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Will money be the end of rapid bus system?

By AARON SHAROCKMAN
Published March 25, 2007

ST. PETERSBURG - Rapid bus service was sold in Pinellas County as the quick, cheap alternative to a $1.5-billion monorail system no one could afford.

That was three years ago.

Today, the buses are at least another three years away.

And officials across the area are back to haggling over money.

It's become a regular ritual in the county - where 24 municipalities, a county government and three different transportation planning boards are asked to see things the same way. The script usually goes like this:

The governments unite behind the idea that something needs to be done.

Then they pick at each other over the details until the idea blows up.

It's happened with light rail and monorails and other once promising mass transit alternatives.

Is it happening again?

Like a train on wheels

The quicker bus service, called bus rapid transit, has become a popular alternative to metropolitan areas facing a transportation crisis.

In recent years, systems have been constructed in Albany, Kansas City and Orlando, along with bigger cities like Los Angeles and Boston.

They function like subways or trains at a fraction of the cost, proponents say.

Customers purchase their tickets at a station, not on the bus, and vehicles arrive at a station every 10 or 15 minutes on weekdays.

The bus makes limited stops and can hold traffic signals to keep moving.

In Pinellas County, officials are considering the corridor along Central Avenue in St. Petersburg for a first launch. If successful, officials at the Pinellas Suncoast Transit Authority would move the system across the county.

Roger Sweeney, the executive director of the PSTA, said the climate has never been more receptive to mass transit. But that may not be enough.

"It comes down to political will," Sweeney said. "Is there enough political will to do the kinds of things to make it happen?"

"We'll find out."

All about the money

Planners first thought Pinellas County's rapid transit system would be ready in 2008.

Now Sweeney says it won't launch before the end of 2010 at the earliest.

Fact is, it will be held up even longer than that.

Aside from the debates over the design of the bus and the western terminus of the route, officials are scrambling to find a way to pay for the 13-mile-long system.

Depending on the decisions PSTA board members make, the county's system could cost anywhere from $17-million to $35-million to build, Sweeney says.

And as of now, the transit authority doesn't have one penny set aside to build the project.

The authority had planned on possibly raising its small property tax to the state limit - which could produce about $8.8-million next year - but the state Legislature's pending tax proposals may make that impossible.

In reality, the transit authority is likely to see at least a $3-million loss should the Legislature alter the state's tax laws, officials say.

That's not the only financial roadblock.

County commissioners have been lukewarm about using Penny for Pinellas funds to pay for some of the system, Sweeney said.

And city officials from St. Petersburg, who are pushing the most expensive option for the system, said money to fund the project would not come from them.

Perhaps "we always thought big daddy government would come out and help us," said Bill Jonson, a former member of the PSTA and the Clearwater City Council.

"We never talked about how are we going to afford this. It's fun to talk about features, but it's not so fun to talk about the costs," he said.

St. Petersburg officials say they believe some of the money could come from Congress. There's also federal transportation grants that could cover about half of the costs.

Decisions, decisions

Wherever the money comes from, St. Petersburg officials say it's crucial that the new system brings a level of service unrivaled in the county.

"If it's just an express bus route, we don't have to do all this analysis to put it on the ground," said Joe Kubicki, St. Petersburg's director of transportation planning.

"This is not rail transit, but it's as close as we can get without building rail transit. Even though it's 1/20 of the cost, it looks like rail, it acts like rail and it feels like rail."

The PSTA's 15 board members, most of them elected officials throughout the county, will likely decide in May what Pinellas' bus rapid transit will look like and how much it will cost.

Those decisions will force a more difficult discussion - who's going to pay for it.

Aaron Sharockman can be reached at asharockman@sptimes.com or 727 892-2273.

[Last modified March 25, 2007, 00:50:24]