Two Triangle mass transit projects get favorable nod from the feds. Will money follow?
Plans to bring a new kind of mass transit to Raleigh and Chapel Hill got a boost this week from the federal agency that will be asked to provide a big chunk of the money.
The Federal Transit Administration released ratings for dozens of proposed transit projects nationwide, including bus rapid transit or BRT lines along New Bern Avenue in Raleigh and in Chapel Hill between Eubanks Road, UNC Hospitals and Southern Village. BRT is a bus system with some of the features of light-rail, including stations with raised, covered platforms and kiosks where riders buy tickets before boarding.
The ratings help the FTA ultimately decide which projects get federal money. The Chapel Hill BRT proposal received a “medium,” the lowest rating required to be considered for federal assistance, while the FTA rated the Raleigh plan “medium-high.”
“A medium-high is really good,” said Will Allen III, who represents Raleigh on the GoTriangle board and serves on the Capital Area Metropolitan Planning Organization. “It doesn’t mean you’re going to get federal funding, but it puts you in the running.”
Chapel Hill is in the running, too, said Matt Cecil, the town’s transit development manager. “You want to have the best rating that you can,” Cecil said, “but it meets the necessary qualifications.”
The FTA ratings are based on several factors, including cost effectiveness and the potential benefits to mobility, congestion and economic development.
The GoRaleigh BRT plan for New Bern Avenue rated “high” for the amount of money the local agency is planning to spend. GoTriangle estimates the 5.1-mile line will cost $71.5 million to build and expects to ask the federal government for a little less than half. Nearly all of the rest would come from a half cent sales tax that Wake County residents approved for transit projects in 2016.
The GoRaleigh proposal received lower marks for improving mobility, congestion relief and economic development.
The 8.2-mile North-South BRT line in Chapel Hill is expected to cost $141 million, and the town is hoping the federal government provides $100 million of that, Cecil said. The town will ask the state to provide $27 million and says the rest would come from local sales tax for transit, rental car taxes and vehicle registration fees.
Ratings alone are not enough
A decent rating from the FTA is no guarantee a transit project will succeed. The agency gave the $2.7 billion Durham-Orange light rail project a medium rating in 2017 and again in March 2019, even with opposition from Duke University, escalating costs and uncertainty over how the trains would move through downtown Durham. In the face of those and other challenges, the GoTriangle board voted to end the project a couple of weeks later.
Cecil said the town expects to get a detailed report from the FTA on how it calculated the rating for the BRT project.
“That can help ensure that our rating remains as it is or gets better moving forward in the process,” he said.
Bus rapid transit systems are much cheaper to build than light rail or commuter rail but provide some of the same benefits. In addition to stations and prepaid tickets that ease boarding, BRT buses will travel in their own lanes for much of their routes and be given priority at intersections, helping them move better in traffic.
The New Bern Avenue line is one of four planned to radiate from downtown Raleigh under the Wake Transit Plan, endorsed by voters in 2016. Others would follow Capital Boulevard to the north and Western Boulevard to the west toward downtown Cary.
The path of the southern route between Raleigh and Garner would follow either South Saunders or South Wilmington streets. The city will kick off planning for the southern route with two public open house meetings, on Feb. 20 at the Garner Senior Center, 205 East Garner Road, and on Feb. 24 at Victory Church, 2825 South Wilmington St. The open houses will run from 4 to 7 p.m., with presentations at 5:30 p.m.
