Saturday, September 6, 2008
Hiawatha as Pork?
Again, the process doesn't always fund necessity so people have to go around the system...
Major Paper Backs Rail in Hawaii
The Honolulu Advertiser says voters in the city should go for rail. They also call out the opposition for being misleading. What a concept.
No Transfer
The highway trust fund is out of money. But they aren't going to take from the mass transit account, just borrow from the general fund. Hmm the general fund never pays for highways. Wait a minute...
Ma Peters derided earmarks as the reason for the shortfall. I think earmarks have gotten a bad name in the transportation world and is a catch phrase used by all for waste. However, its hard to complain about earmarks when they are actually being used to circumvent awful policy, such as the one discussed below where highways get 80% funding and transit projects less than 60% funding.
Yeah there are some bad earmarks, but I bet she would lump in bad transit earmarks with ones that are made because of her awful New Starts policy.
Ma Peters derided earmarks as the reason for the shortfall. I think earmarks have gotten a bad name in the transportation world and is a catch phrase used by all for waste. However, its hard to complain about earmarks when they are actually being used to circumvent awful policy, such as the one discussed below where highways get 80% funding and transit projects less than 60% funding.
Yeah there are some bad earmarks, but I bet she would lump in bad transit earmarks with ones that are made because of her awful New Starts policy.
Thursday, September 4, 2008
Related Comedy
From Seinfeld.
- George: I'm, uh, I'm an architect.
- Vanessa: Really. What do you design?
- George: Uh, railroads, uh...
- Vanessa: I thought engineers do that.
- George: They can...
Why LA Won't Get 80% Federal Funding on the Gold Line
Contrary to popular hopeful sentiments from local officials we discussed the other day, getting 80% just isn't possible for the Gold Line. After being challenged over on Bottleneck blog by Damien Goodmon (Fix Expo) on my assertion that today federal projects have to have 50% local funding to get funded, maybe 60% if you have a good ridership project that can cover your ratings, I found a GAO report that stated what I remember hearing was true.
Last year, in response to language contained in appropriations committee reports, FTA instituted a policy favoring projects that seek a federal New Starts share of no more than 60 percent of the total project cost—even though the law allows projects to seek up to 80 percent—in its recommendation for FFGAs. According to FTA officials, this policy allows more projects to receive funding and ensures that local governments play a major role in funding such projects. FTA describes the 60 percent policy as a general preference; however, FTA’s fiscal year 2005 New Starts report suggests that this policy is absolute in that projects proposing more than a 60 percent federal New Starts share will not be recommended for an FFGA.They will not fund anything over 60%. That is unless you make a deal like Salt Lake City where they will pay 80% for one project but it will equal 20% for all projects. Hopefully this helps folks realize that while highways still get 80% and bankrupting their funding account, the mass transit account has only been allowing 50% or less matches over the last 4 years. It's actually been lower in certain instances with Dulles asking for 30%. Why the feds are able to kill that project when they aren't even close to the majority financial stake is beyond me.
China Numbers Update
This isn't minor planning:
According to statistics, China plans to build 65 urban rail lines with a total length of 1,700 km through pouring a huge sum of CNY600 billion into UMT construction through 2015, In light with its near term UMT development layout. In the past several years, the three Chinese metropolises of Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou all have advanced in a rate of building 30 to 50 km annually.50km (31 miles) annually?? Per city?? Imagine if we built 50km of subways annually here. Obviously they have some issues with environment and antiquities but this type of investment and movement is surely amazing to the United States which takes ten years to build a line.
Rising Property Values
The issue of rising property values is a blessing and a curse at the same time around new transit lines. On one hand, rising property values show improvement and that the line is making the area more desirable. On the other hand, rising property values show improvement and make an area so desirable that current residents get pushed out.
But it can help both if planned appropriately. If you know what happened in previous situations, you can plan for accommodating all parties. The value captured due to the infrastructure investment could pay for the transit, or even new affordable housing offsets. This is the possibility in Calgary, where property values rose 628%. That is double what housing prices rose in general. Amazing.
H/T to PC
But it can help both if planned appropriately. If you know what happened in previous situations, you can plan for accommodating all parties. The value captured due to the infrastructure investment could pay for the transit, or even new affordable housing offsets. This is the possibility in Calgary, where property values rose 628%. That is double what housing prices rose in general. Amazing.
H/T to PC
Wednesday, September 3, 2008
An Investment
Annually the New Starts program funds about $1.7 billion in ongoing projects around the country. Chump change. Check out Public Transit in Ottawa. They are discussing a $4 billion dollar investment in the city. $425 billion is the adjusted cost of the federal highway system. Certainly would be higher today because land costs much more. However look at the investment in Toronto, Canada.
Toronto is planning a $55 billion dollar transit investment. Our cities are hardly discussing a few billion per region in transit over the next 20 years, yet Toronto is planning a steady $2.2 billion a year for 25 years. Some of it is quite controversial such as an east west subway line, but its interesting that they are talking about a multi-year investment for a single city that is larger than the federal share of funds for all cities in the United States.
Toronto is planning a $55 billion dollar transit investment. Our cities are hardly discussing a few billion per region in transit over the next 20 years, yet Toronto is planning a steady $2.2 billion a year for 25 years. Some of it is quite controversial such as an east west subway line, but its interesting that they are talking about a multi-year investment for a single city that is larger than the federal share of funds for all cities in the United States.
Sports References in Transit
Growing up I was asked by my uncle if I was a Niners fan or a Cowboys fan. Yes I mostly grew up in Texas but of course I replied Niners due to the fact that you couldn't even call my Noni's house during a 49ers game and my mom always told me that Nono (read grampa) went to games at Kezar stadium. So when the game was on we were watching. So imagine my smiles when I saw this reference in the home of the Cowboys. Bill Walsh would be proud.
Michael Morris, transportation director for the North Central Texas Council of Governments, calls it an example of the "West Coast offense." The approach, which Morris says is used in some western states, calls for pooling money from various revenue sources for use on whatever transportation projects are most needed. Currently in Texas, each source of money is dedicated to a specific use, such as motor fuel taxes being devoted to build highways.
Expect to see more "West Coast offense" in North Texas, especially if the Legislature approves a plan being assembled by local officials to finance a regional rail transit system.
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