Plans envision better Amtrak service, trains in Phoenix
by Sean Holstege
May. 17, 2010 12:00 AM
The Arizona Republic

Efforts are under way to introduce daily long-distance Amtrak service to southern Arizona and ultimately bring passenger trains back into downtown Phoenix.

Both prospects face daunting challenges, however. They involve tough track-access negotiations with the nation's largest railroad freight hauler and a commitment of precious state or local funds.

If negotiations with Union Pacific Railroad pan out, Amtrak could extend its existing service to southern Arizona by offering trips each day by the end of the year. Buses would carry Phoenix-area passengers to the nearest station, in Maricopa.

A resurgent national interest in passenger rail service and shifts in federal policies are driving both efforts.

The government forced Amtrak, a federally funded corporation, to rethink its worst-performing routes. And worst of all is the Sunset Limited, which runs three times weekly from Los Angeles through Texas to New Orleans and stops in Arizona in the dead of night. Trains bypass Phoenix, stopping in Yuma, Maricopa, Tucson and Benson. Amtrak spends $4 for every dollar it makes from fares on the Sunset Limited.

But Amtrak also considers Arizona a huge untapped market and predicts improved service here will attract tens of thousands of new passengers a year.

That plan coincides with state efforts to connect Arizona's two largest cities with passenger rail for the first time since 1996.

If the Arizona Department of Transportation's plans ever reach fruition, Amtrak and more-frequent in-state trains could share a line southeast from Phoenix to Tucson. Heading west, Amtrak trains would leave downtown Phoenix on a restored line. The route also could accommodate a third service for commuters from the East and West Valley.

The track improvements and daily service are far from done deals.

Existing track in Arizona is owned by freight rail giants Union Pacific and Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railroad. Passenger operations, including Am- trak, must negotiate time slots with the freight companies.

Negotiations often result in Amtrak paying for track improvements and freight-service disruptions. Amtrak said negotiations are challenging, and Union Pacific said it is "defining how we would add trains to the route."

ADOT has no money to build, restore or improve tracks. The state will be seeking planning grants from the Federal Railroad Administration but has until Tuesday to cobble together the $10 million in matching funds needed to qualify.

Daily service

Before Amtrak's summer schedule took effect a week ago, the Sunset Limited pulled into Tucson around 2 a.m. Yet Tucson is still the busiest station on the route.

Amtrak saw an opportunity.

"If we run it daily, Tucson could go sky-high," said Amtrak Production Development Chief Brian Ronsenwald.

His team developed a business model to capture more riders at the Tucson station and also pursue riders from the Valley. Daily eastbound Amtrak trains would arrive at Maricopa around 8 a.m. and westbound ones around 8 p.m.

Amtrak also wants to reintroduce after a decade a bus from Phoenix and Tempe timed to meet the trains.

Amtrak also proposes changes elsewhere, such as rerouting service once the train reaches San Antonio. Now, trains proceed on to New Orleans, but Amtrak wants to send those trains to Dallas, St. Louis and Chicago and create a separate service for New Orleans.

Combined, the changes would attract an additional 124,000 passengers a year, Amtrak predicts. About 78,000 passengers now ride the Sunset Limited.

The proposed changes stem from the 2008 Passenger Rail Investment and Improvement Act. The act nearly doubled the federal government's Amtrak subsidy to $2.6 billion a year. In return, Amtrak was required to come up with business plans to make remedial lines more efficient.

Since Amtrak's 1971 inception, critics have derided it as a waste of money. Amtrak cannot function without subsidies, relatively few people ride it and it has been plagued by terrible schedule delays.

Supporters argue that the government underfunded the system for decades and the operation played second fiddle to freight.

The Obama administration has laid out a national passenger rail strategy, bringing renewed interest in Amtrak. President Barack Obama gave the Federal Railroad Administration new authority to hand out grants for passenger rail studies and improvements.

Returning to Phoenix

In 1996, the sun set on Phoenix's rail service, even while daily service continued through Flagstaff on Amtrak's Southwest Chief line, from Los Angeles to Chicago. Phoenix became the largest metro area in the U.S. without passenger rail.

For a quarter century, the Sunset Limited had traveled through Phoenix on a line from Yuma, called the Wellton branch. Then in October 1995, saboteurs derailed an Amtrak train northwest of Gila Bend.

