Durham Officials Approve Light Rail Transit Plans

The Durham County Board of Commissioners has opted to climb aboard the light rail bandwagon with a unanimous vote of approval for the proposed multibillion-dollar transit system.

Imminent deadlines for federal funding applications made that vote critical for GoTriangle, the regional public transportation authority whose plans for local commuter trains may finally be realized.

Speaking on behalf of GoTriangle to board members on Monday, senior manager John Tallmadge explained that the eleventh hour is upon all parties involved in the light rail approval process.

“On Friday, [the] GoTriangle Board of Trustees will consider both plans and the cost-share agreement,” he reported. “If all of them are supportive, later that day, we will submit all documentation to the Federal Transit Administration so that they have the full compliment of information to consider for making a decision to allow us into the engineering phase.”

Key changes to the cost-sharing plan of the project were also noted by Tallmadge, who announced that private donors have tacitly agreed to pay a portion of the $3.3 billion required to fund it.

“The key changes, then, are in the cost split from the 82/18 [percentages] to 81-and-a-half percent, Durham, 16-and-a-half percent, Orange, and 2 percent from private sources — this is a combination of in-kind private donations,” he noted.

According to board chair Wendy Jacobs, a group of over 20 private citizens and public officials called the Funding and Community Collaborative may contribute $100 million toward project costs.

“This group has set a goal of committing to raise $100 million in private and foundation money for the light rail project and this is supposed to help us offset a lot of the, maybe, unknowns that we face,” she relayed.

The potential impact of those donors was not lost on Ellen Reckhow, a commissioner and GoTriangle trustee whose support of the anticipated 17-mile rail corridor has remained steadfast.

“Durham didn’t get a worse deal; it’s actually slightly better, and we also went down a bit […] on the borrowing split,” she affirmed. “It helps us actually, particularly through the years that we’ll be trying to fund commuter rail.”

Donors notwithstanding, Durham County is now obligated to pay for its share of project costs by producing over $1.55 billion, which is unacceptably expensive to local resident James Chavis.

“We know what’s going to happen, so many of us — another tax increase on the poor for a rail system that’s not going to support all of us, but can only support some of us,” he declared.

Chavis believes that the project may force businesses and residents to relocate due to gentrification, but commissioner Heidi Carter expressed her desire for the county to avoid such developmental pitfalls.

“I’m trying to think about some of the comments from people who are perhaps not in favor, or think they’re not in favor of this light favor, and that’s one, is, ‘No, I just think it’s going to gentrify the area,'” she mused. “We’re really going to have to work to mitigate against that, and we’re going to have to stay very committed to that, I think — otherwise, the skeptics, they’ll be right.”

The same issues will be covered this Thursday by the Orange County Board of Commissioners, whose vote on whether to approve the project will finally decide its fate after years of planning and deliberation.

Render from GoTriangle.

Durham Officials Approve Light Rail Transit Plans

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