Light-rail cap could thwart future Charlotte rail projects

The state budget approved Friday would place a $500,000 cap on state spending for future light-rail projects – a change that wouldn’t impact the Blue Line extension but could thwart Charlotte’s plans to build more train lines.

The immediate impact of the cap will be felt on a planned light-rail line between Durham and Chapel Hill. That project was penciled in for $138 million in state funding, and the new budget bill would erase almost all that money, according to the (Raleigh) News & Observer.

The state paid for 25 percent of the construction costs for Charlotte’s original light-rail line, which opened in 2007. The N.C. Department of Transportation is also paying for 25 percent of the $1.1 billion light-rail extension to UNC Charlotte.

In all, the DOT will spend about $400 million on the city’s two light-rail lines.

The 1.5-mile, $37 million streetcar line that opened in July was built without state money. There aren’t plans for the DOT to pay for the second phase of that project either, which could cost around $150 million.

The federal government paid for $25 million of the first streetcar line. It could spend about $75 million on the second phase.

After that, there are no firm plans for the Charlotte Area Transit System to build more rail lines.

But the $500,000 cap could derail other projects that exist today as ideas, which don’t have money to pay for them.

They include:

▪ The Red Line, a train to the Lake Norman area. That project is a commuter rail line, and the Charlotte Area Transit System said the $500,000 cap only applies to light-rail projects. CATS said the Red Line is exempt from the cap as the law is written today.

But the General Assembly’s decision to cap light-rail money could be seen as an ominous sign for the Red Line’s chances of receiving state money.

▪ The Silver Line, possible light-rail in the Independence Boulevard corridor.

▪ Any future extension of the Blue Line. CATS originally wanted to build the Blue Line to Interstate 485, but it shortened the project to save money. Without state funding, building a small extension could be much more difficult.

“If there were other (light-rail) projects we were doing, it would come into play,” said Dana Fenton, the city’s lobbyist in Raleigh.

The funding cap is part of a budget bill that has been approved by the Senate and the House, and was signed by Gov. Pat McCrory on Friday.

This story was originally published September 18, 2015 at 9:57 AM with the headline "Light-rail cap could thwart future Charlotte rail projects."