By then the track had begun to show signs of wear and tear, and it was downgraded. Amtrak rerouted service along the transcontinental freight line through Maricopa.

With federal rail money now available, ADOT has refocused on Wellton as a long-term way to bring Amtrak back into Phoenix. Cost estimates range from $50 million to $200 million.

In coming weeks, ADOT plans to release its first state rail plan, a first step toward getting federal money for track upgrades.

With $6 million from earlier federal grants and congressional earmarks, ADOT next month will start a conceptual study evaluating options for connecting Phoenix and Tucson by rail. Eight options for a new track are being explored. Costs are unknown.

Options include extending existing freight track from Tempe to Maricopa or Chandler to Interstate 10. Others would put new lines in the East Valley, one along Arizona 79 and others reconnecting with Union Pacific north of Picacho.

"We have to have dedicated track. . . . That's the only way to get good service," said state Rep. Steve Farley, D-Tucson.

Moving from concepts to engineering will take federal grants.

"You can't spend state (gas-tax money) on rail because of constitutional protections," ADOT's rail chief Shannon Scutari said. State, regional or local matching money is needed to compete for the federal grants, she said.

Mesa hopes light rail brings life to downtown
Posted: Saturday, May 15, 2010 12:07 pm | Updated: 12:33 am, Sun May 16, 2010.
Garin Groff
Tribune

Mesa has struggled for years to make its mile-long downtown vibrant, but a new light rail segment is triggering calls to extend the city’s urban core by several miles.

Key city officials say they want to expand the downtown-style streetscape at least two miles to the west, where the Metro system now ends at Sycamore Street.

Councilman Dave Richins said new transit stations will foster a nearly continuous stretch of downtown-like development that will make Main Street an inviting place.

“You literally could walk from City Hall to Main and Sycamore and hardly notice the distance,” Richins said.

That’s a stretch of 2 miles.

Richins said that seems like a long span now, but compared it with wandering the same distance at a place like the pedestrian-friendly Pike Place Market in Seattle.

“I walked that and didn’t bat an eye,” he said.

That kind of urban setting would be a radical transformation on a stretch of Main Street that’s a hodgepodge of old motor lodges, trailer parks, small shops and a suburban-style shopping plaza.

The city expects Main will be lined with buildings up to five stories tall. A mix of offices, housing and street-level shops would line the sidewalk, while parking lots would shrink or vanish to create an urban feel.

“We would love to see the downtown extended,” said Christine Zielonka, Mesa’s development services director.

The city doesn’t have specific guidelines yet, but in a year will have a plan to guide density and design along the new Metro segment. The line will stretch east of Mesa Drive, with construction starting in 2013. Service will begin in 2016.

The new urban scene will come property-by-property as land owners decide redevelopment is a good option for them, city officials said. The changes could take a decade or two.

“That’s a large stretch of territory with a lot of different existing uses,” said Councilman Dennis Kavanaugh, whose district includes the planned expansion. “To translate what it is today to a downtown-type development is something that I think will take time in this economy, but the light-rail is the perfect catalyst.”

A revitalized downtown can’t come quickly enough for Nick Davis, whose family owns the Citrus Grove trailer park at 1021 W. Main St. Davis Enterprises has held the property since the 1950s and been frustrated to see crime, prostitution and drug dealing eat away at the neighborhood for at least two decades.

Davis said he’s not looking to redevelop the property, but to be part of a cleaner area that’s more vibrant.

“Main Street is ripe for redevelopment if light-rail is built on it and the city incentivizes it,” Davis said. “I honestly believe that it can happen if you have a real downtown in Mesa, something that people are really proud of and proud to go down to.”

Davis said he was a skeptic of light-rail’s redevelopment potential until watching new businesses sprout up after the initial 20-mile segment opened in late 2008. His family owns a plaza in Phoenix at 4700 N. Central Ave., which is south of Camelback Road. Davis said that part of Central enjoys much of the life that downtown Phoenix has, demonstrating a large amount of redevelopment can take place over a wide area.

The economy could make redevelopment tougher now, but Davis said he’s encouraged by how quickly light-rail improved an area he recalls as lifeless growing up in the 1980s and ’90s.

“It was a ghost town down there was I was in high school, when I was in college,” he said. “Who ever would have thought that something that was a ghost town would have a night life? I do believe that change can happen. I think it depends on how much Mesa wants to put into it.”

