Wynn to resurrect light rail
AUSTIN News 8 Austin Staff - 10/25/2007
Austin Mayor Will Wynn is calling for a November 2008 election to build a Central Austin passenger rail system.
The announcement happened at the Mayor's annual State of Downtown luncheon on Thursday.
"Every peer city that's worth their salt has passenger rail service," he said.
The proposed rail line would connect Austin Bergstrom International Airport, downtown and the University of Texas, along with the Triangle and Mueller developments.
Back in 2000, voters shot down a plan for 52 miles of light rail.
"It took a lot of political courage for him to stick his neck out and make this proposal," Nancy Burns of the Downtown Austin Alliance said.
Under his plan, Wynn said there would not be a need for a new tax to pay for the trains. Instead the system would be paid for and run by a committee of city agencies, developers and private entities. Wynn also hopes the airport, which is doing well financially, can help with the burden.
"It benefits passengers, it benefits employees and I think the airlines and the airport operation will recognize the value," he said.
Wynn wants to assign a task force to come up with the cost, technology and logistics.
Creative financing between public and private entities would avoid a property tax increase.
Wynn hopes the task force can complete its projection in six months so an election can be held in 2008.
This light rail proposal through Central Austin is completely separate from Capital Metro's commuter rail line through Williamson County down to Austin.
Voters approved a commuter rail in 2004 and the trains are set to launch in Fall 2008.
For more information: Light Rail Now is an Austin-based nonprofit that promotes mass transit systems in cities across the globe.
Read more and watch video on News8 Austin
Showing posts with label Capital Metro. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Capital Metro. Show all posts
Thursday, October 25, 2007
Wednesday, June 6, 2007
Commuter rail to cost twice the estimate in campaign
New contracts bring total to more than $10 million annually
By Ben Wear - AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF - Tuesday, May 22, 2007The Capital Metro board awarded a $112 million contract Monday to Veolia Transportation Services Inc., a French company, to run the agency's freight rail and commuter rail operations for the next six years and four months.
The initial cost to run commuter rail is $9.4 million a year, including separate debt payments for its rail cars: almost twice the $5 million annual operating cost estimate shared with the public during the 2004 campaign to approve the 32-mile line from Leander to downtown Austin. The line will begin operations in late 2008.
The operating cost could be higher if Capital Metro, as some board members want, brings all commuter rail workers under the agency's umbrella and union pay scale rather than having them work directly for Veolia. Furthermore, Rich Krisak, Capital Metro's rail manager, said the numbers do not include fuel costs. Capital Metro will pay those directly, including an estimated $700,000 annually to fuel the diesel commuter rail cars initially.
Taken together, that would bring the first-year operating cost to $10.1 million.
Right Track PAC, a political action committee that worked closely with Capital Metro during the 2004 election, said in a widely disseminated mailer during the campaign that "Cap Metro estimates the new commuter rail system will cost approximately $60 million in capital and construction costs, and will require an additional $5 million annually to operate the trains and to lease-purchase the rail cars."
"It's pretty clear that from the beginning, Capital Metro has been deceptive at best, lying at worst, in their presentation to the public of the cost of this commuter rail system," said Jim Skaggs, a retired high-tech executive who has opposed Capital Metro rail ventures for the past decade. "This just confirms that they can't afford to continue on the way they have."
Capital Metro spokeswoman Andrea Lofye, when asked about the increased costs, said, "First of all, we don't know who Right Track PAC was. What we put out had different costs. . . . Our operating costs in the Veolia contract are on par with our own independent estimates for commuter and freight services."
Right Track PAC's chairman was former Austin Mayor and now state Sen. Kirk Watson, a Democrat. Its treasurer was former Austin City Council Member and longtime civic leader Lowell Lebermann Jr. According to a "Long-Range Transit Vision Update" released by the agency in May 2004, "Initial operating costs are estimated at $5M — including lease-purchase of vehicles."
The $112 million bid award to Veolia includes:
• $35.6 million for commuter rail, not including the cost of the rail cars.
