RTD is in the midst of wrestling with budget challenges that are forcing the agency to consider a proposed $12 million in bus and rail service cuts.  The initial menu of cuts that staff presented attempts to eliminate low performing routes and run periods while considering a variety of other factors, such as regional equity.  The full staff proposal is available here: Proposed 2012 RTD Service Cuts.

You can read about my initial response to the proposed service cuts in the Denver Post coverage from a recent RTD Board meeting:  “RTD staff backs bus, light-rail cuts to close budget deficit“.   Fundamentally, as I said in the article, the service reduction proposal is the “most powerful rationale for making (RTD’s) revenue stream more sustainable.”  That is why I spearheaded the effort to identify operating efficiencies and revenue enhancements through the Long Range Fiscal Sustainability Task Force.  The Task Force recommendations (which are available here: Sustainability Task Force Report) provide a host of options that the RTD Board and staff are assessing for implementation over the course of the next few years.

In the meantime, as RTD confronts an immediate $12 million funding gap, service cuts and fare increases are the only two significant budget-balancing options.  I have received a great deal of comments regarding the service cuts that RTD staff is proposing and share your concerns about protecting the Boulder area’s high performing local and regional routes.  We must ensure that RTD truly is making the best use of its limited transit dollars, as I explained in a recent Daily Camera article: “Boulder fears ‘profound impact on transit’ — including Skip, Jump routes –from RTD cuts“. 

In the coming weeks, I will be making the case for a more targeted focus on service optimization in the face of necessary service cuts.  I also will work with my RTD Board colleagues to identify funding which will help us maintain the most possible service during these challenging economic times.  Your continued input is appreciated during this analysis period.

After much wringing of hands and gnashing of teeth, the RTD Board voted last week not to pursue voter approval for additional FasTracks funding in 2011.  The full story is available here:  Denver-area voters won’t see FasTracks sales-tax vote in November.  In summary, by a nod of 13-1, the RTD Board bowed to overwhelming indications of weak support this year for such a tax increase initiative.

For those who read my recent newsletter (which you can access through the following link:  April FasTracks Newsletter), I felt there were a number of good reasons for going to the voters this year.  Additional financial support for FasTracks would help us take advantage of low construction costs and would be an immediate catalyst for new job growth.  Further, and most important to me, additional tax financing would accelerate the completion of FasTracks, bringing bus-rapid-transit and commuter rail service to Boulder County much sooner than we can with existing resources.

Of course, we would achieve none of the above benefits if voters rejected a sales tax increase for FasTracks in 2011 . . . and that is what the political consultants, financial supporters and the public were telling us would happen.  Staff did a wonderful job summarizing the case against a FasTracks vote in 2011, as you can see here: RTD Staff Recommendation – 2011 Ballot Initiative.  In the end, the vast majority of my Board colleagues agreed with the staff recommendation and decided this was not the year to seek additional funding.

I note that the RTD Board took the unusual step of passing a resolution explaining its decision regarding a 2011 FasTracks ballot initiative.  The full text is available here:  Resolution Concerning a 2011 FasTracks Election.  In a key closing line, the resolution states, “The Board has adopted a financial plan which assumes a 2012 election and the Board will make every effort to comply with that plan.”  In other words . . . watch for us in 2012!

The date for a decision on whether or not RTD should go to the ballot in 2011 for additional resources to finance FasTracks came and went on March 8.  To be precise, the RTD Board voted to give the question more thought . . . until our May 3 meeting.

The main reason for the delay was some disappointing polling data we recently received.  As has been reported by the Denver Post, http://www.denverpost.com/search/ci_17669390, only 43 percent of the participants in a survey of likely voters said they would support a sales tax increase of 0.4% for FasTracks.   These numbers were surprising in light of earlier poll results that indicated 58 percent support for such a measure.  The new poll results also had a chilling effect on the perspective of some important stakeholders.  For example, we recently received a letter from John Huggins, the Executive Director for an organization that calls itself the Coalition for Smart Transit, stating, “[W]e do not believe that 2011 is the year to ask for any tax increase.” 

These recent polling numbers and the opinions of stakeholders are good arguments to hesitate on moving forward in 2011.  However, along with my fellow RTD Board colleagues, I believe we owe it to the public to give this matter more thorough consideration.  As the Denver Post also reported, http://www.denverpost.com/search/ci_17569950, we intend to further review all the polling data and to consider other “triggers” before making a final decision on a 2011 ballot initiative. 

Stay tuned (and feel free to continue sharing your input) . . .

As the Denver Post reported on Monday, ”RTD delays decision on how much to request from taxpayers,” the RTD Board decided to wait until its March 8 meeting before making a final decision on seeking a proposed tax increase for FasTracks in 2011.  The primary reason for this delay is the notice we received from some key stakeholders, like the Metro Mayors Caucus, that they need additional time to prepare their recommendations on a possible tax increase initiative.

