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November 14, 2005
Transit Funding Plummets in Draft MDOT Budget A recent analysis prepared by BTA concludes that even in the wake of a 2004 transportation revenue increase, the draft MDOT budget shows a 22% decrease in funding for MTA through Fiscal Year 2011. MDOT's six-year capital budget is down 7% overall, but comparable reductions to the highway program are only down 6% indicating a significant shift in funding priorities. In the MTA maintenance category the decrease is even more extreme: funding for "system preservation" falls 35% from $275 million to $179 million for the six year period. By Fiscal Year 2010, funding for highway maintenance is more than 100 times higher than for transit maintenance. Planning funding for the Red and Green Line of $243 million is the single largest project in MTA's budget; the second largest is bus replacement at $96 million. To see the BTA analysis, click here.
Red Line Public Workshops Underway With three of five public workshops completed, MTA is getting an ear full on its Red Line alternatives. The workshops are centered around small group discussions of short segments of the 10-mile corridor. MTA has prepared plans, typical sections, and photosimulations that show in a variety of formats how the concepts would operate. Public comments so far are very diverse, with more support for high quality, faster options that include tunneling. The new information also shows eliminated alignments that turned out to be infeasible due to engineering reasons or community impacts. The workshops conclude this month, and MTA has committed to return early next year with an analysis of the input and further refinements to the drawings. For information on the meeting locations, click here.
Voters Approve Five of Seven Ballot Initiatives on November 8 Voters in communities across the country approved five of seven ballot initiatives on funding for transit, according to the Center for Transportation Excellence. By far the largest was a $2.9 billion bond issue approved by New York State voters, one-half of which will go to transit services in New York City. Voters in Washington State, Colorado, and Ohio also approved measures. In Livonia, Michigan, voters decided to withdraw from the bus system serving suburban Detroit. In Seattle, the beleaguered monorail line was essentially killed when voters failed to approve a measure authorizing the construction of a shortened line.
Orange Line BRT Opens in San Fernando Valley The Los Angeles region added a new route to its rapid transit system with the October 29 opening of the Metro Orange Line, an exclusive busway built along a former freight rail line. The Orange Line provides an east-west link between the terminus of the Red Line subway in North Hollywood and Woodland Hills. Buses travel the 14-mile route in 42 minutes, serving 13 stations built with amenities comparable to the region's rail lines. The project included 3,200 parking spaces, public art, a parallel hiker/biker trail, and a fleet of state-of-the-art buses powered by compressed natural gas. The total project cost was $349 million which, on a per mile basis, is comparable to Baltimore's Light Rail line. For more information, click here.
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