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Airport’s Sky Train To Link With Phoenix’s Light Rail
Aviation Week & Space Technology
May 17, 2010 , p. 51
James Ott, Phoenix

Sky Train aims to clear road congestion that plagues Phoenix’s downtown airport

Printed headline: Achilles’ Heel

Phoenix’s downtown airport looks toward a bright future under the searing desert sun except for one huge obstacle. Vehicles jam the main roadway serving a linear stretch of terminals sandwiched between north and south runways.

“It’s our Achilles’ heel,” says Jane Morris, assistant aviation director.

A lengthy study concluded that an elevated train offered the best way to avoid ground gridlock. Three years later and more two years from the construction start, the deep-rooted columns of the PHX Sky Train are lining the first-stage route of a 1.7-mi. elevated train, slated for opening at Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport in 2013. It is part of a $1.57-billion project that will link with the city’s newly minted light rail system. It is estimated to carry 10 million passengers the first year, and as many as 35 million when completed in 2020.

The best news for Phoenix travelers is that the ride anywhere along the six-stop, 4.9-mi. route, from the light rail linkup to the rental car center, will not cost a dime. But there’s an indirect fee, a $4.50 passenger facility charge, as well as airport funds and PFC-backed bonds and revenue bonds.

A request for federal funding under the recovery act to accelerate the project, building past busy Terminal 4 to Terminal 3 with a pedestrian walkway connecting Terminal 2, was denied. But the city is proceeding on schedule anyway. Bombardier is building six three-car trains for the first phase and plans a 76-car system. The city has a $186-million contract with Bombardier for designing and building Sky Train, and a 10-year, $70-million operating deal.

A 50% increase in passenger traffic since 1995 at this ninth-busiest U.S. airport pressured facility officials to find a solution to roadway congestion. The traffic boost pushed the total to 38 million passengers last year, which represented a 10% decrease from the 2007 peak. In the meantime Sky Harbor has become a hub for US Airways and the site of the airline’s corporate headquarters. Veteran client Southwest Airlines just keeps growing there—it’s the third busiest Southwest airport, with 179 nonstop departures a day to 44 cities.

The two airlines share space in the Barry M. Goldwater Terminal 4, where 78.4% of passengers travel through.

Traffic rebounded quickly in the wake of 9/11, says Paul Blue, assistant aviation director, from 3-5% a year, but he doesn’t expect that kind of rebound in this post-recession period. “It’s a mature market and we expect organic growth, following the population, so the airport’s master plan is based on a 2-3% growth rate.”

The growth rate will be kept low, he says, because airlines eventually will regain pricing power and increase fares, which “has its diminishing effects.”

Blue is putting strong focus on revenue development. “The bottom line is, like most airports, we don’t have a problem keeping the lights on. Our budget is the same as it was three years ago. This is a capital intensive place, in high use and we constantly need to reinvest. That’s why we are so concerned with revenues going soft. It has more impact on our capital programs than our ability to operate.”

The city also runs the Goodyear and Deer Valley general aviation facilities.

Sky Harbor takes a unique place in the national air transportation system as the largest commercial airport between Dallas/Fort Worth and Los Angeles. Its catchment area is Arizona, and it has virtually no competition. The city has acquired a 30% interest in Phoenix Mesa Gateway Airport where Allegiant flies, a nearby facility that serves as a reliever.

There is competition for international services. British Airways flies to London six times a week from Phoenix, and there’s plenty of service to Canada and Mexico. But for other connections Sky Harbor passengers go to Chicago, Dallas, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Seattle.

Sky Harbor has cash and cash equivalents of $22.9 million on hand. Its three-runway layout should work for decades, Blue says. The three-year-old FAA control tower was built at the same time the agency improved the Tracon. Airport officials are angling for runway status lights to work with the Sensis ASDE-X surface detection system.

On the ground side, three terminals offer 100 gates with vacancy rates of less than 5%. A new terminal, at the far west end on the main road, is part of the master plan but there’s no rush. The main focus is Sky Train, says Morris, who is in charge of the project. The airport offers shuttle busses to light rail passengers from a nearby station, but Sky Train will make “travel available for everybody,” she says.

Len Copple, former Tempe councilman, dies
by Dianna M. Náñez
May. 18, 2010 05:54 PM
The Arizona Republic

Len Copple's legacy includes the establishment of light rail and an arts center in Tempe, but the people who knew him say they will remember him for his honesty and as a man who stood by his convictions regardless of popularity.

