February 21, 2007 

Dickerson Resigns; Wiedefeld Named MTA Administrator

Following the resignation of Lisa Dickerson, Acting Transportation Secretary John Porcari named Paul J. Wiedefeld as MTA Administrator. As one of five administrators reporting directly to Porcari, Wiedefeld will be responsible for the day to day operation of the Department of Transportation's second largest operating unit and the 10th largest transit agency in the country when measured by passenger trips. Wiedefeld is currently employed by the transportation consulting firm PB as a vice president. Immediately prior to that he headed the Maryland Aviation Administration, a position to which he was also appointed by Porcari. As a consultant Wiedefeld has been involved in many of MTA's signature initiatives, including the 1999 Transit Advisory Panel which established a 20-year goal of doubling transit ridership in Maryland; the 2000 Maryland Comprehensive Transit Plan; the 2002 Baltimore Region Rail System Plan; and the on-going Red Line study. He recently provided staff support to the General Assembly's Transit Funding Steering Committee which issued a report last month. GBC's President & CEO Don Fry, speaking on behalf of the BTA, called Wiedefeld "the ideal professional to put MTA back on the path to success."

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General Assembly Considers Transit Funding, Public Input

With the bill filing deadline passed last week, the tally of transit-related bills under consideration by the General Assembly has grown to 19. BTA is tracking 12 which primarily address either funding for transit or public input into the decision-making process. The funding bills are a reprise of the 2006 session, with a few important changes that provide some indication of the sponsors' thinking. Each proposal focuses on the state sales tax, now at 5% and committed to the General Fund. Two bills would increase the sales tax to 6% with varying shares of the increase dedicated to transit. A third bill would allocate a portion of the existing sales tax revenue. In a letter to Senate Budget and Taxation Committee Chair Ulysses Currie, GBC's Don Fry expressed his appreciation for the sponsors' interest in increasing funding for transit but opposed the walling off of transit funding within the Transportation Trust Fund and the lack of a comprehensive solution to transportation funding needs. Another bill of note is HB 1130 which would limit MTA's liability in a tort claim to $1 million. MTA's liability in currently unlimited, in contrast to other state and local government agencies. BTA will support this bill because of the burden unlimited liability places on MTA's contractors and consultants, particularly small and minority-owned businesses.

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Denver and San Francisco Expand Light Rail Systems; Eugene, Oregon Implements BRT

The Denver region expanded its light rail system late last year with the opening of 19 additional miles of track. The $880 million T-REX project includes four new grade-separated, double-tracked lines along I-25 and I-225 in the southeast portion of the region, and was completed in concert with 17 miles of highway improvements. The project includes 13 new stations, 6,000 parking spaces, 34 new light rail vehicles, a maintenance facility, and a state-of-the-art centralized control center. Over the next decade the system will continue to expand with funding from a regional sales tax. In San Francisco, the new T-Third light rail line began limited operation last month. The 5.5-mile line replaces a heavily-ridden bus line connecting the low income neighborhoods of Bayview and Hunters Point with downtown San Francisco, rapid transit lines to the East Bay, and the rest of the city's 70-mile light rail network. After 10 years of planning and construction, Eugene, Oregon began service on a 4-mile Bus Rapid Transit line. Known as EmX, the line has a number of light rail-style features such as attractive stations, signal priority, level boarding, median stations, and a 60% dedicated right of way. The service is expected to be faster and more reliable than the bus service it replaces. The EmX project cost, including a fleet of 63-foot articulated buses, was $24 million.

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