Streetcars, express buses may precede regional rail

Triangle residents will need good local streetcars, trains and express buses before they need a proposed regional rail link between Durham, Research Triangle Park and Raleigh.

That's the emerging view on a three-county advisory panel of civic leaders who are drafting a list of transit priorities for the next 12 years.

In Raleigh, the short list might include trains running from downtown to northern Wake County, on former CSX tracks that parallel the city's crowded Capital Boulevard.

One priority for the western end of the Triangle is light rail or bus rapid transit service that could offer relief from the clogged U.S. 15-501 between Durham and Chapel Hill.

Wake, Durham and Orange officials ordered a rethinking of public transportation needs in August 2006, after the Triangle Transit Authority was forced to shelve its plans for frequent day-and-night service on a 28-mile track through the center of the region. Federal regulators said the TTA trains would not carry enough riders, and balked at covering half the $810 million cost.

The TTA plan has not regained favor since then among business and community leaders on the Special Transit Advisory Commission. They will begin listing their preferences Friday in a day-long meeting at N.C. State University.

"In terms of starting with Raleigh-to-Durham, nobody's talking about that any more," said Sig Hutchinson of Raleigh, chairman of the TTA trustees. "It's got too much baggage."

In February, the 29-member advisory panel is expected to give local officials its priorities for transit improvements to be built by 2020, and a second list to be built by 2035.

The list will be expensive. Bus and rail proposals proposed in 18 corridors could cost as much as $6 billion over the next 30 years.

Local leaders say they won't endorse new taxes to pay for transit projects until they see the advisory group's recommendations -- and justification of the economic and social benefits.

Smedes York, a developer and former Raleigh mayor who is one of the advisory panel leaders, wants to start with the eastern end of the TTA's proposed rail line. He envisions trains from north Wake to downtown on tracks now owned by the TTA. And eventually he sees trains from downtown through West Raleigh in a corridor owned by the N.C. Railroad, where the TTA has leased right-of-way and has bought land for rail stations.

York said trains on the old CSX tracks could ease congestion on the Capital Boulevard commuter corridor, and the transit service would stimulate an urban mix of commercial and residential growth along the line. The TTA's long line from Raleigh to Durham would not be as successful, he said.

"Even though there's a lot of traffic on I-40, it's a pretty long distance and there are probably not as many mixed-use and high-density locations in that stretch," York said.

A Raleigh-Durham connection will make sense later, maybe after 2020, York said.

George Cianciolo of Chapel Hill, a Duke University pathologist who is a co-chairman of the advisory group, agreed that a decision on the TTA line could be deferred for a few years.

RTP planning, too

Research Triangle Park leaders are updating their own plans for guiding growth and improving transportation in the park, and Raleigh-Durham International Airport is considering a transit link to RTP.

Rick Weddle, who guides RTP as president of the Research Triangle Foundation, said RTP leaders are focusing now on highway improvements to help commuters in the next few years. Regional transit projects must be planned with RTP in mind, he said.

"That doesn't mean we have to have the first connection," Weddle said, "but we would be opposed to any plan that doesn't include the park."

Even if the TTA plan stays on the shelf, there's a chance that RTP workers could get train service in the future.

The state-owned N.C. Railroad is looking at the prospect of adding rush-hour trains to the same tracks that now carry Norfolk Southern freight and Amtrak passenger trains through the Triangle each day. A consultant's recommendation is expected in June.

The Special Transit Advisory Commission will meet from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Friday at the McKimmon Center on Gorman Street at Western Boulevard in Raleigh.