I enjoyed reading the Republic’s story this morning concerning the delays of the 19th Avenue light rail extension. I don’t mean to say that the delay part was enjoyable, but I was glad to see some more information come out about it. The extension is commonly referred to by Metro as the Northwest Extension and was scheduled to begin construction very soon.
I had been hearing rumors of the delay and had even asked Metro what was going on. This past Tuesday I got the following response.
From: “Foose, Hillary”
Sent: Tuesday, June 23, 2009 3:01 PM
To: RailLife.com
Subject: RE: NW Extension
Nick,
You can find an update online at:
http://www.valleymetro.org/metro_light_rail/future_extensions/northwest/.
Hillary Foose
From their page I did learn that:
“As a result of the economic downturn, construction of the Northwest Extension will be completed in phases. Transit funding comes from sales tax revenue, of which collections are down more than 20 percent. This dramatic decrease has caused the city of Phoenix to adjust the project schedule. The first phase will complete all right-of-way real estate acquisition and construction of the planned landscaping barriers to secure the surrounding neighborhoods by 2010.”
The “economic downturn” might even delay things more than currently predicted. The ironic part could be that the economic impact of the areas in question might just be in better shape if there was an economic engine moving more people to more businesses. Oh, wait… That’s a debate for another day…
This unforunate announcement confirms a mysterious story reported without much detail by KTAR last week. It is also a Phoenix instance of a dilemma being felt nationwide: Recessions increase public demand for transit but compromise the ability of local governments to expand transit infrastructure.
The timing of this announcement is bad because it will empower the misguided anti-rail naysayers. At the same time, the City of Phoenix really has itself to blame for this situation. Trying to go it alone without federal funds is proving to be a tactical error. Bypassing federal funding allowed the City to skip some time-consuming studies, but since the extension is being delayed anyway, it seems silly now to have insisted on relying only on local funding.
It’s a shame to see this – this is the time to be doing this kind of building, to provide some employment and move some money through the system.
David, it is starting to sound like Mesa made the better choice? That extension is beginning to sound very interesting.