The former councilman and longtime Tempe resident died Monday morning from acute lymphocytic leukemia. He was 68.

Councilman Ben Arredondo served with Copple on the Tempe City Council during Copple's terms from 1998 to 2006.

Copple was a stellar example of what a civic leader should be, Arredondo said.

"I thought Leonard was one of the most honorable persons I've served with. He stood by his convictions," Arredondo said. "I think that the two things he'll be remembered for are his honesty and his honorable intentions. That's what it takes to be a strong politician that people respect."

Arredondo praised Copple for helping lobby for light rail and the Tempe Center for the Arts. But he wanted people to know that Copple's service to the city did not stop after he left the council.

"The people of Tempe are going to miss him. Not only because he served on the City Council but because . . . he served the whole community. He helped Tempe Sister Cities, Friends of Tempe Center for the Arts, The Arc of Tempe (a non-profit serving people with developmental disabilities)," he said. ""He believed in this community . . . and worked very hard for it."

Copple's wife, Jean, said her husband was a giving man because he wanted to make a difference in the lives of the people and city he cared about.

"He got up every day making the decision to be happy . . . even though everything wasn't always easy," she said. "He was the most generous man I've ever known. He was generous with his time, and with his affection and his talents."

Copple's daughter, Cathy Swann, said she was thumbing through mementos this week when she found a letter that described her feelings about her father.

"I just got done going through an old letter that I had written to my dad. I think one of the things that really stood out is that he always stood up for what he believed in . . . and demonstrated tremendous character and integrity for his kids and his grandkids," she said.

He was a hands-on grandpa whose grandchildren will miss him terribly, she added.

"He was the apple of my little girl's eye. Grandpa was her best buddy and he just dropped everything for her," she said. "He never missed my older son's baseball games and spent time with my younger son building things and going on hikes."

Copple is survived by his wife, Jean, three children, six grandchildren and a brother. The family said people who want to make donations can give to the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society (http://pages.teamintraining.org/dm/rnr10/cathyswann) or the Friends of the Tempe Center for the Arts (700 W. Rio Salado Parkway, Tempe, 85281).

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Phoenix could pay up to $27.5 million to end bus contract
by Jahna Berry
May. 19, 2010 05:24 PM
The Arizona Republic

Phoenix City Council approved an agreement on Wednesday that could cost up to $27.5 million and help end the city's three-year contract with a bus contractor.

The agreement was made with Veolia Transportation, one of three city bus contractors. Among other things, Veolia workers help handle day-to-day operations including driving buses and fixing city buses. The city has to pay to end the current contract because the city plans to switch to a less-expensive agreement with the same company, which starts July 1, Public Transit Director Debbie Cotton said.The agreement comes as the Phoenix bus system, the largest in the Valley, has cut routes and reduced service to grapple with city budget woes and falling tax revenue. The agreement won't impact existing bus services, city spokeswoman Marie Chapple said.

Under the deal, Phoenix expected to pay $13.5 million over five years to the underfunded pension plan for Veolia workers, city documents say. The pensions were underfunded because the rules for pension changed, which requires the city to contribute more funding. Also, the pension fund took a hit during the recession and the city had to help fill the gap in funding, transit officials say.

The plan also calls for Phoenix to pay $2 million for accumulated sick leave for Veolia workers, city documents show.

Phoenix and Veolia aim to raise $3.5 million through increased revenue, cost-cutting measures or other funds, according to the plan.

Phoenix plans to pay for the agreement through the Transit 2000 fund, money that comes from the 0.4 percent sales tax that voters approved in March 2000.

Phoenix is negotiating a new 5-year, $388 million contract with Veolia that begins July 1.

"We are really excited about the opportunity," said Jim Wolf, a regional vice president for Veolia, referring to the new contract. "What the new contract will do is save the city $25 million over five years."

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Metro launches new schedule, cuts for light-rail service
Posted: Thursday, May 20, 2010 7:18 am | Updated: 7:44 am, Thu May 20, 2010.
The Associated Press
Tribune

Expect to wait longer in the heat for the next light rail train to arrive. The Metro transit board voted unanimously Wednesday to cut services aimed at saving $1.6 million in operating costs.

That means peak hours move to 7:30 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. with peak hour trains running every 12 minutes instead of every 10.

