Committee recommends light rail

If Spokane gets a mass transit system someday, it will be light rail, not bus rapid transit.

The Spokane Transit Authority board of directors accepted Thursday the recommendation of its appointed Light Rail Steering Committee that a diesel, light rail system, traveling along a southern Valley track between downtown Spokane and Liberty Lake, is its preferred mass transit alternative. But the board also expressed concerns about a lack of information regarding how to pay for building and operating such a system.

Board members told the rail committee to come back with more information on funding before any options are put to a public vote.

It’s unknown exactly how much it would cost to build a light rail system, but the rail committee set a $300 million spending cap as part of its recommendation to the board.

The board undertook a long, painstaking process to craft its resolution, a process that board member and Spokane City Councilman Al French described as eating an elephant in multiple bites.

Most of the board members took great care not to commit themselves to too much.

“I’m certainly not prepared to go there, and I don’t believe the public is prepared to go there,” said board member and Spokane County Commissioner Mark Richard of the prospect of authorizing development of a light rail system without more information on how to pay for it.

But light rail project manager K.C. Traver encouraged the group to at least narrow the list of options, which until now has included numerous light rail and bus variations.

“We really are at a point where we should settle in on an alternative,” Traver said.

Spokane Valley Councilman and STA board member Dick Denenny said he isn’t prepared to move forward with any kind of mass transit system now beyond acquiring property for a system to be built some time in the distant future. Buying the land now would make a system more affordable later, Denenny said.

French suggested that voters may ultimately be given a choice of two options – building the system now or buying only the land now to preserve the right of way.

Much of the corridor is already publicly owned.

The result left some satisfied and some disgusted.

Light Rail Citizens Advisory Committee member Don Cain marched out of the meeting in disgust, muttering under his breath that the entire board ought to be fired.

But Light Rail Steering Committee Chairwoman Phyllis Holmes was satisfied with the outcome of the meeting.

“I’m pleased. This is the discussion they needed to have. They’re the policymakers,” said Holmes, who added that the board helped her committee narrow the funding research to the one light rail option.

After hashing out light rail issues, STA board members were then presented with information about the feasibility of a downtown streetcar system.

The $50 million-plus system would move between the Riverpoint college campus area and the Spokane County Courthouse complex, traveling through the downtown core.

Like the light rail system, the downtown streetcars’ ability to spur development along its tracks was cited as a main benefit.

Also like light rail, there isn’t a guaranteed pot of money available to fund a streetcar project.