A newspaper editorial today salutes the recent action of the Port Authority board to shift some capital money from a bridge project to the Bus Rapid Transit proposal. The editorial opines that the goal—“winning significant federal funding to help pay for the improvements”—might only come two years from now once all study of feasibility and alternates are complete, but that the board decision was a necessary step. A recent article documented the BRT proposal and called it “a slow ride”.
A review of the Federal Transit Administration’s New Starts/Small Starts funding page shows over a dozen BRT proposals in the pipeline right now. Many don’t anticipate beginning revenue service until 2017 or 2018; many of those projects arrived at their desired route option about four years ago. Even the heralded Cleveland Healthline, which was visited by a delegation from Pittsburgh, took six years from final design to opening for service (2002-08, according to the FTA before and after study).
Who knows, maybe the BRT proposal here will proceed a lot faster, but the track record seems to show that approvals are taking four years minimum from the time of submitting final proposals. And as for the share of funding from Uncle Sam, current projects show significant variation, from 34% for a BRT project in Lansing to 80% in Fresno and Jacksonville.