Metro already instituted pay freezes and reductions in contracted work for a savings of about $2.4 million.

Metro has $33.2 million to run the 20-mile system across Phoenix, Tempe and Mesa in the fiscal year beginning July 1.

Metro reacted to cuts in local sales taxes that subsidize operations and a one-time raid of Lottery money from local coffers by the Arizona Legislature, which used the money to balance the state budget.

North Phoenix park-and-ride being built
by Betty Reid
May. 21, 2010 09:11 AM
The Arizona Republic

A $2.5 million park-and-ride under construction in north Phoenix is scheduled to open to carpoolers in October and buses by January, Phoenix officials said.

The Happy Valley Road/I-17 Park-and-Ride, 24725 N. 29th Ave., is west of Interstate 17 and the Shops at Norterra. Federal stimulus funds financed the 7.7-acre project, which will have 512 parking spaces. The new facility will serve the North Valley, including Norterra, Tramonto and Stetson Hills, officials said. Many use I-17 to commute to downtown Phoenix.

Others use the existing park-and-ride at Bell Road and the freeway, said Kini Knudson, Phoenix Public Transit Department's deputy director of facilities.

"When the park-and-ride is operational, we expect it (will) provide some much-needed relief for our capacity issues" at the Bell Road park-and-ride, which has 350 parking spaces, Knudson said.

Phoenix added an art element to the project at a cost of $185,000. It will have seven vertical shade structures with attached seating and five decorative shade screens, which will be placed at the waiting areas.

The Public Transit Department's capital project budget paid for the artwork, city officials said.

Plans to build the park-and-ride began in 2004, when city officials noticed the Bell Road facility had reached capacity, Knudson said. Security guards at Bell Road noticed each of 350 parking spaces was filled before the buses pulled into the area during rush hour, officials said.

The site qualified for funding from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 that aimed to jump-start the economy.

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Funding shortfalls to delay Gateway Airport bus link
by Art Thomason
May. 22, 2010 08:31 AM
The Arizona Republic

A long-awaited mass-transit link to Phoenix-Mesa Gateway Airport will be delayed because of legislative cuts that resulted from declining sales-tax revenues and shortfalls in state transportation funding.

The new Link bus service along Power Road was scheduled to start in June, but it likely will be delayed until at least January.

The service is considered to be a critical element of Mesa's overall transportation plan, which calls for linking regions with light-rail service.

The delay comes as city officials are trying to promote economic development in the airport corridor and to connect its aerospace businesses and higher-education campuses, including the Arizona State University Polytechnic campus.

The Link project and others stem from voter approval in 2004 of Proposition 400, which included tax money for transit projects.

"We don't have the money to do the transportation system as originally designed under Prop. 400," said Scott Somers, Mesa city councilman and member of the Regional Public Transportation Authority.

The Arizona Legislature brought that point home again last month when it eliminated $24 million in Local Transportation Assistance Funds to cities.

The Power Road service was not the only casualty. A planned July start for a new Link bus service connecting Mesa, Gilbert and Chandler along Country Club Drive and Arizona Avenue with Mesa's light-rail station is likely on hold until January, even though 20 new bus shelters financed with federal stimulus funds will rise along the route before Thanksgiving.

However, it is the Power Road service that is most troubling, Somers said.

Somers represents Council District 5, a sprawling land mass of 104,000 residents, businesses, industry, the Valley's main reliever airport and four higher-education campuses, including Arizona State University Polytechnic and Chandler-Gilbert Community College.

"My district's population is bigger than a lot of cities'," he said. "But students at Chandler-Gilbert and ASU Poly still can't get to Mesa Community College's Red Mountain Campus by bus.

"I have a transit center which has an express route and limited arterial routes," Somers said. "But their southbound route ends at Superstition Springs Center at U.S. 60 and Power. There is virtually no bus service south of there for Power Road."

In west Mesa, the new Country Club Link service that extends south along Arizona Avenue also is a victim of losing Local Transportation Assistance Funds, Transit director Mike James said.

With fanfare, Valley Metro announced that sleek new buses would make 40 trips a day this summer transporting passengers between a park-and-ride lot at Chandler's Tumbleweed Park to Gilbert, then on to the light-rail station in Mesa.

New prefabricated bus shelters with lighted signs, fare-vending machines and bicycle racks were purchased with $15 million in American Recovery and Reinvestment Act money, James said.

