Detroit Free Press from Detroit, Michigan • 17

THURSDAY, DEC IS, 2011 WWW.FREEP.COM 17A RAPID TRANSIT MISM pstiii! i scrap By the numbers $550 million Most recent estimate for the total cost of building the Woodward Light Rail from downtown Detroit to 8 Mile. 9.3 -I 1 -AU i Levin, Conyers, others push to reconsider decision on project By Matt Helms, John Gallagher and Todd Spangler Free Press Staff Writers U.S. Sen. Carl Levin and other federal lawmakers questioned Wednesday the decision to scrap the Woodward Light Rail project in favor of a bus rapid transit system backed by Gov. Rick Snyder and increasingly seen as a more realistic and practical option for a region struggling to pay for bus service.

Levin, said he would ask federal officials, Snyder and Detroit Miles of rail line that would have been built. in, 4 I racy Ml V. 110 Miles proposed to be covered by bus rapid transit under a new plan gaining support. $450 million Estimated price tag for a network of regional rapid transit buses. $25 million Amount the federal government granted metro Detroit to jump-start the rail plan money the government says can be transferred to a rapid transit bus system.

$3 billion Amount of private investment transit advocates said a rail line would have spurred along Woodward. $100 million Estimated amount pledged by private investors and philanthropic groups, including the Kresge Foundation, as seed money for the rail line. GREATER CLEVELAND REGIONAL TRANSIT AUTHORITY The HealthLine, Cleveland's bus rapid transit line launched in 2008, covers 9.2 miles and offers about three dozen stops. It connects downtown Public Square with the city's hospital and university district, then to the suburb of East Cleveland. Cleveland sets example with successful bus line HealthLine even during the recession, which makes us believe it's pretty darn successful." "I thought it was a waste of time," public finance expert Kevin O'Brien, whose Cleveland State University office looks down on the HealthLine, told local news media earlier this year.

"I'm really pleased at how wrong I was." Dennis Hinebaugh, director of the National Bus Rapid Transit Institute in Tampa, calls Cleveland's HealthLine the most complete example of a BRT line in the nation. Lots of other cities have bus lines offering some elements of BRT, but Cleveland is one of the few to create a system with all the amenities. Development along the route on Cleveland's Euclid Avenue seems to have picked up, too. That's encouraging because one of the advantages attributed to a light-rail system is that it promotes economic development near the route. I CONTACT JOHN GALLAGHER: 313-222-5173 ORGALLAGHER99SFREEPRES5.COM By John Gallagher Free Press Business Writer If Detroiters want to know what a bus rapid transit line looks like and how it operates, they need only look across Lake Erie.

Cleveland launched its own bus rapid transit (BRT) line in 2008 at a cost of about $200 million. It connects downtown Public Square with the city's hospital and university district a few miles to the east and then to the suburb of East Cleveland. Branded as the HealthLine because of its connection with the city's medical centers and because Cleveland Clinic and University Hospitals bought naming rights, the line covers 9.2 miles and offers about three dozen stops. The HealthLine is a cross between ordinary bus service and a rapid rail line. It mimics a rail line in many ways, from the sleek, elongated cars to the dedicated lane in the middle of Euclid Avenue to the elevated stations.

After years of study, Cleveland opted for bus rapid transit over rail because of the cost. Studies had estimated that a light-rail line would have cost $800 million for just 7 miles of rail, compared with the $200-million BRT line covering 9.2 miles. The route has attracted more riders more quickly than many skeptics had predicted. Last April, about 2Yi years after it opened, the HealthLine celebrated its 10 millionth rider. Ridership is up about 54 over the traditional bus line that the HealthLine replaced.

That increase in ridership occurred in part because of the line's efficiency. Operating 24 hours a day, seven days a week, the Health-Line cut the average travel time from 45 minutes on the old bus line to 32 minutes on the BRT. "There were some skeptics," said HealthLine spokeswoman Mary McCahon. "This was a large construction project. But as we've seen ridership decrease on other lines, we've seen ridership increase on the Mayor Dave Bing to hold off on a final decision to kill the rail line.

