I have been invited to participate in a PLAN-Boulder County forum, “Does it Take a Village to Raise a Bus . . . or a Train?”

Aside from me, the panel will include:  Boulder Mayor Susan Osborne, Boulder Councilmember Matt Appelbaum, and City Planner Louise Grauer.  

The fireworks start at Noon on February 12 in the Creekside Room of the Boulder Public Library on Arapahoe Avenue.

Please join me for this important discussion regarding the future of FasTracks investments in Boulder and plans for the Boulder Transit Village.

A few weeks ago, addressing my Board colleagues, I noted it was highly unlikely I could support asking the voters in November of 2010 for additional tax support to complete the FasTracks program.  This was against my initial inclination, as I would prefer to get an early read from the public regarding their willingness to invest the resources to complete full build-out within the initial 2017 timeframe.  A win or loss at the ballot box would end the speculation and expedite planning for the agency’s future progress on FasTracks.

The way things are falling into place, though, it is clear that heading to the ballot box this year would severely handicap a favorable voter response.  It is unlikely that public confidence in the economy, a key success factor for votes on infrastructure initiatives, will turn around by the end of the year.  This also does not appear to be a good time to secure financial contributions toward another successful FasTracks campaign.  

In a signal that others recognize these same barriers, the Denver Post covered the comments of my fellow Board members regarding a potential 2010 election, http://www.denverpost.com/ci_14290768?IADID=Search-www.denverpost.com-www.denverpost.com, and followed-up with a editorial the next day, http://www.denverpost.com/ci_14306877?IADID=Search-www.denverpost.com-www.denverpost.com.

Delaying a future FasTracks vote likely will lead to increased costs for the program, as we will not be in a position to capitalize on the low construction rates available during this recessionary period.  Phil Washington also reports that there is a risk RTD will lose some of the talented staff it attracted due to the excitement of the FasTracks program.  These are all negative consequences of a delay in going to the voters, giving further weight to the gravity of this difficult decision.

The RTD Board is scheduled to make a formal decision regarding a 2010 vote in the next two months.  In the meantime, you can see the balance of issues at play and how I am leaning.  It would be great to hear your perspective on this matter as I move toward a final position.

.  .  . or, at least, it is making it’s final approach.

No matter how you slice it, the news RTD received from the Federal Transportation Administration yesterday is a big leap forward toward realizing the full vision of the FasTracks plan.  You can read about all the developments at the following link: http://www.denverpost.com/ci_14345646.  The summary, though, is that the federal government has agreed to take the following steps in support of the East and Gold train lines (collectively known as the Eagle project) and the Union Station project:

     – The President’s recently released proposed 2011 budget recommends $120 million dollars for the FasTracks program – $40 million dollars each for the East Corridor, Gold Line and West Corridor projects. 

     – In addition to these specific funding recommendations, the President’s budget also signals its intent to sign Full Funding Grant Agreements (FFGA) totaling about $1 billion for the East Corridor and Gold Line. 

     – The $40 million recommendation for the West Corridor is part of the full $308 million FFGA approved in 2009. 

     – FTA also announced the U.S. Department of Transportation’s approval of about $300 million in federal loans to help fund the Denver Union Station project.  

Our financial plans always calculated that we would receive this level of federal financial support, but it is great to see it coming to fruition.  The promise of a billion dollars in federal transportation funding was the basis of my agreement to the financial plan that committed RTD to fund the East line with most of the remaining FasTracks dollars we have available for the foreseeable future (which also led to my proposal for the the Regional Equity Compact Resolution:  http://www.johntayer.org/2009/09/19/the-regional-equity-compact-resolution/).  The upshot is that we can now move forward with three substantial elements of the entire FasTracks system.

Of course, none of this funding does anything to finance the two arms of the FasTracks system that are slated for Boulder County, the Northwest Rail line or bus rapid transit (BRT) service.  Securing these resources, without an intolerable waiting period, likely will entail further federal support and/or additional taxpayer funding.  I also will push RTD to explore other creative financing mechanisms and cost-cutting measures. 

However, now that we have a clear path toward financing the East and Gold lines in hand, along with the Union Station development, we know the Boulder County lines will not be competing for additional resources with those FasTracks projects.  The other benefit for our corridor is the confidence the federal government is demonstrating in RTD’s capabilities through these new funding commitments.  This bodes well for further federal support. And it serves as an encouraging vote of confidence for RTD and its ambitious FasTrax project.

The picture isn’t any brighter, but at least our challenge is much more clear . . . 

