Linking Louisville Via Light Rail
If federal funding is approved, Louisville's light rail system will carry 17,000 passengers a day along a 13-mile route

A citizens advisory group of 500 affected persons has concluded a two-year study review and recommended that the Transit Authority of River City (TARC), begin preliminary engineering studies for a 13-mile light rail corridor that will link a half-dozen of Louisville's major destinations and carry 17,000 passengers a day.

The TARC Board, which commissioned the advisory group and provided it with two consulting and engineering groups, is expected to accept the recommendation and seek federal funding for 90 percent of the estimated $500 million development cost. If approved, the line would be completed in 2007 along a north-south corridor parallel but not adjacent to Interstate 65.

The project is intended to reduce traffic congestion on I-65 and major arterial streets, reduce emission-based air pollution, support major employers and educational centers and enhance Louisville's role as a "destination" convention location. Vocal critics, although so far few in number, dispute all those contentions and are particularly scornful of the participatory process that culminated in the light rail recommendation.

Light rail advocates, who include the executive director of TARC, emphasize that Louisville has long been a leader in "public transportation" projects and that similar light rail systems have been successful in comparable cities. (Light rail is a system of self-contained and self-powered passenger cars running along fixed, standard-gauge rail lines above, below or at street level. "Subways" and "els" are older versions of what is now called "light rail.")

Although the precise route will not be decided until the preliminary engineering study is completed in about 18 months, the proposed Louisville system would connect a planned commuter station near the Gene Snyder Expressway with a series of stops downtown. Along the 13-mile route, it would link the United Parcel Service sorting center, Louisville International Airport, the Kentucky Fair and Exposition Center, the University of Louisville, Jefferson Community College and the downtown medical complex, the Commonwealth Convention Center and all major government offices.

Light rail, its advocates point out, is just one of several interrelated transportation projects underway or under review in Louisville: the airport expansion and the development of the new associated UPS hub; the rebuilding of McAlpine Locks at the Portland Ship Canal; the long-discussed plans for one or two automobile bridges across the Ohio River; the TRIMARC traffic-control system on incoming interstate highways; the Riverwalk hiking and bike trail from the Riverport to Prospect; the sudden return of twice-weekly Amtrak service (from Jeffersonville, Indiana) to Indianapolis and Chicago and even a visionary high-speed rail link between Louisville, Lexington and Cincinnati airports.

Even without the light rail project, Louisville's TARC systems are the state's most extensive public transportation network. Since its creation 25 years ago, and especially during the five-year leadership of executive director Barry Barker, TARC has expanded both its scale and range of services.

TARC carries 16 million riders a year on 67 local routes, including 18 express routes and another 250,000 paratransit passengers over flexible routes. The system extending into neighboring counties and southern Indiana now covers more than 12 million route miles with 280 buses, 77 paratransit vehicles and 14 trolleys. TARC employs 700, including 450 drivers.

The agency's $43 million budget is funded in part by fares (16 percent) and federal grants (21 percent) but the largest source, almost 60 percent, comes from the .2 percent payroll income surtax Jefferson County voters approved in 1974 to create the Mass Transit Trust Fund. That fund will also be used for TARC's 10 percent share of the light rail development costs.

Director Barker, who believes a public agency should "eat the elephant one bite at a time" – meaning it should make changes in increments – also believes TARC has an obligation to provide the community with what it wants. One thing it wants, he is certain, is light rail.

The citizens advisory group, virtually self-elected, included not only the "usual" business and community leaders, but also residents of two neighborhoods that would be most impacted by the route – the low-income and African-American areas of Shelby Park and Smoketown. These representatives have repeatedly stressed that the light rail system will offer them new economic opportunities outside of their inner-city neighborhoods.

Through a series of public meetings in various locations and a new interactive web site, TARC sought opinions throughout its service area. The project has received endorsements from Business First and Greater Louisville, Inc., and very positive coverage from the Courier-Journal and newspapers in southern Indiana.

After deciding that some enhanced system was imperative, the advisory group then chose between the light rail proposal and another alternative, Bus Rapid Transit (BRT). Barker agrees with critics that he, personally, favors light rail, because light rail will attract more attention and hence more passengers and support than the more prosaic bus rapid transit option. (BRT utilizes express lanes to accommodate bus commuter routes.) "People like light rail," Barker says. "It's sexier, more attractive."

A columnist for the Courier-Journal claims Barker manipulated the advisory committee into picking the choice he and the TARC Board already favored, but Barker stresses that the participatory nature of the process precludes any government-driven mandates. "I sure wish it (the whole process) were a slam dunk, but sometimes I feel we've been bucking a headwind," Barker said. Every action or decision TARC makes, he explains, "affects peoples' choices- how to travel, where to live, where to work". "A community project must truly reflect the community," he concluded.

Another critic, the weekly newspaper LEO, took TARC to task for overselling the benefits of light rail. Barker politely disagrees with that conclusion, pointing out that light rail is just one means in "an interrelated system" to alleviate congestion and reduce emissions. "Taking 17,000 people a day out of their cars has got to make a difference," Barker stressed.

Ironically, the other transportation projects, all with similar goals for reducing congestion and curtailing emissions, have been criticized for having little or no meaningful public participation.

The endless bridge controversy seems to have no resolution in sight. The TRIMARC system wasn't revealed until it was already under construction. The McAlpine expansion has attracted almost no public notice. The unexpected announcement of resumed Amtrak service caught local officials by surprise, and the high-speed airports rail link has been virtually a stealth proposal.

TARC and its director, Barker, believe history favors light rail. The authority proudly maintains a museum display in its headquarters, the restored Union Station, which focuses on the constant innovation in Louisville's public transportation.

With its tax and public support, TARC's modern system is self-supporting, even though fares generate only one-sixth of its revenue. The charge that light rail cannot pay for itself rankles Barry Barker.

"If I had one wish, it is that spending on public transportation would not be seen as a subsidy, while spending on highways is always seen as an investment," he answers the critics of light rail. "When was the last time a road paid for itself?"

Robert Carter is associate editor of The Lane Report.

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