Welcome

Columbus Rail Today

Envisioning the future of transporation in Columbus

http://go.osu.edu/columbus-rail

Background

Commuter Rail

  • Connects areas more than 10 miles apart
  • Speeds typically faster than light rail
  • Connects suburbs with city centers

Light Rail

  • Light refers to capacity and speed
  • Similar vehicles to subways
  • Can operate on streets or exclusive right of way
  • 1 mile station separation

Why would we want light rail?

  • Cheaper passenger miles than buses at capacity
  • Free up buses from central corridors
  • Property value increases
  • Scales better than highways
  • Reduces parking pressure
  • Emissions reduction

Who already has it?

Why don't we?

  • 1980 - COTA Transit80+
  • 1987 - DOwntown Monorail
  • 1992 - AmeriFlora '92
    • Inter-city connections
    • Lancaster Commuter
    • Downtown Transit Mall (multi-modal)
  • 1998 - Diesel Powered Commuter
  • 2001 - North Corridor Plan
  • 2003 - Columbus Streetcar
  • 2009 - Streetcar revisited
  • Unexpected federal funding shifts
  • Levy defeats

What about today?

Columbus Comprehensive Plan

City of Columbus

 

"Nothing in this Plan should therefore be interpreted to preclude light rail or other public transportation technology as a future transportation option in Columbus and central Ohio"

Columbus 2050: Creating Blueprints for Change

Urban Land Institute

 

Past projects should not be looked at as failures, but instead as building blocks for future projects.

2010 Downtown Columbus Strategic Plan

City of Columbus

 

"Columbus is the largest city in the country without rail service."

 

"Columbus is falling behind the competition."

2012-2035 Metropolitan Transportation Plan

MORPC

 

"MORPC will continue to play a role and support seeking funding for new transit services, such as fixed-guideway modes including light-rail and streetcar, and will plan for their interaction with each other as well as other conventional transit modes."

2012-2035 Long Range Transit Plan

COTA

 

"... continue to solicit public feedback about desired modes of fixed-guideway transit, such as light rail, commuter rail, streetcar, or bus rapid transit in an exclusive corridor; however, for those types of systems to be implemented, additional funding would need to be identified."

Insight2050

MORPC, ULI, Columbus 2020

 

  • Vehicle Miles Travelled (VMT)
    • At current trends: 8,450mi
    • At max infill: 3,850mi
  • CO2 Emissions
    • At current trends: 6.7M tonnes
    • At max infill: 4.7M tonnes

What did we learn?

  • Columbus is growing
  • Highway system will become cost-prohibitive
  • Need for funding

 

  • Develop a plan and keep it updated, so that when funding is available it will be ready to go

Alignment

Where should it go?

  • Density
  • Linearity
  • Continuity
  • Accessibility

What does this cost?

Phase 1

High St

Phase 2

Broad St

 

Total

Track

Vehicles

Stations

Bridges

Professional Services

Total

$72 (3.64mi)

$26

$34

$9 

$194

$335

$126 (6.31mi)

$57

$26

$3 

$193

$406

$198 (9.95mi)

$83

$60

$12

$387

$741

All values are in millions of 2014 dollars

Based on projections from FTA Capital Cost Database

What are the benefits?

Weekday Ridership

VMT Reduction

CO2 Reduction

Gasoline Saved

Injuries Prevented

29,539

36.86 million miles

17,637 tons

1.99 million gallons

7

Is it any faster?

How long will it take?

Any other hurdles?

Maintenance yards

  • Necessary for routine maintenance and operations
  • Enclosed workshops
  • Variable size

Norfolk

  • 7 acres
  • 30,000 sq ft
  • 15 vehicle capacity
  • Light maintenance only

Santa Monica

  • 8.3 acres
  • 70,000 sq ft
  • 45 vehicle capacity

Salt Lake City

  • 24 acres
  • 200,000 sq ft
  • 100 vehicle capacity
  • Renovated warehouses

Don't we already have transit?

But really, where is this going?

Funding Options

and

Economic Impacts

How do we pay for this?

  • Federal Route
    • Pros
      • Precedent
      • Grants, traditionally
    • Cons
      • EIS = 4 years
      • Competitive, limited funds
  • Non-Federal Route
    • Pros
      • Faster

      • Opportunity to be creative
    • Cons
      • Greater number of sources needed

      • No set formula to follow

Traditional Federal Funding

New Starts Grants

  • Project justification

    • Harder to affect

  • Local Financial Commitment

    • Where our efforts would see the greatest direct result

Alternative Federal Funding

TIFIA

  • Transportation Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act

  • Available TIFIA funds have increased $2 billion over 2013 & 2014

    • Federal trend toward loans over grants

  • First Come First Serve

Federal Advantaged

EB-5 Immigrant Investor Program 

  • Can receive large sums

    • Brooklyn Arena Infrastructure and Transportation Improvement; $228M

  • Regional Centers recruit investors

  • Can be revenue generator if run by the City

  • Investment must be paid back, may require us to raise additional funds

Public-Private Partnerships (P3)

  • Risk sharing
  • Reduce level of public subsidy
  • Improve efficiency and attractiveness of transit
  • More readily adopt new technologies

Public-Private Partnerships (P3)

  • Essentially a form of procurement

  • Steps toward implementation:

    • Design

    • Finance

    • Build

    • Operate

    • Maintain

Eagle P3 (Denver)

  • First DBFOM agreement

  • Project Cost: $2.2 billion

    • $450M from private partner

    • $1.03B from FTA

    • Remainder from sales tax bonds

Joint Development

  • Focused value capture mechanism

  • Provides an additional source of income

  • Washington D.C. as a model

 

  • Does require land acquisition

Alternative Revenue Sources

  • One substation in Philadelphia equipped with large battery
  • Store power from regenerative braking
  • Sell to grid for frequency regulation
  • Reliable, quick power is valuable
  • $250,000 annual revenue

What are the impacts?

  • Permanence attractive to developers

    • Dallas, $1.3B in reinvestment around light rail stops

    • Portland, over $2B in reinvestment

  • Attracts new wave of professionals

  • Builds tax base

  • Reduces automobile dependence

Transit-Oriented Development 

Strategic Plan

  • Guiding development principles

  • Station area typologies

  • Context-sensitive zoning

  • Guidelines for collaboration with private and public entities

  • Action Plan

Outreach

How can we make this happen?

  • Public input is essential to long-term success

  • Gather public opinion through online survey

  • Establish social media presence

  • iPad surveys at Port Columbus

  • Business cards

What did we learn?

How can we keep people interested?

  • Increasing public awareness will
    • Teach people what light rail is and how it will affect them
    • Give people a sense of what is/is not feasible
    • Improve the strength and quality of public opinion
  • Used twitter to post progress updates and links to relevant news
  • Final document of research, findings, and proposals will be available on the website

Can we go further?

What about the future?

  • Public meetings critical for updates

  • Public input early and often

  • Increasing public awareness is an ongoing process

  • Integrate with other plans

Questions?

http://go.osu.edu/columbus-rail

Welcome

By Michael Bickley