Commuter Rail Takes Off; Cities Seek Federal Matching Funds

[Lunican]

This is a pretty in depth article about various commuter rail systems. Pros and Cons.

Commuter Rail Takes Off; Cities Seek Federal Matching Funds
The Bond Buyer
By Richard Williamson
December 18, 2007

With virtually every major city in the Southwest operating, building, or considering a commuter rail project, competition for federal dollars to match local bond money is gaining intensity.

Once the province of densely populated Northeast urban centers, commuter rail is seen as a companion to burgeoning light-rail systems in the Southwest as regional planning authorities seek ways to lighten the loads on overburdened highways and reduce air pollution.

Access to existing rails is also growing as freight haulers consolidate, leaving track time for passenger trains during the day. Commuter rail operators typically share their tracks with freight lines, making commuter rail a more affordable start-up proposition than light rail. But without federal subsidies, commuter rail is a non-starter.

"Twenty years ago, when the federal government was offering money for commuter rail, there weren't that many takers," said Robert Poole, director of transportation studies for the Reason Foundation. "What's happened in the last 10 years is that a lot more cities have applied, and a lot of them are not getting funding or are getting less than they expected."

In the third quarter of 2007, commuter rail ridership grew 5.4% over the same period in 2006, with the largest increases coming from Harrisburg, Pa. (50.2%), Oakland (16.2%), Oceanside, Calif. (12.8%), Dallas-Fort Worth (12.3%), and Stockton, Calif. (12.4%), according to the American Public Transportation Association.

Funding for new rail projects comes from the Federal Transit Administration's New Starts program. Since 2001, the FTA has approved 23 New Starts projects, eight of which were commuter rail ventures valued at $3.7 billion. The proposed budget for fiscal year 2008 includes $1.4 billion for the New Starts and $1.2 billion for 11 existing, two pending, and two proposed full funding grant agreements.

Last week, the FTA announced a $156 million full funding grant agreement to build a 40-mile commuter rail line from the town of Big Lake, Minn., to downtown Minneapolis. The federal funds are expected to cover about half of the costs of the commuter rail that will use the existing Burlington Northern Santa Fe tracks.

Officials in Houston are studying commuter rail on four possible routes, including a 45-mile commuter rail line to Galveston that could cost up to $412 million, with the financing split evenly between the federal government and the cities along the route that parallels Interstate 45.

"We're way behind most major cities when it comes to rail, so we're trying to get the system built as fast as possible," said Harris County Metropolitan Transit Authority spokeswoman Sandra Salazar. "That's why we're so aggressive in seeking these federal funds."

Proponents say the local funding for the Galveston line would come largely from the increase in property and sales tax generated by development around new stations along the line. A consultant's report estimates a tax-capture plan could generate up to $124 million.

With a ticket price set at the national average of $4.10, the report estimates passengers would cover about $14 million of the $18 million annual operating cost by 2030, with local governments covering the difference.

But as Houstone's Metropolitan Transit Authority recently learned, federal support for rail projects is not necessarily a slam dunk. Metro officials were taken aback recently when the FTA withdrew approval for two light-rail lines that were intended to replace a bus system. In a letter to the Metro, the federal agency also told the local officials that Houston would have to demonstrate its technical capability to develop light rail, even though a system already exists.

At an estimated $15 million to $25 million per mile to build, the commuter rail line would cost less than half of Metro's existing Main Street light rail line.

Houston currently operates only 7.5 miles of light rail, compared to 45 miles for Dallas Area Rapid Transit. DART also pioneered commuter rail in Texas, launching the Trinity Railway Express, the first commuter rail project in the southwest in 1996. From its original 10-mile segment, the Trinity Railway now links Dallas and Fort Worth, with a transfer station to Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport.

Now, both cities are working on direct rail links from their downtowns to DFW Airport. While DART is planning a light-rail line, Fort Worth Transportation, known informally as the "T," is creating a commuter rail link from the affluent southwest suburbs to the Mid-Cities suburbs and DFW to the northeast.

The 40-mile corridor is expected to cost about $400 million using existing freight tracks. The airport has agreed to build the station for both rail lines, and Tarrant County has agreed to issue $20 million of bonds to fund the project. The city of Grapevine at the northern end of the airport, has also passed a sales tax to fund the project.

Nancy Amos, spokeswoman for the T, said the agency will apply for federal as well as state funds, but would like to build the system without issuing new debt.