In the meantime, others already have weighed-in on this matter.  According to those who responded to initial polling, 58 percent of the public would approve a 0.4% sales tax increase that completes the entire FasTracks system by 2018 (it actually won’t be complete until 2019 under that tax increase scenario).  Most interestingly, public support drops for a lower tax increase rate which takes longer to complete the full FasTracks system.  In the words of David Kenney, the person responsible for the most recent poll, “For most people, the value of time is as or more important than the amount of the tax increase.”

Regardless of what the polling appears to be telling us, the Denver Post is urging RTD to show some restraint.  In their editorial, “Don’t overreach on FasTracks tax,” the Post editors argue that RTD should not double the FasTracks tax in light of other competing public needs.  They even make light of those who are concerned that a lower tax increase will leave folks along the Northwest Rail Line waiting far too long for their promised FasTracks benefits.  “[I]s seven years really such an intolerable delay for a project that was first approved by voters in 2004 and wouldn’t be finished even in the best of circumstances for at least seven more years?”

More opinions on this matter are sure to come from all corners of the Denver region in the next few weeks, but I particularly hope to hear from my District O constituents.   So please feel free to drop me a line or post a response to this blog message.

In one of the more audacious knocks to regional cooperation, Denver is making a bid for taking $7 million in funding away from transportation projects in Boulder County in order to cover the cost of their $25 million in desired improvements at the intersection of Peoria Street and Smith Road.  Here is the full story, as reported in the Daily Camera:  http://www.dailycamera.com/ci_17406342. 

Denver’s “unprecedented” last-minute bid for funding would upset the scoring system the Denver Regional Council of Governments (DRCOG) uses to appropriate federal transportation dollars.  This scoring system gives fair weight to funding requests from all communities around the region and includes flexibility to address regional equity concerns. 

Most egregiously, Denver specifically targets funds for Boulder County transportation initiatives in order to achieve its project goals.  This includes funding for enhanced Bolt bus service between Boulder, Lyons and Longmont along with support for the Lyons community Eco Pass program, which could be a model for the region.

In my own testimony last week before the DRCOG Board of Directors, which includes representatives from all cities, towns and counties across the metropolitan region, I registered my strong objection to Denver’s proposal.  By way of comparison, I noted that the RTD Board would lose trust with the citizens if we abandoned our criteria for allocating bus service in favor of arbitrary decisions.  I urged the DRCOG Board to keep trust with the citizens by relying on its established criteria in the allocation of federal transportation dollars.

I am hopeful that rational heads will prevail in next month’s final vote by the DRCOG Board.  It appears some are seeking a middle road that could satisfy both Boulder County and Denver funding goals.  In the meantime, you can register your own thoughts on this matter through the DRCOG web site at:  http://www.drcog.org/index.cfm?page=2012-2017TransportationImprovementProgram(TIP)PublicHearing.

To those of you who are tired of loging into my District O web site every day to see if there are any new posts (and I know there must be somebody like that out there ( : ) . . .

You can now get post alerts via Twitter.  Just click on this link and start following all the latest RTD District O news: http://twitter.com/rtdtayer.

As the RTD Board approaches its preliminary decision regarding a potential ballot initiative to increase the FasTracks tax, we are beginning to receive feedback from some of our local public officials and editorial writers.

This Monday, Sean Maher wrote an excellent piece in the Daily Camera, “FasTracks needs more fuel“.  While Sean wants to make sure that RTD is accountable for its commitments, he argues for a vote on the full 0.4% sales tax increase in order to finish the FasTracks buildout by 2018.  “2042 is just too long to wait,” he concludes, which is the time it will take to complete the FasTracks program without additional resources.

Meanwhile, the vast majority of mayors from around the region expressed similar support for the 0.4% sales tax increase.  They were responding to polling results that indicate higher public approval of a tax that will complete the FasTracks system in a reasonable time period.  According to a story in the Denver Post, which you can access here, pollster David Kenney found that voters just want to be told “what it costs to get it done while I’m alive.”

Finally, today I had the opportunity to sit on a panel during a meeting of the US36 Commuting Solutions organization with Louisville Mayor Chuck Sisk and Broomfield Mayor Pat Quinn, along with RTD Board Chair Lee Kemp, for a discussion regarding the potential FasTracks ballot initiative.  As the Broomfield Enterprise well captured in a story that you can read here, Mayors Quinn and Sisk did not shy away from their clear advocacy for a 0.4% increase.  In the words of Mayor Sisk, “Four-tenths is what we support . . . I will be critical of the (RTD) board if they don’t step forward and get this done.”

All of this is great input for me and my RTD Board colleagues as we weigh our desire to complete the full FasTracks system as soon as possible against the public’s appetite for a sales tax increase.  Getting that balance right is critical because, in the words of RTD Board Chair Lee Kemp, “We only get one shot at this.”

