The Badger Herald: News: Transport 2020 keeps trucking

News

Transport 2020 keeps trucking

Plan to bring commuter rail system to Dane County progresses; would ease daily costs

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By Heather Burian
Tuesday, February 3, 2009 1:21 a.m.

2 Vote 0 Votes

The Transport 2020 plan to create a regional commuter rail and express bus throughout Dane County will be open to community discussion after a recommendation from the Finance and Governance Committee.

Transport 2020, a plan that has been in the works for more than a decade, is a plan to improve the transportation alternatives in the Dane County/Greater Madison Metropolitan Area.

“Right now we have conceptual engineering for the commuter rail and will see how it fits into a larger regional transportation system,” said Dick Wagner, co-chair of the finance and governance committee for Transport 2020.

Wagner said if the state Legislature passes Transport 2020, the services will be a great convenience for many University of Wisconsin faculty, students and staff.

Mario Mendoza, assistant to Mayor Dave Cieslewicz, said supporting Transport 2020 could broaden the Madison metro and mass transit options in the future.

Cieslewicz believes not cutting metro service or increasing bus fares is the right way to expand Madison metro transit in Dane County, Mendoza said, adding Transport 2020 could have a positive impact on the cost of transportation for students.

Mendoza said the Regional Transport Association could help get Dane County out of the current situation it faces, having to choose between increasing metro bus fares or decreasing service, and expand mass transit in a way that will lessen the financial impact on riders.

For the convenience of University of Wisconsin students, the proposed commuter rail will have three stops on the UW campus alone, Wagner said. These stops will be located at the Kohl Center, the engineering building and at UW Hospital.

“If they live further away, our rail system or bus system is a convenient way to get them to campus and there is no need to pay parking charges; just bus fare or rail fare,” Wagner added.

The commuter rail will run from Middleton to Sun Prairie, Wagner said, and later a potential line running from DeForest to Fitchburg may be created.

However, he said support for the Transport 2020 plan might cause an increase in costs on transportation by a half-cent sales tax.

Mendoza said Cieslewicz thinks the increase in sales tax should not have any direct impact on the community because it is unlikely the increase will go into effect before 2011.

“We hope by 2011 we bow out of the current financial condition we are nationally experiencing,” Mendoza said. “Such a sales tax will come about when our economy should recover.”

At the end of February and the beginning of March, the Finance and Governance Committee will hold community meetings to comment on the recent proposals for Transport 2020, Wagner added. He noted people have very strong ideas and the committee wants to take them into consideration.

“We have to talk about it in many ways,” Wagner said. “We have to turn it around and upside down; that’s called democracy, we do it all the time.”

2 Comments | Leave a comment

Susan De Vos | February 3, 2009 3:32 PM | Reply
IP hash: bf7de895

You report Mario Mendoza saying that the Mayor does not want to raise fares. This contradicts reality! The Mayor has basically thrown a tantrum because the Transit and Parking Commission has not go along with his desire to raise fares by 33%! Come on. What are you saying?