But, as with other transportation systems, cost for commuter rail are rising.

In Denver, where the Regional Transportation District is developing a 24-mile commuter rail line from downtown to Denver International Airport and an 11.2 mile northwest to Boulder, construction costs have soared dramatically since voters approved $4.7 billion to build the project known as FasTracks in 2004.

Present cost estimates of the FasTracks system come to $6.2 billion, due to rising cost of construction materials. To save $100 million, officials proposed using diesel-powered locomotives instead of overhead electric power. However, support remains solid for the environmentally friendlier and faster electric system.

Construction on both the DIA and Boulder lines are scheduled to begin in 2011, with service to both corridors starting in 2015.

The Denver project is part of a federal private program to evaluate public-private partnerships under the title Penta-P. The rail line to the airport will include funding from carriers at Denver International Airport.
Public-private partnerships like the one in Denver transfer responsibility for performing construction and operating responsibilities to a single private entity or a consortium of private companies rather than bidding out individual pieces of a government-run project.

"By partnering with the public-private sector you combine the best of both worlds to effectively and efficiently lower costs and decrease build times," U.S. Transportation Secretary Mary E. Peters said in a statement about the Denver plan.

In New Mexico, funding for highways is shrinking due to rising costs for a commuter rail project known as Rail Runner Express. Included in a $1.6 billion package known as Gov. Richardson's Investment Partnership. Named for Gov. Bill Richardson, Rail Runner was budgeted at $90.2 million in 2003. Now, the project is estimated at $425 million, a fact that has caused delays or cutbacks in road projects included in GRIP.

Overall funding for GRIP projects has fallen $500 million short of projected costs, officials say. In just five months, commuter-rail capital costs have grown by 33%, according to recent report to lawmakers.
With Rail Runner already operating Belen-to-Bernalillo with about 2,500 riders a day, the rail service is scheduled to reach the capital of Santa Fe to the north by late 2008, with operating costs at $20 million per year.

State Sen. John Arthur Smith, D-Deming, said that if lawmakers had known Rail Runner's eventual cost in 2003, it probably would not have passed.

New Mexico's problems with Rail Runner are not impeding a commuter rail proposal in Arizona, however. The Phoenix suburb of Tempe is spearheading a push for commuter rail service, producing a regional-transportation strategy map with three commuter options for rail lines. The commuter rail lines would support light-rail lines under construction from the southeastern part of the metro Phoenix area and into the city. Under an order from Gov. Janet Napolitano, the Arizona Department of Transportation is producing a study of how light rail might work.

Surrounded by states with commuter rail projects, Arizona considers itself the "hole in the doughnut" for mass transit. The state is particularly aware of California's popular commuter rail systems, Caltrain in northern California and Metrolink in the south.

Utah is way ahead of Arizona with a 44-mile commuter rail system called Frontrunner that is expected to begin service in April. The Utah Transit Authority last May sold $253 million of revenue bonds - the largest issue in UTA's history - to provide local funding for the $612 million project that will carry commuters from Salt Lake City through the northern suburbs to Pleasantville.

Unlike the Salt Lake City area, Austin lacks a light-rail system. But the Capital Metro transportation agency is preparing to launch a commuter rail system next year that will connect the rapidly growing suburbs around Leander to downtown Austin.

Capital Metro is touting the project as on time and on budget at $90 million, which includes $60 million of bonds approved by voters in 2004 and another $30 million for six rail cars. Cap Metro started its rail system with the heavier commuter train because voters rejected a light-rail system in 2000.

"If you compare it to light rail, commuter rail is going to cost quite a bit less," said Cap Metro spokesman Adam Shaivitz.

Indeed, Doug Allen, DART's executive vice president for program development, figures that light rail would have cost three to four times what the transit agency spent on the Trinity Railway Express.

The trickiest part of daily operations for the rail line is meshing the schedules of the 50 daily passenger train trips with the 10 to 15 freight trains that still use the track. Those freight operations, usually late at night or before the morning rush hour, can be lucrative, especially for cities like Austin that own the operators.

Allen, who led the effort to get Trinity Railway running, said the passengers enjoy a high-level of service with 98% on-time performance.

"I think it's been very successful," he said. "It wouldn't have been very practical to put a different kind of rail service in that area."

[thelakelander]

Good article.