Transit: Citizen, Indy Week

Should Wake County vote on transit funding in 2013?

Bob Geary — Thu, 07 Feb 2013 12:11:00 -0500

Capital Area Friends of Transit is an alliance of groups working for better bus and — eventually — light-rail transit offerings for Wake County. They've launched a petition drive in an effort to pressure/convince the Wake County Board of Commissioners to allow a public referendum on the 1/2-cent sales tax for transit which was authorized by the General Assembly four years ago — and which the Wake Commissioners, under Republican control, have blocked ever since.…

Raleigh's Union Station: Future rail to "lop off" Citrix?

Bob Geary — Tue, 25 Sep 2012 07:09:06 -0400

On Friday, we reported the good news about Raleigh's Union Station, Phase 1: It's fully funded at $60 million. In the buildup to that announcement, I heard one other, discordant note.…

The good news in Raleigh: Union Station, Phase 1, is fully funded at $60 million

Bob Geary — Fri, 21 Sep 2012 16:05:47 -0400

I see that it was just 15 months ago — last June — when the state DOT made its first public pitch for turning the old Dillon Supply fabrication building, also known as the Viaduct Building, into a new Amtrak station for downtown Raleigh. Today, federal, state and city officials gathered there to annnounce that $60 million has been cobbled together from a variety of funding sources, enough to do the work on the station and associated track improvements.…

Today: Transit advocates want Wake Commissioners to give 1/2-cent tax a chance (w/ an update: "Fails")

Bob Geary — Mon, 18 Jun 2012 09:03:38 -0400

[Update, 6/19: Here are a few paragraphs from a story I wrote today for this week's Indy —

First and foremost, Wake County will not vote in November on a ½-cent sales tax increase for transit, the only funding mechanism provided for local governments by the General Assembly. Wake County’s Republican-led Board of Commissioners continues to block the vote.…
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(Updated) Does the good Citrix news mean that Raleigh's grand Union Station plan is dead?

Bob Geary — Thu, 07 Jun 2012 20:09:00 -0400

[Update, 6/8, 2:30 pm. I've spoken to several city officials now, including Mayor Nancy McFarlane and Councilor Thomas Crowder.…

Paul Coble on the need to consider transit: "Nah."

Bob Geary — Wed, 06 Jun 2012 13:14:05 -0400

Orange County will be voting on the 1/2-cent sales tax for transit in November. That decision was made by the Orange County Board of Commissioners last night.…

WakeUP to Paul Coble & Co: Stop blocking a public vote on the 1/2-cent transit tax for Wake

Bob Geary — Thu, 31 May 2012 16:10:00 -0400

It's been three years since the General Assembly passed the bill allowing voters in Wake, Durham and Orange counties to decide whether they want to build a public transit system, i.e., add a 1/2-cent sales tax for transit in their respective counties.

Durham voters approved the 1/2-cent tax last year.…

D6 it is: Raleigh Council chooses a downtown light-rail route

Bob Geary — Tue, 02 Aug 2011 14:24:00 -0400

If the Raleigh City Council is the last word on the subject — and at this point, it looks like it will be — a trunk light-rail line for the Triangle, if built, would come through downtown Raleigh on the route known as D6. (See the map below.)…

Bike lanes on Hillsborough Street: √

Bob Geary — Sun, 31 Jul 2011 13:04:00 -0400

Will Alphin, who led the effort to have bike lanes striped on the new Hillsborough Street, took the photo you see at right and sent this note to his friends on Facebook (including moi):

"[T]wo years since we first started turning the wheels to get a bike lane on the street adjacent to the highest percentage of cyclists in raleigh - they are down. watching over a hunderd motoroists drive down hillsborough street on the inaugural night of the lanes, not a single one slipped over the line into the cylce lane.…
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Raleigh Council to hear alt.rail.transit.route options for DTR

Bob Geary — Mon, 11 Jul 2011 14:08:00 -0400

Remember the flyover bridges? The railroad tunnels?…

DOT: We got yer Raleigh rail transit right here ...

Bob Geary — Thu, 30 Jun 2011 17:18:37 -0400

And you thought we'd have to wait another decade at least to get rail-transit service in Raleigh. Not at all.…

First look: A (maybe) light-rail bridge over Boylan Avenue

Bob Geary — Wed, 23 Mar 2011 12:53:31 -0400

Triangle Transit planners launched a new round of "alternatives analysis" workshops last night at Triangle Town Center. Subject: Rail transit — now proposed to be a hybrid commuter-rail and light-rail system — for the region.…

We got your transit stops right here — and your poll

Bob Geary — Tue, 15 Mar 2011 17:14:38 -0400

The poll was taken for the Regional Transportation Alliance — judge accordingly, but the questions seem reasonably straightforward. Traffic congestion is NOT the number one concern in the Triangle.…

Go, go & maybe someday: Durham, Orange and Wake on 1/2-cent tax for transit

Bob Geary — Tue, 08 Mar 2011 11:11:30 -0500

Word on the prospects for a 1/2-cent sales tax for transit in the Triangle after the Regional Transportation Alliance breakfast meeting this morning:

* Durham and Orange counties are looking seriously at asking voters this fall to approve a different sales tax increase — the 1/4-cent tax hike authorized by the legislature to support schools or other needs.

