Number 3: Light rail is not required for transit funding.
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for link to videoPortland’s TriMet is broke. Why bring their light rail to Vancouver?
• TriMet’s unfunded liability was $832 million as of 2009 and has now grown to 1.3 billion of debt.
• TriMet is in jeopardy of not meeting its present or future plans because of significant structural problems related to its finances.
• Why should Vancouver pay $2.57 million annually to maintain a light rail extension into Vancouver for Portland's TriMet light rail trains?
• Due to TriMet's financial trouble, security cutbacks have resulted in rising light rail crime rates.
• To reduce crime, police and security increases will incur more costs to tax payers.
• Buses are faster, more flexible and one incident does not shut the system down.
• Oregon’s Supreme Court says light-rail politics drove plans for a new I-5 bridge.
• Did TriMet's light rail resolve traffic issues for Hillsboro, Beaverton, Tualatin, Gresham and Clackamas?
• Light rail may not be fully paid for by federal funding and most likely C-Tran and local taxpayers will be responsible for the hundreds of millions of dollars short-fall.
• TriMet wants more of Vancouver than just rail to Clark College - They plan to take it all the way back across 205. Who will pay Operation & Maintenance?
Light rail in downtown would eliminate too much valuable street parking.
• The light rail couplet eliminates 125 on-street parking spaces and the cost to replace on-street parking with structured parking ranges from $35,000 to $50,000 per space.
• The CRC has three park-and-ride garages slated to be built in downtown Vancouver for light-rail commuters witch are expected to cost $158 million to $176 million.
• Vancouver's parking garages and lots lost about $1.97 million in 2011.
Light rail concept drawings vs. reality - where are the wires?
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The public has not been allowed to vote on this project.
• The Revised Code of Washington (RCW) Chapter 81.104 on high-capacity transportation (HCT) systems requires voter approval.
The CRC plan has been designed around controversial light rail from day one.
• 2012 Proposition 1 failed a public vote in Vancouver Washington on a sales tax increase for the C-Tran share of maintenance and operations cost of the Tri-Met MAX light rail extension between Expo Center and Clark Park & Ride.
A summary of key metrics clearly shows that light rail compares poorly to buses.
• The Locally Preferred Alternative in the FEIS, light rail, appears to be spending a minimum of $855 million to implement a transit option that will increase the current downtown Vancouver to downtown Portland travel time from 16 to 36 minutes.
Ruby Junction and Steel Bridge Costs
• Plans for the $3.5 billion megaproject include upgrades to Portland's Steel Bridge, plus a significant expansion of a TriMet maintenance facility in Gresham. Both would be paid for by the $850 million federal grant that the CRC is banking on to build the light rail extension from Portland to Vancouver.