In the third set of community meetings regarding a possible future Regional Transit Authority in Dane County, citizens voiced their concerns Monday regarding a proposed commuter rail.
According to Dick Wagner, co-chair of the Finance Governance Committee of Transport 2020 and host of the discussion, an RTA could support a regional system of many different modes of transportations.
If approved, Wagner said the RTA would provide a commuter bus which will outline county communities and a new commuter rail system which will travel through the core of the metropolitan area.
“There would be more recourses that we can devote to transit rather than the fights we’ve been having to barely keep transit going with raised fares in the sort of equation where transit is frankly in jeopardy at the moment,” Wagner added.
However, the transit system will force an additional half-cent tax on Dane Country residents.
The project, according to Wagner, which will cost the county $250 million, might be funded in part by the federal government. The other half of the cost will be from the resident tax increase, Wagner said.
Dane County resident Bill Richardson said traffic congestion throughout the county is already bad enough, and the addition of an RTA will only add to the problem.
He said the county is apparently not allowed to construct any more highways, so he does not understand how ramming a train into the center of the city, especially because it will stop thousands of times throughout the day, will help traffic congestion.
Additionally, he questioned whether the potential money being used for the RTA will be issued in a cost-effective manner.
Wagner said the rail system will be a beneficial transportation method for University of Wisconsin students, adding it will stop at three major landmarks in the campus area: the UW Hospital, the Kohl Center and near the engineering campus.
Deb Schwartz, a Dane County resident, said she is a taxpayer struggling to make ends meet each week who has heard the downtown area buses are never filled. She added even if the RTA is approved, it does not mean student and Dane County residents will ride the commuter rail and bus systems.
“From the feds down, it’s got to stop,” she said. “We’re all going bankrupt, and they have to realize it.”
Bruce Speight, member of the state advocacy organization of Wisconsin Public Interest Research Group said Dane County needs to update its transportation system to keep pace with the 21st century.
He said Americans waste about $900 billion on automobiles each year, and they have an addiction to oil and gasoline.
“We need to face and work to solve the big transportation problem that we are,” he said.
