Regional rail rises from dead

Citizen panel wants trains for $2 billion, more buses

RALEIGH -- A three-county citizens advisory group agreed Monday to push for an ambitious transit expansion that would increase local and regional bus service and spend $2 billion to launch trains across the Triangle by 2020.

Fifty-six miles of tracks would carry trains with commuters, students, shoppers and sports fans from Chapel Hill to Durham, Research Triangle Park, Cary, downtown Raleigh and North Raleigh.

Triangle voters would cover about half the cost if they agree to two new levies -- a half-penny sales tax and a $10 annual car registration fee, or their equivalent. Members of the Special Transit Advisory Commission also agreed to push for 25 percent funding from the state and 25 percent funding from Washington.

"I think we have a consensus for a 2020 plan, and a consensus that we need to find the money to make it work," said George Cianciolo of Chapel Hill, a Duke University pathologist who is co-chairman of the 29-member advisory panel.

The test of that consensus will come later this month when the group's recommendations are put in writing and circulated for public comment. Wake, Durham and Orange officials, who expect to receive the plan in early March, will be tested on their willingness to support new local taxes for transit projects that might not prove their worth for many years.

The advisory group of business and civic leaders was asked to plan transit corridors that would improve mobility options and shape urban growth patterns across a three-county suburban region that is expected to add 800,000 residents by 2030.

Everything and more

Triangle political leaders called for a fresh look after the Triangle Transit Authority's 28-mile rail project was shelved in 2006 after 11 years of planning. Federal regulators said the $810 million Raleigh-to-Durham line would not serve enough riders to warrant the taxpayers' heavy investment. Local political and financial support for the TTA project was weak.

Meeting Monday at N.C. State University, the transit advisory panel endorsed everything the TTA proposed to do -- and more.

Joe Bryan, a Knightdale Republican who is chairman of the Wake County commissioners, was taken aback by the group's ambitions.

He and other political leaders had expected the transit panel to focus first on the cities and later on a rail link between Raleigh and Durham.

"They have doubled the TTA plan," he said. "And to get it all done in 12 years, that is bold."

Wake County has other pressing needs, Bryan said. It could use a new sales tax to support school construction.

"What becomes the highest priority for an additional sales tax? Will it be transportation, or will it be education?" Bryan asked.

A big local share

He said he'll reserve judgment until he sees the details in a few weeks. It may not be easy, he said, for taxpayers to take on a big share of transit costs and accept that the federal government share will be smaller.

The group's recommendations include rough concepts for rail transit lines through the center of the region, better bus service, and shuttles that would circulate in Research Triangle Park and provide a quick connection to nearby Raleigh-Durham International Airport.

Many details are still to be worked out in a report to be drafted by Feb. 22 and approved at the advisory panel's final scheduled meeting on Feb. 29. The proposals will be delivered to mayors, city council members and county commissioners who serve on the Triangle's two regional transportation planning boards.

The panel calls for money to:

* Extend new bus lines and improve existing bus service with at least 120 new buses. The region now has about 250 public transit buses.