The shelters are transported by trucks to sites along the routes, where cranes place them on concrete pads, Valley Metro spokeswoman Susan Tierney said. Several of the shelters have been erected and all 20, including seven in Mesa, should be in place by Nov. 24, she said.

The Link service will likely begin in January, barring any further setbacks, transit officials said.

James said he is proposing the delay in Mesa because all the bus shelters won't be installed until November. In the meantime, he said, the city can apply $200,000 that would have been used to run the service to instead help supplement the budget deficit and keep existing local bus services running.

The bus stops in Mesa will be shared with Country Club local Route 112, which will use the stops before and after the Link service begins, he said. Mesa also has a local route on Country Club that provides service to the Sycamore light-rail station.

Chandler Public Works Director R.J. Zeder said the Link service likely will begin in January in his city. The state took $1 million from Chandler's transit allocation, forcing the city to cut some existing routes and leaving no money for additional services, he said.

James and Zeder said Chandler, Gilbert and Mesa are working together to get the Link service started. The cities will assume some of the estimated $815,000 annual operating costs.

Gilbert spokeswoman Beth Lucas had no comment.

Somers said the setbacks highlight the need to decide what kind of transportation system can be built with declining sales-tax revenue and its drain on Proposition 400.

Building a system as it was originally envisioned will be "ineffective and unusable," he said, "because, at best, there are going to be 60-minute wait times for buses," Somers said. "You can't use 60-minute waits and transit service in the same sentence."

Reporter Edythe Jensen contributed to this article.

Glendale residents offer alternatives to cuts in Valley Metro bus routes
by Cecilia Chan
May. 24, 2010 09:24 AM
The Arizona Republic

Use shorter buses, cut administration and raise fares were some of the suggestions that Northwest Valley riders pitched to save their bus routes from the chopping block.

About 20 residents visited Glendale City Hall for Wednesday's public hearing on proposed cuts to West Valley bus routes.

"We are not happy with what is happening with the bus changes taking place," said Mario Diaz, Valley Metro chief marketing officer. "These are proposals at this point."

Diaz blamed the changes on a drop in sales-tax revenue and the state Legislature's grab of Lottery revenues that had supported Valley public transportation for 30 years.

The elimination of the Lottery money, called the Local Transportation Assistance Fund, to help balance the state budget was a $23 million-a-year hit to Maricopa County. Arizona is now one of five states that do not help fund public transit, according to Valley Metro.

Diaz said each city and town selected the routes for reduction or elimination based on how many riders used the routes and looking at such variables as the cost to put service on the street for the number of passengers transported.

Bus routes Valley-wide may be affected.

In Glendale, two express routes are targeted for elimination and three other routes may lose service on Sunday.

Glendale resident Traci Gabbert asked that Route 572 be spared from elimination. The express route runs between Surprise and Scottsdale.

"Most riders on our bus could drive to work," she said. "But by taking the bus we are more relaxed."

She said riders on her bus route have built camaraderie and are more productive at work.

She suggested Valley Metro look at cutting the number of daily runs and starting the route in Arrowhead instead of Surprise.

A majority of the speakers argued against cutting Route 660, a 44-mile ride from Wickenburg to Arrowhead Towne Center in Glendale.

Tracey Regan, who represented Blue Mountain Developmental Programs in Surprise, said eliminating the route would hurt their clients, children and young adults with developmental disabilities.

"We have clients in the adult day care from Route 660 that need that route to get to our program," Regan said. "We also have an after-school program for students from Nadaburg (Elementary School). These families would be unable to attend without it. It's a lifeline for us as an agency."

Wickenburg resident Kay Kollock said elimination of the route would hurt retirees, the disabled and people without cars who depend on the bus to get around.

Kollock said she relies on the bus once every six weeks to travel to her doctor in Arrowhead to be treated for macular degeneration.

"If there's no bus I'll go blind," she said.

Kollock said, "I can't believe anybody would think of eliminating a bus route."

She said she called around for other transportation services such as taxis and discovered it would cost $55 to $75 for a one-way trip to Arrowhead. Currently, the cost to ride the entire route is $4 each way.

Diaz said the public comments would be considered by local city councils and the Valley Metro board of directors on June 17.

If the changes are adopted, they could take effect as early as July 26.