Levin called the investors who backed up their support for Detroit with $100 million in private seed money for the rail project "angels for our city." "I continue to believe that a world-class transit system that includes light rail along the Woodward Avenue corridor can deliver significant economic benefits to Detroit and the region," Levin said. U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood met with members of Michigan's congressional delegation Wednesday morning in Washington. U.S. Rep.

Hansen Clarke, a Detroit Democrat, said he asked LaHood whether the decision could be reconsidered. LaHood said that decision would be up to local leaders. After the meeting, U.S. Rep John Conyers, also a Detroit Democrat, said he felt better coming out of the gathering than he did going in. "I don't think it's dead," Conyers said.

But it is becoming clearer that political support for expanded transit in southeast Michigan is coalescing behind a new network of bus rapid transit lines through Detroit and the suburbs, on routes including Woodward, Gratiot and Michigan avenues and M-S9. Metro Airport and Ann Arbor also would be part of the network. LaHood declined to comment after the meeting but said in a statement: "Gov. Snyder and Mayor Bing have come together around a high-tech vision that will provide state-of-the-art, reliable transit to far more people and in a far more cost-effective way." He said the federal government would continue to support Detroit's efforts. Bing spokesman Dan Lijana said the mayor doesn't consider the loss of the project a defeat, but rather an acknowledgment that Detroit could not afford to subsidize operations of the rail line given budget troubles at City Hall in addition to huge service cuts at both the Detroit bus system and the suburban system.

"The mayor's taking the leadership role in providing the most effective transit for Detroiters and the region by supporting a cost-efficient and effective bus system," Lijana said. One Detroit civic leader familiar with the light-rail debate said that city leaders had begun to doubt the cost estimates for the rail line around $550 million and worried about the lack of funding to cover normal operation and maintenance once it was built. The civic leader, who spoke on condition of not being named because of the sensitivity of the issue, said there was a big gap between money raised for the rail line and what it would have cost. "We're looking at a money pit here," the leader said. John Hertel, general manager of the suburban SMART bus system who crafted a plan in 2008 for regional oversight and improvement of transit, said the bus rapid transit system under consideration is unlike those familiar to Tom Casperson, R-Escanaba, representatives from Snyder's office and leaders from southeast Michigan on legislation expected to be unveiled early next year for a regional transit management authority that would oversee state and federal funding for buses and coordinate city and suburban routes and the new rapid-transit network.

Snyder spokeswoman Sara Wurfel said the governor wants the legislation to provide for a vote in Wayne, Oakland, Macomb and Washtenaw counties on partially funding the rapid transit buses through a vehicle registration fee for transit and road needs. Exact cost for the bus system is unknown, but the additional registration would be about $10 to $40 per vehicle, Wurfel said. Casperson, who visited Detroit last week, said he rode the city and suburban buses and found them in dismal shape, from riders waiting too long for late buses, to others being forced to stand at roadside stops with no shelter from wind and cold temperatures. He said the uncoordinated bus systems confused some riders, including an elderly woman and a young mother. "The leaders need to come together and think in terms like that: how it affects the mother with two kids, the elderly woman wondering how she's going to get where she needs to go," Casperson said.

"I don't have all the answers, but I know it needs fixing." Detroit City Council President Charles Pugh, who called scrapping the light-rail project a mistake, said that if there's a silver lining to the loss, it's that bus rapid transit could generate more support for a regional transit authority that would encourage SMART and the Detroit Department of Transportation to operate more efficient and cost-effective bus service. some features of bus rapid transit. Palombo, however, acknowledges that rail has one advantage over the rapid buses: It tends to attract more spin-off economic development around rail stations because it is viewed as more permanent than rapid bus lines. The loss of the rail project metro Detroit's most significant shot in decades at a rail transit system evoked the painful history of failed public transportation plans dating to the presidency of Gerald Ford. Then, metro Detroit was set to receive $600 million in federal funds to support a new transit system, but the region lost the dollars because city and suburban leaders failed to get on the same page.

There was a sense, among supporters, that "if we can get this thing right, then things are going to change," said Adam Hollier, a spokesman for state Sen. Bert Johnson, D-Highland Park. Johnson is working with state Sen. serve four counties and the city." Carmine Palombo, the director of transportation studies for the Southeast Michigan Council of Governments, said bus rapid transit offers a decided cost advantage over light rail. "You could build two or three BRT lines potentially for what it would cost to build just one light-rail line," Palombo said.

