, Durham and Orange county residents are being asked at public meetings to evaluate two corridors singled out by engineers as strong candidates for the Triangle's first light-rail train service.
"We're trying to identify the pieces to start with that will deliver the most benefits and that we actually can afford to build," said David King, Triangle Transit's general manager.
In the spring, county commissioners are expected to consider transit plans that could be submitted to the Federal Transit Administration next summer and to voters next fall.
Triangle Transit's first plan to run diesel rail cars from Durham to Raleigh fell apart in 2006, lacking enough projected riders to justify the federal investment. The idea also had weak local political and fiscal support.
The new plan will switch to electric-powered light-rail trains matched with a beefed-up bus network.
Light rail adds options to move trains out of cramped freight railroad corridors and into the roadways as streetcars that might operate much like systems in San Francisco. And that opens up new paths the trains could take in downtown and West Raleigh, and between Chapel Hill and Durham.
Instead of squeezing into a junction in Raleigh called the Boylan Wye - a clogged intersection for Amtrak, freight and planned high-speed passenger trains - Triangle Transit now figures its tracks will climb overhead on a long bridge, and then hit the street.
"The trick is trying to get through the wye," said Martin Stankus, a senior planner for the city of Raleigh. "That's a challenge."
Possible routes through downtown Raleigh include twin tracks down either Harrington or West streets - or one-way tracks running north on Wilmington and south on Salisbury.
A Triangle Transit map of West Raleigh suggests a light-rail route that would take trains to arena events at Carter-Finley Stadium and the RBC Center on Trinity Road in a loop that includes Youth Center Drive and Edwards Mill Road.
Triangle Transit had planned since 1990 to start with a rail line through Research Triangle Park, serving the Triangle's employment hub and connecting both ends of the region. But its new analysis reaffirms what the Federal Transit Administration concluded in 2006 - RTP and its ring of office parks lack the housing density and around-the-clock activity to keep the trains busy.
So, at public meetings last week and this week, Triangle Transit officials and consultants are explaining that the first light-rail trains will not run through the region's suburban center. The two most promising corridors are about 20 miles apart in the western Triangle and Wake County:
Northwest Cary through N.C. State University and downtown to Triangle Town Center in North Raleigh, 18 miles. It rates high in projected rider counts, job and housing density, development potential, and capital costs compared to the number of weekday transit trips.
UNC Hospitals in Chapel Hill to Alston Avenue in downtown Durham, 17 miles. It rates high in rider counts, low-income residents who are more likely to depend on transit, and capital and operating costs. This corridor is rated weak in housing density and development potential.
In a fall 2011 referendum, Triangle voters are expected to consider approving a half-cent sales tax - which would add 5 cents to every taxable $10 purchase - that would cover a large share of new bus and rail costs.
King and Triangle Transit's consultant, URS Corp., figure that local voters and federal officials are most likely to support building the first light-rail lines in parts of these two corridors.
Commuter rail
Triangle Transit is also boosting prospects for a limited kind of region-wide rail service that was not in the cards a few years ago. Commuter trains pulled by standard diesel locomotives are proposed to run from west Durham to the Wake-Johnston county line. These trains would operate on weekday rush hours, every 30 or 60 minutes, and make stops in RTP.
"Commuter rail makes sense as the way to connect Durham and Raleigh in the short and intermediate term," King said.
Link to airport
Triangle Transit is also publicizing a plan sketched by the Raleigh-Durham Airport Authority for an eventual link between RDU and the region's rail transit network. The airport would pay for the plan, which is little more than lines on a map at this point.
It would start with buses and graduate to the rail-based, automated people movers popular at major airports. The transit line would connect the airport to Triangle Metro Center, a proposed rail-bus hub at RTP. It would stop on the way at an RDU rental car center to be built west of Aviation Boulevard.
"The airport authority knows we need to connect to the rail system, and this initially seems like the best plan to do that," said Mindy Hamlin, RDU spokeswoman.
