Heads up, Charlotte. The dirt-moving, stuff-buying phase of the city light rail adventure is just beginning and already cost pressures are evident. The 10-mile South Blvd. leg is supposed to cost $399 million to build, itself an upward cost revision, but bids on key components have put the project $15 million in the hole. So far there is tough talk about keeping the project within the overall budget. Can it last?
Charlotte Area Transit System chief Ron Tober has had to do some fast thinking to keep the project on the rails. The parking garage and railbed portions of the project came in with bids some $37 million higher than expected. This was blamed on higher than expected material costs, like cement and steel, caused by the economic boom in China. As it is a global economy Charlotte is part of, we’ll roll with that explanation for now.
Even so, this development puts Tober in tough spot. The rail line absolutely cannot attract suburban riders without adequate parking. Indeed, lack of parking has stymied far denser corridors, like Metro DC, in their attempts to increase ridership of rail transit. So cutting, or even scaling down, parking decks certainly looks like a non-starter. The 1,200-space garage near Pineville is the feature to watch on this front.
Likewise eliminating road improvements and bridges along the rail route would be a horrid step. Adding new train crossings to Charlotte’s already crowded streets would blow up any claim that the rail line reduced traffic congestion and smog. In fact, increasing the number of idling cars during rush hour, stopped to watch the $400 million train go by, might actually increase smog and ozone in Queen City. Oh, happy day.
And let’s not forget the fun Houston has had with all of its street-level train crossings for its new Metro system. The train’s nasty habit of hitting cars and pedestrians has given it the nickname the Wham-Bam-Tram. Bottomline, cutting bridges will increase congestion and decrease safety.
In light of these hard realities Tober has opted to go into a prevent defense and try to wait out higher prices. Bids on electrical and communications components of the system have been put off for a couple weeks. In effect, CATS is sending a none-too-subtle signal to potential bidders that it is low on cash and they should bid accordingly.
However, these components are costly and producers do not have huge margins to begin with on the actual nuts-and-bolts. It is a big gamble that asking for discount will work, but it is a risk CATS must take.
Of course none of this is exactly surprising. Ted Balaker of the Reason Foundation found escalating costs are a hallmark of rail transit projects. His study of CATS’ plans compared to the actual performance of similar rail projects in other cities warned us that the price tag always goes up.
One might suppose that there is a lone good thing about higher prices forcing feature cuts on CATS. Since no one at CATS, or in city or county government, has ever identified exactly what it is the South Blvd. line is supposed to accomplish, we do not have to worry about the line falling short of that goal. Whatever it might be.