Vancouver, WA/C-Tran Board: LRT vote will happen this fall Options

[Sloan]

http://www.columbian.com/news/2012/apr/10/...ll-happen-fall/

At least make the cross-river connection to Portland's TirMet.

Sloan

[KevinKorell]

The members in favor of the block prefer a broad public vote in November asking residents to help pay for light rail in Vancouver.
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[EvergreenRailfan]

http://www.columbian.com/news/2012/apr/10/...ll-happen-fall/

At least make the cross-river connection to Portland's TirMet.

Sloan

It would make sense. That is part of the long debate in getting the Columbia River Crossing done. Meanwhile the two bridges that carry Interstate 5 get older, one built in 1918, the other when Interstate 5 was built. It would make sense to just follow the TriMet model as much as possible, maybe even share maintenance facilities and rolling stock. If Washington DOT and Oregon DOT are working even more closely together with Amtrak Cascades, perhaps C-TRAN and TriMet could do the same. How good does the Bi-State model that MetroSt.Louis uses work?

Although not sure if the Representative from the 3rd Congressional District(Washington) was opposed entirely to this, but she was trying to get language in a Federal bill requiring a vote on the whole Columbia River Crossing project.(The 3rd is a swing district, changed parties a couple times in 15 years. The Redistricting Commission lopped off the Democratic leaning areas in and around Olympia to form the core of the new 10th District).

[KevinKorell]

If Washington DOT and Oregon DOT are working even more closely together with Amtrak Cascades, perhaps C-TRAN and TriMet could do the same. How good does the Bi-State model that MetroSt.Louis uses work?

The difference is that Metro St. Louis is a bistate agency, which in fact was once called the Bi State Development Agency. The latter administers not only the buses and Metrolink LRT on both the Missouri and Illinois sides of the Mississippi River, but also the transit system inside the Gateway Arch.

In the other case, you have C-Tran in Clark County, WA centered on Vancouver, WA and you have TriMet which serves the Portland, OR area. Perhaps this is where you need an RTA that oversees everything, to get the separate agencies to work together. You sort of have that in the Seattle area with Sound Transit, although the individual transit agencies remain and run their own transit lines along with those buses and the LRT run by Sound Transit. It may be the political boundary between 2 states that is holding things up with regard to C-Tran & TriMet working together.

In both the New York City and Philadelphia areas, there are different transit agencies working in both the cities and their respective New Jersey suburbs. In all cases there is no problem with buses or trains crossing the state lines to serve interstate passengers. But then we also have interstate transit operators PATH and PATCO which have little to do with NYCTA, NJ Transit, or SEPTA other than interfacing with them wherever they happen to connect.

[EvergreenRailfan]

Thanks.

One problem with funding is that what is used for funding Mass Transit in Washington State is not available in Oregon, the Sales Tax. Back when the Motor Vehicle Excise Tax funded mass transit, there was cheating going on, and Clark County was one place where it was possible, being on the border Outside of a few areas in this state, raising property taxes is a hard sell, and the funding mechanism for TriMet is not available in Washington State. When I see Clark County, I see that they have a potential to control growth, and not let the rural parts of their county get overrun, and they might be wasting it. One part of King County, Vashon Island is dependent on the ferry system for connection to the rest of the county, and one of the reasons no bridge was ever built, is the Islanders don't want one. They fear becoming another Mercer Island(heavily suburban, with the growth following the opening of the Lacey V. Murrow Bridge, and WWII). A simpler solution I always thought should be tried, but probably unworkable, is perhaps a merger of C-TRAN and TriMet. The tax problems again would surface, as a sales tax is dead on arrival in Oregon, and as in the recent case by initiative a few years ago, an income tax is dead on arrival with Washington Voters. (It even failed in King County) Although maybe if the case that TriMet's payroll tax may not exactly be an income tax, it might be an easier sell.

TriMet Payroll Tax

[Sloan]

http://www.columbian.com/news/2012/apr/29/...hey-were-promi/