Lone Star Rail Action needed
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Support Georgetown Bus
Dec 15, 2011, 8:19:00 PM12/15/11
to george...@googlegroups.com
On Tuesday December 13th representatives from the Lone Star Rail District (LSTAR) gave a presentation to City Council. You can view the workshop at http://georgetowntx.swagit.com/play/12132011-729 They have done detailed ridership studies, and have conducted a very solid planning process that will ensure that the rail passes through the heart of urban areas to attract the greatest ridership and interconnect with other public transit options (those available now as well as those being planned.) LSTAR's plans also involve redirecting freight traffic that currently causes congestion in some towns such as New Braunfels as well as some smart public/private partnerships with Union Pacific and other companies.
City Council members asked some very good questions. Ms Berryman and Mr Sattler were not present for the presentation. Mr Gonzales is on record in an earlier meeting stating that he is willing to stake his reputation and council seat on opposing our participation in LSTAR because he is afraid it will end up like a commuter rail he is familiar with in Florida that costs the tax payers too much money and according to him has low ridership. His questions for LSTAR focused on figuring out how much of the estimated portion Georgetown would pay of the 10 million dollar annual operating expenses that will be carried by small cities and counties. No definite numbers could be given at this time but it could be a little over a million a year.
There was some discussion of commuter rail not being self sustaining. Only about 40% of operating costs are typically recovered at the fare box. However, by comparison, highways these days don't do much better, they only collect 50% of their costs with tolls, license plate fees, and other user type fees, the rest is incurred as debt that all tax payers pay for whether they use those roads or not.
Georgetown currently spends 4.5 Million annually on building and maintaining roads according to the 2011-2012 City Budget. According to the 2010 Citizen Survey 23% of respondents said they think Passenger Rail to Austin/San Antonio should be the FIRST priority to improve traffic. That was the 2nd most popular choice after Improvements to existing roads (30%.)
Please take time to review the facts and write to your City Council Member. If you are not sure who represents you, feel free to contact me.
--
Lalena Parkhurst
Support the bus in Georgetown
george...@gmail.com
512-508-1485
City Council members asked some very good questions. Ms Berryman and Mr Sattler were not present for the presentation. Mr Gonzales is on record in an earlier meeting stating that he is willing to stake his reputation and council seat on opposing our participation in LSTAR because he is afraid it will end up like a commuter rail he is familiar with in Florida that costs the tax payers too much money and according to him has low ridership. His questions for LSTAR focused on figuring out how much of the estimated portion Georgetown would pay of the 10 million dollar annual operating expenses that will be carried by small cities and counties. No definite numbers could be given at this time but it could be a little over a million a year.
There was some discussion of commuter rail not being self sustaining. Only about 40% of operating costs are typically recovered at the fare box. However, by comparison, highways these days don't do much better, they only collect 50% of their costs with tolls, license plate fees, and other user type fees, the rest is incurred as debt that all tax payers pay for whether they use those roads or not.
Georgetown currently spends 4.5 Million annually on building and maintaining roads according to the 2011-2012 City Budget. According to the 2010 Citizen Survey 23% of respondents said they think Passenger Rail to Austin/San Antonio should be the FIRST priority to improve traffic. That was the 2nd most popular choice after Improvements to existing roads (30%.)
Please take time to review the facts and write to your City Council Member. If you are not sure who represents you, feel free to contact me.
--
Lalena Parkhurst
Support the bus in Georgetown
george...@gmail.com
512-508-1485
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