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Tampa takes a test drive

A chamber delegation detours into delight as it rides Charlotte's new $463M commuter-rail line.

By JAMES THORNER, Times Staff Writer
Published October 24, 2007

ADVERTISEMENT [Charlotte Observer] A Lynx light-rail vehicle glides along the tracks in Charlotte, N.C. The $463-million commuter-rail system opens next month.

CHARLOTTE, N.C. - As the delegation from the Greater Tampa Chamber of Commerce sliced through the Charlotte suburbs Tuesday aboard the North Carolina city's virgin commuter- rail line, it was tough for the Tampa contingent to avoid wistful comparisons with their own home city.

"Can you imagine if we had this from downtown to New Tampa?" posed Roy McCraw, regional president of Wachovia Bank in Tampa, as the German-engineered electric train accelerated to 55 mph toward the South Carolina border.

What if another branch connected the University of South Florida to Tampa International Airport? wondered USF president Judy Genshaft. And chamber president Fred McClure, a Tampa lawyer, inquired about a Brandon-to-Tampa link.

Charlotte is the sort of New South, Sun Belt city with which Tampa likes to compare itself. But Charlotte has a big head start in one area viewed as vital to economic growth: a rapid-transit system whose centerpiece is a 10-mile light-rail corridor due to open Nov. 24.

The 55-person Tampa delegation chose Charlotte and arrived here Sunday for its 2007 "benchmarking visit" to compare and contrast the regions. The Queen City, as Charlotte is nicknamed, has gotten plenty of such attention recently, hosting contingents from Cincinnati and Sacramento, Calif.

Few impressions of Charlotte packed as much razzle-dazzle potential as the light-rail line, the first part of a 30-year, $8.9-billion transit plan focused largely on moving commuters on five predesignated spokes to and from downtown.

Bob Morgan, president of the Charlotte Chamber of Commerce, described it as the all-roads-lead-to-Rome strategy.

Charlotte captured state and federal money for the Lynx Blue Line, the 10-mile corridor powered by overhead electric lines that plows south from the gleaming high-rises of its downtown.

Its 15 stations serve what have been mostly blue-collar suburbs, though the imminent opening of the line has sparked $1-billion worth of mostly residential development astride the right of way. Park-n-Ride lots with 3,500 spaces serve the stations in the most distant suburbs.

The key to financing the project was to persuade voters to approve a half-cent sales tax increase dedicated to transportation in 1998. It raises about $70-million to $77-million a year.

The Tampa Bay area is involved in its own fledgling attempt to lay out commuter rail lines through the formation this year of the Tampa Bay Regional Transportation Authority.

A previous plan led from Tampa fizzled through a lack of support among politicians and potential riders. Any significant expansion of public transportation will require a referendum to raise local tax money.

"We're going to have to think how we're going to get this to the voters," said Stu Rogel, head of the Tampa Bay Partnership, which markets the seven-county region around Tampa.

Charlotte officials warned the Tampa visitors about the pitfalls of breaking such new ground in an automobile-oriented society. The sales tax that launched the rail project is now up for a voter recall Nov. 6. Ron Tober, chief of the Charlotte Area Transit System, is mocked in effigy on editorial pages.

The electric line's tentative cost was estimated at about $200-million in 1998, but came in at $463-million. Like most every other public transit system, it can't operate without a subsidy: The fare is $1.30 and will cover about a third of the yearly operating cost of $12-million.

Critics consider the rail a waste of money when highways need expanding. They point to the city's own statistics that show mass transit will capture only 5 percent of commuters over the next couple of decades, up from 1 percent now.

Charles Shook, a Charlotte rail corridor consultant, said those financially minded critics are short-sighted and fail to prepare for the future of potential fuel shortages and highway gridlock.

"They're more myopic than traders on Wall Street," Shook said.

The very segment of the population city officials assumed would support mass transit, its working-class black population, seems most skeptical, largely because black neighborhoods won't get rail for years and it's seen as a perk for wealthier whites.

In a speech to the Tampa delegation, Charlotte Mayor Pat McCrory blamed his prorail side for slacking off on marketing after the initial triumph of the referendum in 1998.

"You can never stop selling. There's a lesson learned you should take away from us," McCrory said.

But the warnings were temporarily lost on the Tampa business leaders enjoying the cushioned ride of the 92-foot Siemens rail car and the pulse of the digital station announcement boards.

Said Elaine McCloud, Tampa's transit manager, as she admired the shaded station platform deep in the Charlotte suburbs: "I wish we were this far along."

James Thorner can be reached at thorner@sptimes.com or (813) 226-3313.

[Last modified October 23, 2007, 22:37:34]