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Cost estimates for Phase 1: temporary train stop with covered permanent platform and modular station =$2 million. Phase 2: permanent train station =$5-6 million. Does not include road infrastructure, but does include sufficient parking for both Phases, on the land already purchased. A train station in Orange County supports tourism, one of the major economic drivers for our county. Our own train station located adjacent to existing bus routes will easily connect to UNC, its hospitals in Chapel Hill and Hillsborough (in 2015); the Orange County campus of Durham Technical Community College; and sporting, cultural events and festivals in Hillsborough, Carrboro, and Chapel Hill. These train-bus connections will serve residents, tourists, students, alumni, commuters, and area businesses. Our schools will be able to take students on trips without running their own buses or contracting bus services. Many school systems throughout North Carolina already take students by these trains to museums, historic sites, and cultural activities. In the future, connections to planned expanded bus services will enable access by train to education and jobs. This would provide opportunities for people who are currently underserved, including rural residents, students, and unemployed residents. An increase in ridership of the Orange County 420 buses and the Hillsborough Circulator buses. Both of these run in close proximity to the land already set aside for the train station. Expanded bus services will therefore include access to/from Chapel Hill, Hillsborough, Mebane and rural Orange County from/to the train station. Potential significant cost savings to Orange County with a reduced need to transport people from Orange County to multiple locations for medical appointments throughout Durham. The 6 existing trains already stop in Durham. The land for the train station has been purchased and is waiting for infrastructure so the train can stop where it already passes by six times a day, with more trains planned in the next year. The train station will provide access one of the fastest growing existing passenger lines in America. A train station in Orange County provides an alternative to cars, reducing congestion, pollution, and parking problems. The train station has already received the support of the Towns of Chapel Hill, Carrboro, Hillsborough, as well as their respective business communities, the University of North Carolina, the North Carolina Department of Transportation, Amtrak, and you, the Orange County Board of Commissioners and Hillsborough Town Board. Amtrak's and NCDOT's speedy approval of a train station in Hillsborough in 2007 included a positive cost-benefit analysis. Earlier estimates for the Cary station far underestimated the current actual usage. Transportation planners in Raleigh have explained that given current trends, this is likely to repeat itself for any other new train service in the region. In other words, Hillsborough's station could expect greater usage than originally estimated. Passage of a county-wide referendum is more likely to succeed when some benefits can be realized in the short-term. Holly Reid said that she is one of the residents interested in supporting a transit tax. She is convinced that regional transit is the best way to meet the projected growth in the Triangle. She has signed the letter that was read above. She said that there was some confusion with the term "commuter rail." Her request is not to fund more commuter rail service with this sales tax, but to access the current passenger service that passes through the County six times a day. Orange County is one of the two remaining counties within the existing corridor without a rail stop. The other is Lexington County. She said that having trains stop in Orange County would help economic development. John Wilson said that some of the important issues should have been addressed by Triangle Transit's July 2011 Alternatives Analysis but they were not. He said that the 15-501 alignment is reasonable and should have been included in the Alternatives Analysis. He said that Triangle Transit's 2010 Fordham Boulevard White Paper was not part of the Alternatives Analysis and was not made available to the public for comment, and does not satisfy the FTA's Alternatives