That is the best you can probably say about the 2010 Annual Program Evaluation (APE).  This document, which RTD prepares annually for the Denver Regional Council of Governments, provides the most recent snapshot of the financial picture and technical adjustments to the FasTracks program. 

You can access a summary of the 2010 APE document at the following link: http://www.rtd-fastracks.com/media/uploads/main/1_5_10_APE_Presv_Final.pdf. 

Most critically, the new APE finds that costs for the entire FasTracks program have dropped $400,000, to a total of $6.5 billion.  This cost reduction is due primarily to lower material prices and more refined system designs. 

Unfortunately, sales tax revenue continues to drop, as well.  The new estimates for the life of the program fell another $1.3 billion.   The resulting gap between revenue and costs for the FasTracks program is about $2.4 billion, $200 million more then previous estimates.

What makes this year’s APE particularly noteworthy is the great effort RTD staff made to test its financial numbers.  Specifically, you may remember that I previously advocated for a new look at RTD’s sales tax projections.  Staff responded by recruiting groups of subject-matter experts, in both construction cost inflation and sales tax revenue modeling, to scrutinize RTD figures.  As a result, this year’s APE numbers reflect the input from some of the area’s best forecasting minds.

So, as you can see, we still have a difficult financial hurdle to overcome as we work toward build-out of the FasTracks system . . . but at least there is reason for greater confidence that this is the hurdle, as we now have much greater confidence in the financial picture for the full program.

I am typically pretty focused in my transit advocacy, as an RTD Board Director, on influencing RTD policy.   However, when the actions of outside agencies threaten our transit goals, I feel it is my duty to speak-out.  Such is the case with respect to current maneuvers to complete the Denver metro beltway.

Specifically, proponents of the beltway are asking the Denver Regional Council of Governments (DRCOG) to add a significant roadway link to the Regional Transportation Plan (RTP), the Jefferson Parkway.  Getting the Jefferson Parkway in the RTP is the green light the project needs to begin moving toward implementation.  This includes securing the necessary financial support for what is designed to be a privately funded toll road.

You can learn more about the Jefferson Parkway proposal, including the many concerns communities like Golden and Boulder are raising, at the following links:  http://blogs.westword.com/latestword/2009/12/jefferson_parkway_a_weird_disc.php and http://www.denverpost.com/search/ci_13895972.  It was many of these same concerns that drove me to testify at the DRCOG public hearing regarding this matter.  Most troubling to me, the Jefferson Parkway will create the need for about $1 billion in additional roadway improvements, beyond what the private sector is offering to handle.   These are unfunded transportation needs that will compete with other critical projects, such as the HOV lanes for US 36 that are the foundation of bus-rapid-transit service between Boulder and Denver.

You can read my public hearing testimony at the following link:  Jefferson Parkway Comments.  The DROCG Board will issue a final decision regarding the proposal to add the Jefferson Parkway to the RTP at its meeting in January.  I am hopeful that they will send the beltway proponents back to the drawing board.

In case you didn’t see the news reports, the RTD Board decided to remove the word, “Iterim,” from Phil Washington’s job title . . . selecting him as our new General Manager.

Phil demonstrated excellent leadership over the past five months in his interim role.  There was no down period following Cal Marsella’s departure, as Phil showed my Board colleagues and me that he meets his commitments to action and that he takes personal accountability for results.  I feel these will be critical traits as RTD works to recover its public credibility in the face of our implementation difficulties with the FasTracks program.   

There are a number of other assets that made Phil the right choice for the permanent General Manager position, including his excellent employee relations skills, his thoughtful approach to implementation of the FasTracks program, and great motivational instincts.  Finally, something that is important to me, is Phil’s willingness to look beyond traditional solutions to the challanges we face.  What he terms, “out of the box” thinking, is what I believe we need more of at RTD to help us achieve the FasTracks vision and to address our other customer service and operations needs.

The General Manager search process was exhaustive.  We had many strong applicants from transit systems across North America competing to take the reins at RTD.  We also had excellent input from community stakeholders throughout the process, which helped to shape our perspective on the best candidates. 

In the end, we found what we were looking for right here at home.  Knowing all the qualities that he will bring to the position, as described above, I was pleased to join a unanimous vote of my Board colleagues in selecting Phil Washington as the new RTD General Manager.  You can read about the final decision at the following link: http://www.denverpost.com/search/ci_14006848.

