Public transit leaders from across the country talked about the Trump Administration’s proposed FY18 budget cuts to the federal Capital Investment Grants (CIG) and their projects at risk without federal support.
The Trump Administration has made it clear infrastructure investment is important, but it is retreating from a federal role in funding major infrastructure projects, said American Public Transportation Association Acting President and CEO Richard A. White.
The consequences of the cuts impact more than 50 projects in 23 different states -- $38 billion in planned project activity. It equates to 800,000 jobs at risk and a possible loss of $90 billion in economic output nationally if the proposal was implemented.
There were several agencies represented to highlight some of the projects that would be impacted.
John Porcari, interim executive director, Gateway Development Corp., said, “There is no Plan B,” when talking about The Gateway Program, a comprehensive program of strategic rail infrastructure improvements in the Northeast Corridor.
The program has three partners – New Jersey Transit, Amtrak and the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. The project includes replacement of a bridge and tunnel, both more than 100 years old. “They were carrying passengers while the Titanic was under construction,” Porcari noted. “They’ve served us well, but it is a single point of failure for 10 percent of America’s Gross Domestic Product … There are no alternative routes.”
Local funding is in place with the three partners; they’re waiting for the federal portion of the project and pre-construction is expected to start this summer.
“A project of this size is beyond the financial ability of local partners to do it alone,” he stated.
Nuria Fernandez, general manager/CEO, Valley Transportation Authority in San Jose, California, talked about the Silicon Valley having one of the highest job growth rates in the nation and how the Bay Area Rapid Transit Silicon Valley Extension is critical to meeting the growing needs of the region.
“The federal government has stood by us the last three decades,” Fernandez said. “”It knows the effect a strong transportation network has on our competitiveness. Public transportation is a magnet to economic prosperity.”
The first phase of the BART extension is one of the largest projects in Santa Clara County and is 97 percent complete. This past November, the local voters passed a ballot measure by 72 percent to provide another $1.5 billion in local match to complete the second phase.
Fernandez said, “Voters have stood behind it; it was intended to be a local match.”
Mark Fuhrmann, deputy general manager, Metro Transit, Minneapolis, Minnesota, spoke of two projects in peril, the Blue Line extension and the Green Line extension.
“We’re looking to ahead to double the scope and size of our light rail system in passengers and miles,” he said. The future cities that the extensions will serve have already seen $900 million of station area development at the future station sites.
“We’re now approaching 20 years of that federal partnership that we’ve had with the FTA,” he said. “They’ve always said to us, when we’re assembling local funding, they’re looking for stable and reliable funding streams.
“We look for the same from the federal government and the FTA.
“Without CIG to match the $1.6 billion we already have approved, our projects will not move forward. They will be stalled.”
Dallas Area Rapid Transit President/Executive Director Gary Thomas said, “This is a very significant change in the way we fund transportation projects.
“Sustainable and predictable federal funding is essential if transit agencies are going to provide effective mobility choices.”
DART has three projects where they will be looking for federal support: Red and Blue Line Platform Extensions, D2 Dallas Central Business District Second Light Rail Alignment, and the Cotton Belt Corridor.
In the Puget Sound region in Washington, this past November the voters went to the polls and voted to tax themselves to provide a path out of worsening congestion. The tax increase per average adult per year is about $169, which is no small sacrifice said Sound Transit CEO Peter Rogoff.
Rogoff said, “It’s disheartening and frankly mystifying” to see the administration proposing to phase out funding.
Sound Transit is working on two projects that they’re hoping for federal support on, the Lynnwood Link Extension and the Northgate Link Extension. Both have been in the FTA’s pipeline for years.
Rogoff said, “He [Donald Trump] put forth principles to govern things he wants to accomplish, including awarding projects that exhibit self-help and others that are truly transformative.”
He explained the ULink extension extended to two of the densest communities in Washington. Ridership spiked 70 to 80 percent when it opened. “They are transformative,” he stated.
“Are they demonstrating self-help? Quite so.” He continued, “Compare to federal highway where local dollars only cover 20 percent typically.” The two projects he mentioned plan to have 50 percent local match and 75 percent local match.
“My concern here is why will all of this talk of infrastructure is transit left off the table?” he asked. While it appears to be going back to the ideological debate of the need of transit, he said, the United States has moved on. When talking about rail expansion in Dallas, Phoenix and Salt Lake City, he said, “They’re not blue cities, red cities or purple cities; they’re cities facing increasing congestion.
“I want to encourage the administration to align policies with what we’re facing on the ground.”
Private Sector Involvement
While the administration wants to look at more public-private partnerships for transportation infrastructure, Sharon Greene, senior vice president, Global Head of Finance Practice for HDR, said, “We support the focus on public-private partnerships, but there’s a difference between financing and funding.
“Funding is critical to repay financing, like a mortgage for your house. It takes funds to repay that mortgage. Funding is critical to attract private sector investment.”
She spoke of the Maryland Transit Administration Purple Line, a P3 that has been stalled. “… the lack of federal commitment puts it in severe jeopardy. Commitment is a big part of this.”
She continued, “They won’t put funds where there isn’t certainty. You’re not going to be able to encourage P3s, let’s face it.”
“The first ‘P’ is ‘Public,’” said Procari. “There is no scenario where a P3 goes forward without significant public investment.”
Greene reiterated the potential loss of jobs across the country a move like this would have. The transit industry has manufacturers in every state across the country in rural and urban areas. “Our employees support Main Street in every district across the country,” she said.
White said they have heard from members of congress in respect to their unhappiness with what is happening to projects in their districts. “The opposition remains pretty strong in Congress,” he said.
Rogoff added, “We have great support from members of Congress on a bipartisan basis. But they’re not magicians. It’s going to be hard year after year against an administration that’s hostile to it”
Future Plans
Doran J. Barnes, APTA chair and executive director, Foothill Transit, said all projects are in jeopardy of being cancelled.
Fuhrmann said as they await final decisions, every week of delay costs taxpayers $1 million.
Rogoff said they are committed to getting to Lynwood one way or the other and that if they have to make up that $1.2 billion that was expected from the federal government, it’s a question of how many years it will take them to get there.
“Our intent is to see this project through but we need our federal partners to help us deliver,” said Fernandez. “When our voters said yes, it was with the understanding that the federal government was going to fulfill their partnership.”
While they were not cemented in a full funding grant agreement, they were in a process that has been put forth by Congress many years ago and there was an understanding that the partnership would continue.
Greene said of projects at risk where ballot measures were successful, “If the federal money they were counting on doesn’t appear, they have to make it up somehow … that they committed to voters that wanted these projects.”
National significant projects can’t move forward without a federal partner, Procari said. Megaprojects are beyond the financial ability of local partners to do it alone. Paramount to that is the consistency and reliability of the federal government. “Every administration finishes projects that others started and every administration starts projects that others finish.”
“When the Obama Administration came into office, we honored every project that was coming through the pipeline from the Bush Administration. And the Bush Administration honored every project that came through the Clinton Administration,” Rogoff said. “You can’t plan and construct a project in four years.
“There has to be continuity between administrations to continue to move the ball forward.