One of my priority customer services goals has been to offer real-time bus location and arrival time information to RTD patrons.   

RTD once experimented with a software program that promised to provide this real-time information, Next Bus.  The program was a failure, I hear, due to predictive software that estimated bus arrival times based on historic trends.  Clearly, when traffic conditions upset bus travel speeds on a particular trip, reliance on historic trend data will give you the incorrect arrival time report.

My technology-savvy friends swear there must be a cheap and easy way to provide real-time bus location and arrival time information.  They suggest, slightly tongue and cheek, that it would be as simple as strapping a smart phone to the bottom of each bus and making the location signal publicly available.  While I don’t discount the potential for such simple solutions, and I share the frustration that is at the heart of these suggestions, no simple technology has emerged which RTD staff believes it can readily implement.

Providing some relief for my frustration regarding real-time bus information is the chance I had the other day to support moving forward with installation of a new Computer Aided Dispatch and Automatic Vehicle Location (CAD/AVL) system for RTD’s bus fleet.  There are a number of reasons RTD is proceeding with this project, including federal mandates to meet narrower communication bandwidth standards.  However, as a side benefit of this project, staff recognizes the opportunity its new CAD/AVL system offers for providing real-time bus location and arrival time information to its customers.

Having approved the contract for implementation of the CAD/AVL system, RTD staff expects to have the new equipment installed by the end of 2012.  In the meantime, staff has assured me that they will begin planning for integrating the real-time bus information service.  I will be monitoring progress in this area closely and will provide updates as we get deeper into the planning phases.  At this point, though, I am glad that we are finally moving in the right direction on this important customer service program.

As expected, RTD staff offered their proposal at the end of last month for speeding completion of the FasTracks program.  The full staff presentation is available here:  Annual Program Evaluation ( I addressed some of this material in a previous post).  

In summary, their initial recommendation is a modest increase in the FasTracks sales tax of 0.2%.  With public support of this tax in 2011, RTD staff anticipates that it could complete the full FasTracks program by 2027.  Unfortunately, due to operations costs associated with the Northwest Rail line, Boulder County’s rail system would bring up the rear under staff’s recommendation.  

As RTD’s representative for the Boulder County area, I find the timing for completion of the Northwest Rail under a 0.2% sales tax increase scenario quite troubling.  That is why I have been pushing staff for a full evaluation of the 0.3% percent scenario, which they failed to do in their initial analysis, and I also continue to consider the option of seeking a 0.4% increase.  I note that the FasTracks Committee of the Metro Mayors Caucus has expressed similar sentiments:  Metro Mayors Task Force Recommendation. 

The RTD Board is expected to make a final decision regarding allocation of the remaining FasTracks dollars and a potential future sales tax hike at the end of this month.  These are pivotal matters for the fate of the FasTracks program, so now is the time when I need to hear from you.  Please let me know where you stand on these issues so I can have the benefit of your opinion when I cast my Board vote.

I have received great input from a number of local citizens regarding the two significant FasTracks decisions the RTD Board will be making in the near future associated with the distribution of remaining FasTracks dollars and whether to pursue additional sales tax funding.  I thank you for this continued input and, in the words of former RTD Board Director Karen Benker who offered her own advice in a recent Daily Camera letter, which you can access here, “Thanks for getting involved with your community!”

I want you to be aware that RTD staff has offered their recommendations for distribution of the $305 million in remaining FasTracks dollars.  The full recommendation is available at the following link:  2011 Annual Program Evaluation.  The gist of the staff proposal is to allocate a majority of the funding in $90 million chunks, toward the Us 36 BRT system, the North Line and I-225.  The Northwest Rail Line would receive an infusion of $15 million to complete station improvements in Longmont that also will accommodate bus service.

The 2011 Annual Program Evaluation also features three sales tax increase options, each with different implications for the completion of all transit lines in the original FasTracks program.  An increase of 0.4%, for example, will complete the full program by 2019, whereas we will have to wait until 2035 to see the full system build-out if we only get a 0.1% increase.  Staff will offer a more detailed explanation of these packages at a Board meeting on January 25 along with their preferred alternative.  Obviously, though, the voters will have the final say on this matter, assuming the Board decides to pursue one of the proposed sales tax increase options.  

So, the initial recommendations and options are on the table.  Please continue to offer your input.  In the meantime, I will leave you with one other interesting item which is driving some of my thinking on future FasTracks planning . . . a map that the US 36 Mayors and Commissioners Coalition prepared that highlights the severe inequity between transit infrastructure investments in the southern part of the Denver region as opposed to the north, including Boulder County: Funded and Unfunded Transit Corridors.  Have a look at this yourself and you can probably understand why I will be fighting even harder to secure financial support for the BRT System and the Northwest Rail Line.