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Thank you, Len
by Alia Rau
The Arizona Republic Political Insider
Monday, May 24, 2010 at 10:17 AM

I spent Sunday afternoon with Tempe, saying thank you and goodbye to a piece of the city's heart.

More than a hundred of the people who have made Tempe what it is today gathered Sunday afternoon for a memorial service for former Tempe Councilman Len Copple. U.S. Rep. Harry Mitchell was there, as was Tempe Sen. Meg Burton-Cahill, Tempe Mayor Hugh Hallman and a host of current and former council members, city staff and community leaders.

Len's son commented about how surprised his dad would be that so many showed up to pay their respects. But that's just what Tempe does. It's still a small town in many respects. People grow up and stay to raise their own kids here. They run into each other at the grocery store and the oncologist's office and stop and chat. They get involved, whether that means serving on the council or volunteering behind the scenes.

They love their town, and they work hard to make it a better place.

That's what Len did. He helped bring Tempe light rail, the Tempe Center for the Arts and the Rock 'n Roll marathon. He served eight years on the City Council and although sometimes he found himself the lone dissenting voice, he did it in a way that earned the respect of his colleagues. He cheered his kids on at their baseball games and marathons.

And when he lost a bid for re-election in 2006, he was happy to move on to more important community efforts. He and I sat outside drinking beer one evening not long after he left the council. I asked him what his plans were.

He said he had very big, very important plans. He leaned back, took a relaxed sip of beer and grinned with excitement.

"I'm taking care of my granddaughter," he said.

Thank you Len, for making Tempe a better place for this generation and the next. You will be missed and remembered.

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Delaying light rail to Glendale until 2026 could doom project
by Rebekah L. Sanders
May. 25, 2010 09:27 AM
The Arizona Republic

Light rail to Glendale is now 16 years away due to regional funding troubles caused by the recession, and city leaders are worried about the delay.

Glendale originally was scheduled to open a light-rail line connecting to Phoenix by 2017. Metro, the light-rail governing board made up of representatives from across the Valley, then delayed the extension to 2019 and finally to 2026.

Decision-makers have pushed back several other planned light-rail corridors once envisioned as part of the 57-mile system. They include lines along Peoria Avenue in Phoenix, toward Paradise Valley Mall and toward MetroCenter Mall.

As Valley residents have tightened their spending since the economic downturn, local and regional sales-tax collections intended for light rail and transit have taken a big hit.

Glendale's half-cent transportation sales tax has dropped from generating $25 million per year to $18 million per year, Mayor Elaine Scruggs said recently. The same funding problems are happening on state and county levels.

"Everybody's scrambling for pennies," Scruggs said.

Still, Glendale Transportation Director Jamsheed Mehta said what happened to Glendale's line is "an overkill."

"The magnitude of the shortfall does not correlate with a seven-year deferral," he said.

Most other light-rail projects were delayed a year or two.

"We've stuck to our priorities and are waiting to spend money on what our voters approved," Mehta added. "But that's not the case with others."

He was referring, at least in part, to Phoenix. Glendale depends on the neighboring city to build more than half of its extension since several miles would fall within Phoenix's city limits.

Glendale can't build a light-rail line any earlier than 2026 "without Phoenix's interest in it," Mehta said.

Another worry is that Glendale could miss out on funds designated for light-rail extensions through Proposition 400, the half-percent sales tax enacted by Maricopa County voters in 2004. The tax expires in 2025.

Though Glendale's light-rail line should be under construction by then, "we are at the edge of the funding cycle," Mehta said. County voters would need to renew the transportation tax to keep the Glendale line on track, though Glendale's city-wide tax has no sunset.

Two destinations for light rail in Glendale are under consideration: the historic downtown area near 59th and Glendale avenues and the sports and entertainment district near Loop 101 and Glendale Avenue.

A study launched last year is expected to conclude in 2011 with recommendations on the destination most likely to receive federal funding and the best use of streets and freeways to reach those destinations.

Developers planning office complexes along Loop 101 see nearby light rail as a boon for workers, Mehta said.

If Glendale opens a line as late as 2026, "those developers are going to have to wait even longer," he said.

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Phoenix unveils design of PHX Sky Train cars for Sky Harbor International Airport
by Jahna Berry
May. 26, 2010 05:03 PM
The Arizona Republic

Phoenix revealed the design of the train cars that will transport millions of passengers around Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport.

