The Four Towns’ Mayors and LNTC leaders have crafted a draft statement on strategies for advancing the North Commuter Rail line, including a joint CATS/LNTC search for non transit revenues and a scale back in the scope of the project.

Also the statement includes recommending a staged construction of the Charlotte streetcar to provide a link between the existing Blue Line and the Gateway Station.

According to CATS data, the current projection of transit sales tax revenues indicates that there will not be sufficient revenues to fund both the Northeast/Blue line extension and the North Commuter Rail line.  As the sales tax is vulnerable to economic fluctuations, it is difficult to project this revenue long term, given present economic uncertainty.

This reveals a fundamental problem in the current sales tax as the funding source for transit construction and operations which needs to be addressed.  The Metropolitan Transit Commission (MTC) should review the composition of the sales tax as well as the current operational/capital investment allocations to determine whether structural changes are needed.

Furthermore, there are steps which could be taken to preserve the ability of the MTC to finance its projects.  These steps follow:

1.  Recommit the MTC to a system approach to constructing the five lines to include the streetcar and adopt a sequencing of priorities, with an explicit commitment that should the Northeast line be chosen as the recipient of currently available revenues, then the North line will be next in line for funding.

2. Authorize an immediate engineering reevaluation of the scope of The North  Line with the purpose of removing components to reduce the overall cost, thereby, making the North Line eligible for the Federal Small Starts program.   In addition:

a.  Initiate formal discussions with MTC/CATS ‘partners’ to further reduce costs by asking developers to absorb costs of transit stops to include parking, right of way and platform construction;

b.  Open formal discussions with Norfolk/Southern to determine additional cost savings to be realized by reducing the scope of the project;

c.  Evaluate a phasing approach to construction of the North line, seeking revenues from Federal, State or other sources as they become available

3.  Begin a concerted lobbying effort with the North Carolina Congressional Delegation, the North Carolina Department of Transportation and other interested parties to push for changes in the upcoming reauthorization of the surface transportation legislation to give strong consideration to economic development and job creation aspects for project eligibility.  Also, continue to advocate for the Northeast and North lines with NC DOT and Legislative leaders, while emphasizing that the North line is a ‘shovel ready’ project with both short and long term economic benefits for State and local governments.

4. Following the future decision to construct the North line, consider phasing of construction of the streetcar 1) to provide a link between the Gateway Station and the Blue line 2) to consider streetcar extensions to Central Piedmont Community College and Johnson C. Smith University.

The LNTC pledges to continue our partnership with MTC as we find alternative ways to build the LYNX system in order to fulfill the promise made to the voters of Mecklenburg County on two separate occasions.