Denver rail woes cheer Tampa voters

Another light rail debacle may be making the 58% of Hillsborough County voters who voted down the 1% transportation sales tax feel like they dodged a bullet.

According to a story in the November issue of “Planning” magazine, a publication of the American Planning Association, a public-private partnership is now attempting to rescue Denver's “FasTracks” transit expansion program.

Approved by Denver metro area voters in 2004, the 122 miles of new light rail and commuter rail was to be paid for with a 0.4% sales tax increase. Project costs, originally estimated at $4.7 billion have soared 43% to $6.7 billion.

The story benignly refers to the cost increase being due to inflation.

But inflation has been minimal to non-existent. Call Coffee Talk cynical, but this follows a long trail of rail backers severely underestimating these multi-billion projects, and overestimating future ridership.

So now, in exchange for a $450 million investment — $396 million from debt — Denver Transit Partners is entering into an agreement with Denver's Regional Transportation District (RTD) allowing the private firm to operate and maintain the rail line for 28 years.

The Eagle P3 (for public-private partnership) allows a 36-mile segment of the work to continue. With the public funds, the $2.1 billion project is the largest U.S. rail program to include private equity.

But even with the private sector investment, Denver's RTD will ask voters to raise the sales tax for FasTracks to 0.7% — a 43% increase over what they originally asked.

Already, Hillsborough's transportation tax supporters are strategizing to bring the tax back. Maybe they could point to some of these projects that came in on budget and hit ridership estimates. Maybe they could point to one.