• $61.5 million for freight rail operations, beginning in October. Capital Metro has another subcontractor handling freight rail operations on its track, primarily runs to and from the Marble Falls area to haul rock.
• A $14.6 million contingency, or 15 percent of the total, for the company. Krisak said much of that contingency is in place to account for possible quick growth in both the commuter rail and freight rail systems. Capital Metro's six cars will handle just 2,000 passengers a day, running primarily at rush hour.
The payments to Veolia are based on an hourly rate, however, and would increase if the agency decides to run the commuter rail service on an all-day basis or extensively on weekends.
The agency is considering ordering more cars.
bwear@statesman.com; 445-3698
Commuter rail costs
• $35.6 million of the $112 million bid is for commuter rail.
• First-year operating cost would be $5.2 million.
• Agency has $4.2 million annual payments to retire rail car debt.
• Fuel would cost $700,000 a year initially.
By Ben Wear - AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF - Tuesday, May 22, 2007The Capital Metro board awarded a $112 million contract Monday to Veolia Transportation Services Inc., a French company, to run the agency's freight rail and commuter rail operations for the next six years and four months.
The initial cost to run commuter rail is $9.4 million a year, including separate debt payments for its rail cars: almost twice the $5 million annual operating cost estimate shared with the public during the 2004 campaign to approve the 32-mile line from Leander to downtown Austin. The line will begin operations in late 2008.
The operating cost could be higher if Capital Metro, as some board members want, brings all commuter rail workers under the agency's umbrella and union pay scale rather than having them work directly for Veolia. Furthermore, Rich Krisak, Capital Metro's rail manager, said the numbers do not include fuel costs. Capital Metro will pay those directly, including an estimated $700,000 annually to fuel the diesel commuter rail cars initially.
Taken together, that would bring the first-year operating cost to $10.1 million.
Right Track PAC, a political action committee that worked closely with Capital Metro during the 2004 election, said in a widely disseminated mailer during the campaign that "Cap Metro estimates the new commuter rail system will cost approximately $60 million in capital and construction costs, and will require an additional $5 million annually to operate the trains and to lease-purchase the rail cars."
"It's pretty clear that from the beginning, Capital Metro has been deceptive at best, lying at worst, in their presentation to the public of the cost of this commuter rail system," said Jim Skaggs, a retired high-tech executive who has opposed Capital Metro rail ventures for the past decade. "This just confirms that they can't afford to continue on the way they have."
Capital Metro spokeswoman Andrea Lofye, when asked about the increased costs, said, "First of all, we don't know who Right Track PAC was. What we put out had different costs. . . . Our operating costs in the Veolia contract are on par with our own independent estimates for commuter and freight services."
Right Track PAC's chairman was former Austin Mayor and now state Sen. Kirk Watson, a Democrat. Its treasurer was former Austin City Council Member and longtime civic leader Lowell Lebermann Jr. According to a "Long-Range Transit Vision Update" released by the agency in May 2004, "Initial operating costs are estimated at $5M — including lease-purchase of vehicles."
The $112 million bid award to Veolia includes:
• $35.6 million for commuter rail, not including the cost of the rail cars.
• $61.5 million for freight rail operations, beginning in October. Capital Metro has another subcontractor handling freight rail operations on its track, primarily runs to and from the Marble Falls area to haul rock.
• A $14.6 million contingency, or 15 percent of the total, for the company. Krisak said much of that contingency is in place to account for possible quick growth in both the commuter rail and freight rail systems. Capital Metro's six cars will handle just 2,000 passengers a day, running primarily at rush hour.
The payments to Veolia are based on an hourly rate, however, and would increase if the agency decides to run the commuter rail service on an all-day basis or extensively on weekends.
The agency is considering ordering more cars.
bwear@statesman.com; 445-3698
Commuter rail costs
• $35.6 million of the $112 million bid is for commuter rail.
• First-year operating cost would be $5.2 million.
• Agency has $4.2 million annual payments to retire rail car debt.
• Fuel would cost $700,000 a year initially.
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