Hertel said the rapid transit buses wouldn't compete with existing city and suburban bus systems, but would instead free up those systems to improve their service and provide more rides on less-traveled routes, in turn, attracting more riders. Only a handful of cities have full, bus rapid transit lines in service today, including Cleveland, which opened its line in 2008; Eugene, and Los Angeles, according to the National Bus Rapid Transit Institute in Tampa. Other cities have bus systems that offer metro Detroiters. Hertel and other supporters said bus rapid transit lines should not be confused with ordinary bus lines: The vehicles are longer and sleeker than ordinary coaches. Bus stations could be much more elaborate than typical shelters, offering WiFi Internet connections, digital displays of route information and ticket vending machines, among other amenities.

The plans LaHood showed lawmakers included a proposal for 34 stations, all with electronic signs showing routes and real-time, GPS-based information on bus arrival and departure times. Some of the stations were large enough to have rest rooms. Hertel said the system would be "a much more effective use of the money." "You're going to get 110 miles for the same price as 9 miles, for a service that will carry the same number of passengers at the same speed, and it's going to I CONTACT MATT HELMS: 313-222-1450 OR MHELMS9FREEPRESS.COM. STAFF WRITERS STEVE NEAVUNG AND PAUL EGAN CONTRIBUTED TO THIS REPORT. For less than $500M, a bus rapid transit system could cover nearly 110 miles Officials decided recently to cancel a proposed light-rail line spanning the length of Woodward Avenue in Detroit in favor of a modernized system of speedy buses crisscrossing the region.

Here are answers to some common questions about regional transit issues: easier to pass legislation to coordinate and reform transit key to earning federal funding for the project. It could be up and running in three to five years. How will it be paid for? U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood has indicated he's willing to offer metro Detroit millions to help build a better transit system but only if the region's leaders agree to set up better coordination and oversight of transit. The federal government would pay the largest share of the cost to build the bus system, but its annual operating costs would have to be funded through some sort of regional tax.

So far, no one's saying how much they'll ask voters to How is this related to new transit terminals that have opened or are planned for Pontiac, Dearborn and Troy? The light-rail line wouldn't have traveled to those stations, which are hubs for both buses and Amtrak service. Separate from the Detroit transit issue, Michigan is spending about $400 million to upgrade rail lines between Dearborn and Kalamazoo for faster passenger train service between Detroit and Chicago. It's likely that the bus rapid transit lines would also connect to the Dearborn transit station, but not necessarily Pontiac's. Troy officials have yet to accept federal funding for the proposed transit station. Matt Helms 110 miles along routes stretching from downtown Detroit to the suburbs, Metro Airport and Ann Arbor.

Though the light-rail line would have started and stopped within Detroit's limits, the bus rapid transit system would run along Gratiot, Woodward and Michigan avenues and M-59. What's the likelihood the bus rapid transit system will actually get built? It has much stronger support among suburban leaders who doubted the rail line, including Oakland County Executive L. Brooks Patterson and Macomb County Executive Mark Hackel. Gov. Rick Snyder also backs the bus plan, and senators working on legislation for early next year say the bus rapid transit idea also will make it buses, longer than traditional coaches including accordion-like middle sections to allow for sharper turns.

They're far sleeker than the buses now used in Detroit. They would operate in dedicated lanes, in many places separated from regular traffic by concrete barriers. The vehicles also are equipped with technology to let them control traffic signals so they don't have to stop for red lights. What's the advantage of a bus rapid transit system? For less than $500 million, a bus rapid transit system can cover QUESTION: Why did leaders pull the plug on the light-rail line planned for Woodward? ANSWER: Economics, plain and simple. It would have cost at least $550 million, and probably much more, to build the first 9.3-mile stretch between downtown and 8 Mile.

Given tenuous financial conditions in Detroit and Lansing, no one could guarantee that there would be money to run the line once it was built. What Is bus rapid transit the plan proposed as an alternative? These systems are modernized i.