Wednesday's announcement is the latest sign of progress for the $1.1 billion PHX Sky Train system, which will take air travelers to a light rail station, Sky Harbor terminals, parking and the airport's rental car facility.

The sleek, silver cars have white roofs - to help the cars stay cool in the Arizona heat - and black accents.

Under a $260 million contract with a Canadian firm, Bombardier Transportation Holdings USA, Bombardier will design and build 18 train cars and a maintenance facility, create the train-operating system and perform other duties. "It was critical to us that the design reflect the spirit of the airport, while remaining cool in the desert climate," said Assistant Aviation Director Jane Morris.

Each car is 36.5 feet long, 9.5 feet wide and 11 feet high, according to airport figures. Each car can hold about 53 people and each train will have three cars. The first test car will arrive in August 2011, Morris said.

The train cars are similar to ones used in Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport, but there have been some upgrades so that the cars stand up to desert conditions, Morris said.

The dark-colored bottom, or "skirt," of the train has vents that will help the components underneath stay cool. The airport officials also made sure the air conditioning system was powerful enough to maintain 72 degree interior temperature during triple-digit summer temperatures.

The first stage of the 4.8 mile PHX Sky Train project, which will take passengers to light rail, the east economy lot and Terminal 4 will open in 2013. The rest of the system will open in 2020.

The automated train project is being paid for with bonds. The debt will be paid off with money that the airport receives from customer fees, such as the passenger facility charge that travelers pay when they buy a plane ticket.

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West Valley riders assail cutbacks to bus routes
by Cecilia Chan
May. 26, 2010 03:55 PM
The Arizona Republic

Earl Seahorn, 86, doesn't have a driver's license. He relies on bus Route 660 to take him from his home in Wickenburg to Sun City and Peoria twice a week for religious services.

"I've depended on that route for quite some time," said Seahorn, who has lived in Wickenburg for 21 years.

The rural connector, which takes riders from Wickenburg to Glendale, could be eliminated as early as July 26 because of revenue shortfalls. The route has a ridership of 23 passengers each weekday, according to Valley Metro.

About 20 residents, including Seahorn, attended a public hearing at Glendale City Hall last Wednesday on proposed cuts and reduction to West Valley bus routes.

"We are not happy with what is happening with the bus changes taking place," said Mario Diaz, Valley Metro chief marketing officer. "These are proposals at this point."

Diaz blamed the changes on ongoing drop in sales tax revenue and loss of state lottery funds, which helped fund transit. The elimination of the Local Transportation Assistance Fund represents a $23 million-a-year hit to Maricopa County. Arizona is now one of five states that don't help fund transit.

Diaz said each city and town selected the routes for reduction or elimination based on ridership numbers and productivity such as what does it cost to put service on the street for the number of passengers transported.

Bus routes throughout the Valley may be affected.

Most of the residents who spoke at the hearing protested the proposed elimination of Route 660.

That route also lost federal dollars from the Arizona Department of Transportation. About half of Route 660's operational costs come from a federal grant that funds smaller, rural transit operations, which ADOT manages, according to Valley Metro.

Wickenburg resident Sonoma Temple said her granddaughter, Toni Temple, rides the Route 660 bus each weekday to Surprise.

"She is disabled," Temple said, "and without the route she can't go to her program."

Glendale resident B. K. Bahl protested the elimination of Route 186, which runs from Arrowhead Towne Center to the Mayo Clinic's Phoenix campus along Union Hill Drive.

He said the bus route helps people get to the stores to buy groceries, visit their doctors or go to the library. He suggested eliminating the route's weekend services instead.

Wickenburg resident William Crowley said decision-makers should not rely solely on ridership numbers but look at who Route 660 serves.

"Don't take away our 660," Crowley said. "Let's do it right and get rid of administration and not bus routes."

Tracey Regan, who represented Blue Mountain Developmental Programs in Surprise, said eliminating the route would hurt clients. The agency provides learning and training programs for children and young adults with developmental disabilities.

"We have clients in the adult day care from Route 660 that need that route to get to our program," Regan said. "We also have an after-school program for students from Nadaburg (Elementary School). These families would be unable to attend without it. It's a lifeline for us as an agency."

Diaz said the public comments will be considered by local city councils and the Valley Metro board of directors on June 17.

Some possible Valley Metro service changes in West Valley

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