It appears that others were pleased with the decision to hire Phil, as well:  http://www.denverpost.com/search/ci_14014125 and http://www.aurorasentinel.com/articles/2009/12/16/opinion/editorials/doc4b29761880419538728192.txt.  This is an important affirmation of the selection process and our choice.  Even better, though, is the statement Phil delivered following the Board vote:  Phil Washington Acceptance Statement.  It is a real testament to the type of leader Phil will be for RTD and the cause of enhanced transit service for the Denver region.

In case you haven’t been following it, the Denver Post published a recent column that was critical of the planned FasTracks investments:

Can FasTracks Be Saved: http://www.denverpost.com/ci_13573154?IADID=Search-www.denverpost.com-www.denverpost.com.

Just to offer a different perspective, here are two critiques that I think well articulate some of the deficiencies in the Denver Post column:

Don’t Throw FasTracks Under the Bus: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/paul-rosenthal/dont-throw-fastracks-unde_b_332455.html; and,

Spense Havlick Response to Denver Post.

I am sure there will be many other responses and counter-arguments to come, but I thought these two critiques were worth sharing.

I am pleased to report that, due to some unanticipated additional revenue for 2010, the RTD Board voted to preserve most of the service that was slated for cuts in January.  This includes the initial proposal to reduce service frequencies along Route 205, Route 228, and the Stampede.  The only remaining service efficiencies the Board approved were warranted due to low ridership rates.

I have been very clear, throughout this recent discussion of proposed service adjustments, that eliminating productive service should be among the last tools that RTD uses to balance its budget.  As I said to my Board colleagues during last week’s committee discussion:  “[Transit] service is our business.  Let’s hold the line on service and keep doing the job that we are sent here to do.”   I am pleased there was overwhelming majority support from my Board colleagues for keeping more transit service on the road.

You can read more about tonight’s decision following Daily Camera story: http://www.dailycamera.com/news/ci_13605938.

Today, in a unanimous vote, the RTD Board accepted the recommendations of the Pass Program Committee (a.k.a. The Eco Pass Committee) . . . officially ending the moratorium on the Neighborhood Eco Pass program.

Of course, termination of the Neighborhood Eco Pass program moratorium was just one facet of the Committee’s comprehensive recommendations concerning a future pricing framework for the Eco Pass programs.  The staff memo, that you can access at the link below, provides all of the details.  In summary, the Committee’s work establishes a method for using the ridership data from RTD’s future Smart Card system to price Eco Passes.  This new formula guarantees that RTD will receive a revenue return that directly correlates to the transit services it provides, while maintaining the bulk rate purchasing characteristics that make the Eco Pass program such a valuable tool for building ridership.

The most immediate impact of tonight’s RTD Board decision, though, is the agreement to lift the Neighborhood Eco Pass moratorium.  This will provide the opportunity to form new Neighborhood Eco Pass groups, beginning in 2010.  It also will enable existing groups to expand, something that I have heard is a pressing need for many neighborhoods.  Finally, aside from lifting the moratorium, another immediate impact of the Eco Pass Committee recommendations is the agreement that RTD will not raise the price for Eco Pass products, beyond an increase for all of RTD’s other fare media, until we begin collecting the Smart Card data.   

As I said tonight to my RTD Board colleagues, their acceptance of the Eco Pass Committee recommendations is a major milestone for the Eco Pass program.  It will help us to move beyond battles over ridership data and pricing and on toward getting more Eco Passes into the hands of more transit riders.  That is the next goal I look forward to pursuing!

For more information on these Eco Pass developments, check-out the story by Heath Urie in today’s Daily Camera: http://www.dailycamera.com/news/ci_13605358.

I can not end this post without a note of great appreciation to the many folks who worked to forge the Eco Pass Committee recommendations.  First and foremost, it was a working group of RTD staff along with representatives from the City of Boulder, Boulder County, the University of Colorado and others who did the heavy technical lifting.  Since the going wasn’t always easy, at either the staff or the Committee level, I also want to compliment the able facilitation of the Osprey Group principals, John Huyler and Dennis Donald. 

Finally, I extend a personal thanks to the Eco Pass Committee members, including fellow Board colleagues Noel Busck, Bill James, and Bill Christopher, along with Boulder County Commissioner Will Toor, Aylene McCallum from the Downtown Denver Partnership, Roger Armstrong from Capitol Hill United Neighborhoods, and Ken Burns from Smith-Barney.  They deserve great recognition for their patience with a long and complicated process.   I believe the end result, though, is testament to their valuable contribution.

Eco Pass Committee Reccommendations