* Durham and Orange may wind up asking voters to approve a package — the 1/4-cent tax for schools and the 1/2-cent tax for transit.…

Light rail to go OVER the Boylan Avenue Bridge?

Bob Geary — Mon, 28 Feb 2011 17:25:00 -0500

I know y'all were planning to get to the next round of TTA transit planning sessions starting March 22, but just to whet your appetite:

I've heard it twice now from well-informed Raleigh officials that the TTA's latest scheme for getting light-rail transit through downtown Raleigh is to go OVER the Boylan Avenue Bridge. (As someone just said on an email thread, you mean under?…

Put the transit tax to a vote in 2011? In my opinion, that's —

Bob Geary — Thu, 18 Nov 2010 16:00:28 -0500

Prospects for the 1/2-cent sales tax for transit idea were batted around this week at a post-election gathering hosted by WakeUP Wake County. Between what I knew beforehand and some things people said in the course of discussion, I believe the situation is this: Two of the four Republican county commissioners-elect (Tony Gurley, Joe Bryan) have told transit supporters that they will allow a countywide referendum on the 1/2-cent tax plan next fall — assuming that polling shows it has a chance to pass.…

High-speed rail: Residents' "hybrid" plan gains with City Council, DOT

Bob Geary — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 09:18:06 -0400

The big news out of last night's City Council hearing on the Southeast High-Speed Rail Project: The hybrid plan put forward by a citizens group — variously called NC4 and the NC1/NC2 Avoidance Alternative — will be given serious consideration by the Department of Transportation's Rail Division. Pat Simmons, head of the rail division, told the Council that his staff will work with the city's transportation staff to see whether the hybrid idea can be made to work and if so, exactly where that cross-Capital Boulevard railroad viaduct could be located and what its impacts would be.…

High-speed rail hearing tonight: "Alt. NC1/NC2" route gaining?

Bob Geary — Tue, 31 Aug 2010 00:47:00 -0400

With opposition to the NC3 alignment building in the Five Points area, tonight's special meeting of the City Council on the proposed Southeast High-Speed Rail project is expected to focus on a compromise idea formerly known (unofficially) as NC4 that is now being called the "NC1/NC2 Avoidance Alternative."

Proliferating "No on NC3" signs in the Five Points neighborhoods list a 5 p.m. start tonight (Tuesday night). That's actually the time of a pre-meeting rally in Nash Square — right in front of City Hall — called by neighborhood organizers.…

Anybody in Raleigh FOR high-speed rail? No, seriously —

Bob Geary — Fri, 27 Aug 2010 11:15:56 -0400

A little history. The state DOT picked a general route for the Southeast High-Speed Rail line from Richmond to Raleigh eight years ago, when nobody was paying any attention and there was no prospect of it being funded in anybody's lifetime.…

High-Speed Rail thru Raleigh: What route? At what price?

Bob Geary — Thu, 22 Jul 2010 22:51:00 -0400

Our topic tonight: The public hearing Monday in Raleigh on the proposed Southeast High-Speed Rail (SEHSR) project. The hearing is at the Raleigh Convention Center, 7 p.m., preceded by an open house from 5-7 p.m.…

Public meetings start today in Raleigh: What kind of transit? Going where?

Bob Geary — Mon, 28 Jun 2010 08:14:00 -0400

It's called an alternatives analysis. That means the Triangle Transit Authority is going to weigh doing various kinds of something against doing nothing to improve bus and rail transit services in the region.…

Bolton: "The most important property in Raleigh." (Or, What about Whitley Street?)

Bob Geary — Fri, 04 Jun 2010 09:29:39 -0400

This is Whitley Street in Raleigh. I know, it's not much — yet.…

Monday in Raleigh: FTA forum on federal transit's "New Start"

Bob Geary — Wed, 02 Jun 2010 15:25:06 -0400

"New Starts" is the federal transit program that, under the Bush Administration, said "no new start for you" to the Triangle Transit Authority's long-planned commuter-rail system between Durham and Raleigh. That was four years ago.…

Bicycle to Work Week kicks off Friday afternooon at Marbles Museum

Bob Geary — Thu, 13 May 2010 14:20:00 -0400

Friday, May 14, 3-6 pm at Marbles Kids Museum on Moore Square.

Cap it off with a 3.7 mile tour (above) that goes right through my neighborhood.…

Del Burns resigns as Wake schools leader -- in protest

Bob Geary — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 15:59:13 -0500

Wake Schools Superintendent Del Burns announced his resignation at the school board meeting today. It's effective June 30.…