CRAVER'S COMMENTS

February 2006

IN THIS ISSUE

·         PLANES, TRAINS, AND AUTOMOBILES

·         WHO IS THE MVP?

·         WORLD RANKED

FUTURE ISSUES

        EVERY COUPLE OF MONTHS OR SO.  EMAIL YOUR COMMENTS  TO:  TONY.CRAVER@VERIZON.NET

ALSO, USE MY WEB SITE TO LOOK FOR HOUSES:

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THINGS TO BE PROUD OF

    DID I MENTION TO YOU THAT GRANDCHILD NUMBER NINE IS ON THE WAY? SHE (OUR THIRD GRANDDAUGHTER) IS DUE TO ARRIVE AT JEFF AND KIRSTEN’S HOUSE IN COLUMBIA, MO. SOMETIME IN MAY.

DID YOU KNOW?

     I DON’T USUALLY MENTION RUMORS BUT THERE IS A STORY OUT THERE THAT FIDELITY INVESTMENT GROUP OUT OF BOSTON IS MOVING TO RTP AND BRINGING 5,000 WELL PAID JOBS. I SURE HOPE THIS ONE IS TRUE.

PLANES, TRAINS, AND AUTOMOBILES

    If you know me well at all, you know that I love trains. Ask my grandchildren. My basement is full of trains and that is the first place they want to go when they come to visit “Papa”.  So naturally I was quite enthusiastic when the Triangle Transit Authority announced a number of years ago that we (the Triangle) would be getting our very own new train set to play with.  I proudly told many of you getting this newsletter that the eventual plan was to have a light rail system that started in Wake Forest and connected to Raleigh, to Cary, then on to the airport and Research Triangle Park. From there it was to go to downtown Durham and westward to Duke Medical Center and finally to Chapel Hill via South Square and Meadowmont. It sure did sound great and I could picture myself taking Saturday afternoon rides just for fun.

    The idea of the train was to take you to the plane (and to work and to shop) and cut down on the use of the automobile. Watching this plan try to take shape has been a long and painful process. When our two Senators recently announced that Washington no longer looked upon our train set with favor, it meant that it was no longer to be put in the Federal Budget. What happened?

    First let’s look at the “need” factor. The Triangle population of one and a quarter million people hardly ranks as a top ten urban area that you would associate with a light rail system. In fact, just two droughts back, the environmentalists in the area were blaming the drought on us real estate types for creating suburban sprawl. Forget the fact that it wasn’t raining. The other side of the coin shows the Triangle to be a unique employment area with major employment centers (UNC Medical Center, Duke Medical Center, RTP, NC State, and state government offices in downtown Raleigh) holding high densities of workers spread out over thirty plus miles. Also, throw in I-40 at 8:00 am or 5:00 pm, and this looked like the ideal situation for a connecting train.

    The problems began, as they always do, when the initial cost estimates began to come in. The first move by TTA was to see how they could scale back the project. Their first step was to delay implementation of the Wake Forest and Chapel Hill connectors at each end of the line. Then came long and unsuccessful negotiations with Duke to find a suitable station site within walking distance of the medical center. The result  of the unsuccessful negotiations was going to be a shuttle bus service from the station to the Medical Center. I think we already have that. It is called Durham city bus system. Eventually the TTA dropped the Duke Medical Center connection from the basic proposal.

     What were we left with? The last proposal is a light rail system that connects Raleigh to RTP and Durham with grade crossings. If a train runs every ten minutes, which it would need to do to get anyone to ride it, can you imagine the traffic jams that it would cause. The price tag is now estimated at over 800 million dollars. Considering the history of government sponsored projects, it is pretty safe to assume the cost to be more like one billion dollars. It is hard to imagine enough people riding this system- that doesn’t go where it needs to go-, to make an operating profit.  Plus, who is going to pay back the billion dollars.

     The scariest part of the whole mess is that the TTA already has spent over $146 million of your tax dollars to date and have absolutely nothing to show for it. It is fourth down and time to punt. I am going to miss it. I love trains.