Financing options for the Durham-Orange Light Rail Transit Project were presented to the Orange County Board of Commissioners last week during a regular meeting.
The presentation was made by Danny Rogers on behalf of GoTriangle, a state-sponsored public transit authority that started research on regional rail systems in 1992.
“We want to make sure that we figure out how to use the funds that [are] available to us more efficiently,” stated Rogers.
Local voters ratified a half-cent sales tax in 2011 to fund transportation initiatives like the project, which aims to install a commuter train corridor between Durham and Chapel Hill.
The cost of that corridor may be offset by federal low-interest loans that are permitted under the Transportation Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act of 1998.
“The TIFIA loan is a long-term loan that would start after the project is complete and we would be paying back over a long period of time,” explained Rogers. “The [low obligation bonds] would be shorter term and would happen while the project is under construction”
Commissioner Renee Price surmised that these loans and their interest rates may put indefinite financial obligations on residents of Durham and Orange counties.
“If you’re pushing it out and adding a loan, that means we’re paying interest for a longer period of time — way past probably when I’ll be here,” speculated Price.
The loan repayment timeline offered by Rogers would last over 40 years and account for over $2.4 billion in project costs — an estimate that increased from $1.3 billion in 2012.
“The TIFIA loan will be paid off, I believe, in 2062,” explained Rogers.
Thomas Farmer, a local resident, suggested to commissioners that those costs are trivial when compared to the value of the project and the benefits that it would provide to commuters.
“Currently, 10,000 people every weekday ride buses in the Durham-Orange corridor,” claimed Farmer. “This bodes quite well for light rail ridership.”
Bonnie Hauser, another local resident, asked commissioners to consider a bus rapid transit system as a more cost-effective way to address the need for regional public transportation services.
“Bus rapid transit costs a fraction of Durham-Orange light rail,” claimed Hauser. “For every mile of light rail, you can have 10 miles of bus rapid transit.”
Commissioners will reconvene on February 19 for further talks on the project and another plan to create dedicated bus lanes along a north-south corridor in Chapel Hill.
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