Bush budget could mean funding for Metro lines

Metro may be a step closer to building its proposed North and Southeast light rail bus rapid transit guided rapid transit lines thanks to the Bush administration's 2008 budget proposal, the Chronicle reports today. The Federal Transit Administration announced that, under the proposed budget, the two Metro lines are among six projects nationwide that could qualify for 50 percent federal funding; last week and earlier this week, the FTA also issued records of decision in favor of the lines, which gives Metro the green light to begin spending. "The record of decision allows us to go ahead and spend money on various elements of the project — land acquisition, engineering, some elements of construction," Metro President and CEO Frank Wilson said. "It is also a signal to the marketplace that if we borrow money for the projects, we are likely to get federal support."

Late last month, U.S. Reps. Sheila Jackson Lee and Al Green said they would push for federal funding for light rail to be built in the North, Southeast, East End and Uptown transit corridors rather than the guided busways Metro is proposing. It's not clear exactly where Jackson Lee and Green are with that, and really, we suppose it doesn't matter: Under Metro's plan for guided rapid transit, most elements of light rail lines would be put in place — the big missing element would be trains. Buses would initially travel the routes and would be replaced by trains if ridership got high enough to justify the switch (Metro originally called the plan "bus rapid transit," but later switched to the more transit-sexy "guided rapid transit").

FTA Administrator James Simpson said yesterday that Metro and other applicants for federal transit funding have until October 2008 to come up with plans for the agency, but Wilson said Metro could have full funding agreements from the FTA for the North and Southeast lines by late spring or early summer of this year. Construction, he said, could begin in July. "The fact that we do not have money assigned to us right now is just a technicality," Wilson said. "They are waiting to see what the final cost will be."

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Photo: flickr user je_derr