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Approved 2/18/09 3 Karen Lincoln advised that there would only be commuter rail in areas where people want it and where the local 111 areas support it and can provide the rail transit operational services. 112 113 Paul Guthrie suggested a map overlaying the commuter rail with the light rail. He thinks the viability will be very high 114 due to costs and that loop routes are far more inexpensive to operate than dead end routes. There is a right of way 115 to make that connection. So by the time this happens you could have a circular route in Orange County from 116 University Station down to the south side of Chapel Hill going back up to the east side of Chapel Hill and making that 117 transit loop. It is also less neighborhood-disturbing. 118 119 Sam Lasris asked where bus feeder services fits in. Where does the private sector fit and will the facilities be 120 available. 121 122 Eric Tillman commented that by 2035, government will be totally in control of transportation. The overhead is so high 123 that it won’t be worth it to try to feed into these options at all. Private transportation providers will be totally 124 eliminated. He believes there will not be enough business to sustain private transportation enterprises. The 125 business is shrinking partly due to the massive overhead involved. 126 127 Paul Guthrie responded that it would be more accurate on light rail but on rail commuter connectivity is essential to a 128 distribution system. He added that there are two factors, location and population increase. As density increases that 129 kind of equation will change significantly. 130 131 Eric Tillman responded that the private sector is paying taxes into a system that is slowly eliminating it and that the 132 use of private industry should be incorporated into the plan along with government expansion of transportation. 133 134 Sam Lasris suggested that in the comments going back that the suggestion to include more in regard to the private 135 sector in the plan. 136 137 Paul Guthrie added that it should go beyond that to include the private sector being totally involved in the process. 138 139 On discussing the options Paul Guthrie stated that he was not comfortable with the amount of information in order to 140 choose an option. He thinks in the next 48 months there will be large scale access to capital to start funding these. I 141 think you’ll see massive investments from federal government, job creating enterprises, transit extension is going to 142 be one of those. I think strategically we should move all of this forward but always keep an eye on that long-range 143 objective of building the total system. Sam Lasris added that commuter rail makes sense and thinks it should be part 144 of the plans. 145 146 Karen Lincoln talked about the fact that when constraining the plan this says where the federal dollars are to go 147 which means not widening, and not doing the improvements for the commuter rail and not providing money to 148 Triangle Transit to operate commuter rail service. We’ll have to work the best we can with what we have. She 149 advised that the local source revenue is assuming ½ cent increase in Durham and Orange County sales tax and ¼ 150 increase in Chatham County from 2011 through 2035 and an additional $10 car registration fee in those counties. 151 Chapel Hill already has authority for a $10 registration fee so it would be $20 in Chapel Hill. Those are the additional 152 revenues forecast. Also because the other systems will take time to put in place, some road improvements are 153 proposed since some of those can be done quickly. High Occupancy Vehicle (HOV) lanes have been included. 154 Recommended highway improvements are also partly related to the TIP funding sources where certain money can 155 only be used for certain things. 156 157 Nancy Baker pointed out the connectivity problem with RTP and that the routes go from Chapel Hill and Raleigh to 158 Durham and then to RTP and that a direct rail route to RTP should be added. 159 160 Karen Lincoln advised that it was partly a right of way issue. A major investment study has already been done for 161 the US 15-501 corridor. 162 163 Consensus was to see both light rail and commuter rail in the final option and to ensure that the private transportation 164 providers are included in the process and utilization of the privates carriers at the end points of transportation links. 165 166