Trolley might be tough sell: System can spur development, but Augusta faces funding challenges

Oct 23, 2009 (The Augusta Chronicle - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) -- URSW | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating -- Finding money and community support might be more challenging than stretching passenger rail track in the right places, according to a feasibility report on the idea of returning streetcars to downtown Augusta.

The Downtown Development Authority of Augusta has been spearheading for more than a year an examination of a light rail trolley system as a spark for economic development. It paid URS Corp. in Charlotte, N.C., $37,000 for an initial feasibility study, a 36-page document that was delivered Thursday morning.

"I want to be clear that streetcars don't cause development. ... But they can speed it up, they can focus it and intensify development. Developers see streetcars as an element of infrastructure that they can sell," said Brian Piascik of URS.

A trolley system ran in downtown Augusta for 70 years, ceasing in 1937. More than 30 communities in the country have installed new trolley systems over the past decade as an economic development tool. Another 100 are examining the feasibility just like Augusta, Mr. Piascik said.

"It is feasible. There are aspects of development going on in Augusta that make a streetcar a good idea. It will help you boost your development. Like every other streetcar, it costs money," Mr. Piascik said.

It would cost between $22 million to $31 million to lay 3.1 miles of track, buy the streetcars and the barns to house them, according to URS. Crossing the railroad tracks to serve the medical campus would add another $5 million to the cost of the transit system.

Federal funding is competitive and scarce, Mr. Piascik said, and Augusta would not make a good candidate for some of the transit programs because the trolley would have a limited role in improving regional mobility.

Local option sales tax, a tax-increment financing district or being part of a Business Improvement District would be better avenues for money, he said, also suggesting parking revenues and the sale of naming rights as additional options to fund the trolley.

"In order to get one of these built, you need a champion. They need to have some political power, obviously," Mr. Piascik said.

A federal earmark might be the easiest funding source, Mr. Piascik said, which could be done through garnering the support of the trolley by one of the area's congressmen.

The most favorable route has a single track running down Broad and Reynolds streets, covering James Brown Arena down Seventh Street and linking downtown to the medical campus down 13th Street.

An obstacle to the rail system is the existing rail, Mr. Piascik said. Two commercial railroad tracks slice through downtown Augusta, creating a barrier at Sixth Street and a potential problem crossing 13th Street.

The study did not provide a ridership estimate. Mr. Piascik said prediction models are not sensitive enough to predict riders in such a small area. He also recommended that the city not spend a lot of time trying to get ridership numbers because the system isn't meant to make money on riders.

"These systems don't make money. You get 20 percent out of the fare box," he said.

City transit planner Juriah Lewis said Augusta does better than that by making 30 percent of its cost on fares. The city gets 3,000 people a day riding the buses, and 1,500 on weekends, he said.

Board member and Augusta Commissioner J.R. Hatney said his only reaction to the trolley is a concern that it not damage the current transit system.

Mr. Lewis said the trolley study will be incorporated into a larger transit plan for the city that is nearly complete.

The DDA sent the study to its economic restructuring committee, which will conduct meetings on the topic.

DDA Chairman Steven Kendrick said he's always been in favor of the trolley idea.

"We need something exciting. Everything else gets hit. The Watermark went down the drain, the baseball stadium, the TEE Center. When are we going to do something?" Mr. Kendrick said.

Reach Tim Rausch at (706) 823-3352 or timothy.rausch@augustachronicle.com.

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