H -°, L 7° | Tomorrow: 
H 17°, L 4°In the third set of community meetings regarding a possible future Regional Transit Authority in Dane County, citizens voiced their concerns Monday regarding a proposed commuter rail.
According to Dick Wagner, co-chair of the Finance Governance Committee of Transport 2020 and host of the discussion, an RTA could support a regional system of many different modes of transportations.
If approved, Wagner said the RTA would provide a commuter bus which will outline county communities and a new commuter rail system which will travel through the core of the metropolitan area.
“There would be more recourses that we can devote to transit rather than the fights we’ve been having to barely keep transit going with raised fares in the sort of equation where transit is frankly in jeopardy at the moment,” Wagner added.
However, the transit system will force an additional half-cent tax on Dane Country residents.
The project, according to Wagner, which will cost the county $250 million, might be funded in part by the federal government. The other half of the cost will be from the resident tax increase, Wagner said.
Dane County resident Bill Richardson said traffic congestion throughout the county is already bad enough, and the addition of an RTA will only add to the problem.
He said the county is apparently not allowed to construct any more highways, so he does not understand how ramming a train into the center of the city, especially because it will stop thousands of times throughout the day, will help traffic congestion.
Additionally, he questioned whether the potential money being used for the RTA will be issued in a cost-effective manner.
Wagner said the rail system will be a beneficial transportation method for University of Wisconsin students, adding it will stop at three major landmarks in the campus area: the UW Hospital, the Kohl Center and near the engineering campus.
Deb Schwartz, a Dane County resident, said she is a taxpayer struggling to make ends meet each week who has heard the downtown area buses are never filled. She added even if the RTA is approved, it does not mean student and Dane County residents will ride the commuter rail and bus systems.
“From the feds down, it’s got to stop,” she said. “We’re all going bankrupt, and they have to realize it.”
Bruce Speight, member of the state advocacy organization of Wisconsin Public Interest Research Group said Dane County needs to update its transportation system to keep pace with the 21st century.
He said Americans waste about $900 billion on automobiles each year, and they have an addiction to oil and gasoline.
“We need to face and work to solve the big transportation problem that we are,” he said.
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Bill Richardson is making no sense. The point is that if public transit were more convenient, less people would drive, REDUCING congestion. Honestly, do these people think?
Why are we so worked up over this tax, anyways? Sales taxes are also paid by visitors to the region. Isn’t it better for visitors to help fund our transportation network, instead of pushing the cost entirely onto property owners (as we do now, through property taxes)?
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Suggest that you go look at www.thegreattrainrobbery.org site right side “Crossings per day” chart you will see that 8,000 RR crossings a day between 6 a.m and 11 p.m of the 60 streets along the proposed Train routes will result in tens of thousands of cars, trucks, emergency vehicles idling as they wait for the trains to cross their streets. The Diesel powered trains with their own huge carbon footprint are predicted to carry less than 1% of the commuters (5,500 people) but stop traffic 100% of the time for those who must drive. And that make sense to you?
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The transport 2020 plan is about trains. We will have 5500 daily riders and we are going to spend $255M (in 2003 dollars) to put them on trains when we could spend $44M (in 2003 dollars) to have them ride buses, with access closer to origins and destinations with fewer transfers.
The train option is for the University and government workers. While I am a staunch supporter of the University, the expenditure of hundreds of millions of dollars to bring those employees into work is offensive, especially in light of the substantial needs in the County/MPO area. Downtown Madison is losing its share of overall employment (for a host of reasons) and the idea that a train will bring employers downtown is wishful thinking. I�d love to know how many downtown government workers have moved out of County and are using van pools�a much more taxpayer friendly and efficient way to provide public transportation than either bus or train. Dane County employees who work downtown are paying about $18. a month for parking in the government ramps which assures that those folks will continue to drive to work (many of them have meetings into the night and don�t want to stand alone at a cold lonely train station) even if gas is $5+per gallon and they drive a Prius.
I do not believe the T2020 Committee is enthusiastic about taking the Thrive maps and doing a genuine transportation needs analysis based on regional growth. If that was the case, T2020 would be having conversations with a very different group of people.
It appears to me that the current approach is to defend a position that was taken some years ago, that there should be trains because there are tracks.
I was glad to hear Dick Wagner say that that the Committee will supply answers, because using the actual Transport 2020 report shows that buses are the best most cost effective means in our bus-sized city/county.
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Important to have bike trails, bike parking and transit accomodate bikes. Madison is becoming very bike friendly with lots of bicycle commuters - these bikers do everyone a favor by leaving their cars at home - lets do even more bicycle commuting!!! PS great way to lose a few pounds and a few years..