Wake touts transit plan

Taking a train from Clayton to Durham might sound futuristic, but a proposed Wake County mass-transit plan has room for such fantasies.

Johnston County’s metropolitan neighbor is shopping a $2.3 billion bus-and-rail transit plan that could be operational by 2027. Garner is the closest stop mentioned in the first phase of the plan, but Johnston County stops in Clayton and Selma could be in future phases.

Wake County officials presented their transit plan to the Johnston County Board of Commissioners earlier this month, detailing the short- and long-term goals for making the Triangle more connected. The plan aims to expand transit service in the region by quadrupling Wake County bus lines, laying a 37-mile commuter rail from Durham to Garner and building light-rail line from Durham to Chapel Hill. On the periphery are expansions into Johnston County to the east and Alamance County to the west.

The transit plan would be built on a half-cent sales-tax increase that Wake County residents will vote on this November. That tax hike would bring in nearly $1 billion over 10 years. Other funding sources include increases in car-registration fees and federal, state and local spending. Most of the money – $1.6 billion – would build rail lines, acquire land and buy buses and trains.

Heavily congested interstates are driving Wake’s pursuit of a transit plan. Tim Maloney, Wake County’s director of planning and development, told Johnston commissioners that ongoing construction work on the Triangle’s major arteries would be inadequate.

“This map considers planned road improvements and is still over capacity,” Maloney said, referencing a 2040 map of Raleigh-area traffic.

To alleviate some of that congestion, Wake proposes two rails systems and 83 miles of bus service, including a north/south, east/west rapid-transit lines that would intersect in downtown Raleigh. While Wake County will pay for and use the vast majority of the proposed system, Maloney said it hopes the region, including Johnston County, will buy in.

“Commuters don’t stop at the county line, Maloney said. “Johnston County is a big part of that. For this to be successful, it needs to be something commuters feel better about using. Some people don’t have an option except to use public transportation, but we need others to see it as beneficial. We need choice riders.”

The role of choice riders is more supportive than financial. Fare-box funding, or revenue from riders, is expected to total just 4 percent of operating expenses; local funding would make up 48 percent. Commissioner Allen Mims of Clayton questioned the extent to which local government would have to subsidize regional transit.

“This will be heavily subsidized by public money,” Maloney said. “Transit systems don’t pay for themselves, or private businesses would be doing it.”

At the outset, Johnston County wallets wouldn’t pay for any part of the plan, with higher car-registration fees coming only from Wake, Durham and Orange residents. Down the line, though, it would likely take Johnston County funding to bring light rail to Clayton and points east.

Clayton Councilman Butch Lawter often mentions a light-rail stop near the town. With Wake County’s plan the closest to reality so far but still years away, Lawter remains hopeful.

“It doesn’t take long driving on I-40 to wish you had other options heading into Wake County,” Lawter said, speaking for the thousands of Johnston residents who commute west daily. “It would be a nice thing for people to be able to use to travel into Raleigh and RTP.”

Lawter said Johnston County has no real transit options, and he sees demand to connect Clayton to Smithfield and then Clayton to points west. He thinks growing environmental concerns might help push for better county transit, even if it isn’t light rail.

“There’s a need now,” he said.

This story was originally published February 12, 2016 at 7:10 AM with the headline "Wake touts transit plan."