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GoTriangle calls off Durham-Orange light-rail project
Rail News Home Passenger Rail 3/28/2019
Rail News: Passenger Rail
GoTriangle calls off Durham-Orange light-rail project
GoTriangle's board yesterday voted unanimously to discontinue the $2.7 billion Durham-Orange light-rail transit project, following Duke University's refusal last month to sign a cooperative agreement that would have allowed the project to proceed.
The project would have built a 17.7-mile light-rail system to connect Chapel Hill and eastern Durham, North Carolina. Acting on GoTriangle President and Chief Executive Officer Jeff Mann's recommendation, the board voted to recommend that the cost-sharing partners in Durham and Orange counties and the Durham-Chapel Hill-Carrboro Metropolitan Planning Organization discontinue the project.
After the meeting, Mann said in a prepared statement that the project had been considered the "spine of Durham and Orange counties' transit plans" since voters in 2011 and 2012 approved a half-cent sales tax to invest in transit improvements.
"Over the years, the two counties have used this approved light-rail alignment as a basis for land-use, economic development and affordable housing plans to best accommodate the more than 7,000 people the counties are adding each year," said Mann. "Unfortunately, this project has recently faced a number of significant challenges, most notably Duke University’s refusal to sign necessary agreements with GoTriangle." ... Mann cited several other "challenges" to the project, including recent state law changes that would have resulted in less state funding for the project and state-imposed deadlines for non-federal and federal funds to be received for construction.
....
Rail News: Passenger Rail
GoTriangle calls off Durham-Orange light-rail project
GoTriangle's board yesterday voted unanimously to discontinue the $2.7 billion Durham-Orange light-rail transit project, following Duke University's refusal last month to sign a cooperative agreement that would have allowed the project to proceed.
The project would have built a 17.7-mile light-rail system to connect Chapel Hill and eastern Durham, North Carolina. Acting on GoTriangle President and Chief Executive Officer Jeff Mann's recommendation, the board voted to recommend that the cost-sharing partners in Durham and Orange counties and the Durham-Chapel Hill-Carrboro Metropolitan Planning Organization discontinue the project.
After the meeting, Mann said in a prepared statement that the project had been considered the "spine of Durham and Orange counties' transit plans" since voters in 2011 and 2012 approved a half-cent sales tax to invest in transit improvements.
"Over the years, the two counties have used this approved light-rail alignment as a basis for land-use, economic development and affordable housing plans to best accommodate the more than 7,000 people the counties are adding each year," said Mann. "Unfortunately, this project has recently faced a number of significant challenges, most notably Duke University’s refusal to sign necessary agreements with GoTriangle." ... Mann cited several other "challenges" to the project, including recent state law changes that would have resulted in less state funding for the project and state-imposed deadlines for non-federal and federal funds to be received for construction.
....