By Ray Gronberg
gronberg@heraldsun.com; 419-6648
DURHAM -- Triangle Transit has hired a consultant to prepare the ground for a new request for federal subsidies to build some sort of rail system for commuters to link the region's key cities.
The consultants come from URS Corp., a large, San Francisco-based firm that's also been hired to operate a toll road the N.C. Turnpike Authority is building between RTP and Holly Springs.
On the transit front, the company's been asked to perform an "alternatives analysis" federal regulators would demand before they'd consider a subsidy request from Triangle Transit.
The consultant who will spearhead the work, Bill Houppermans, told officials from Durham, Wake and Orange counties Friday that the study will take a bit more than a year.
It should lay out the merits for commuters of existing road and transit programs, potential non-rail improvements like the addition of commuter lanes to the region's freeways, and a full-blown rail network.
Regulators will want to see that local officials have studied all potential solutions and come to a consensus about what package of investments would most benefit the region, Houppermans said.
"We're not walking through it with a presumed answer," he said, adding that the consultants would soon be checking in with local governments and soliciting comment from the public.
Houppermans also said it's "very difficult" to assemble the sort of regional consensus federal regulators like to see, to the point it's taken transit supporters in some states several tries to get it right.
That was not necessarily news to the local officials he briefed on Friday, who are in the midst of their second attempt to hammer out a plan the Federal Transit Administration would deem worthy of so-called "new starts" money.
The first fell through in the summer of 2006 after it became clear the FTA wouldn't fund it. Officials at the time blamed the failure on moves by the Bush administration to tighten ridership-driven funding guidelines.
But Triangle Transit General Manager David King said the region's failure to earmark a significant amount of local money to the project "was [a] more important" contributor to what happened in 2006.
King added that local leaders would likely have to call and pass referendums on a local-option sales-tax surcharge to help pay for a system before the feds seriously consider a new subsidy request.
"They will want to see our money on the table before they put in their money," he said.
Officials appear unlikely to call a referendum this year, thanks to the economy, but are looking at dates in 2011 and 2012.
In addition to preparing the ground for federal regulators, officials are plainly hoping the URS-led review of local transit planning helps clear up some of the disagreements about the best strategy for connecting the region.
The sharpest of those concern whether there a rail network should use one technology, most likely light rail, from end to end or mix and match heavy and light carriages to different parts of the region.
Durham Mayor Bill Bell has emerged as the leading backer of a single-technology solution, but Triangle Transit officials don't think ridership or revenue numbers will support that.
Houppermans said it's by no means uncommon for systems to mix and match, given that few people actually need to ride them end-to-end.
But "building the best possible system needs to be a goal, or we won't be competitive with other regions," he added.
Bell had no quarrel Friday with the consultant's approach. "I'm glad you made that point," he told Houppermans.
The mayor added, however, that U.S. Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood and other Obama administration figures have made it clear to him that they intend to reward proposals that "think regionally [and] act regionally."
