ARTICLE
One of the strengths of your Santa Cruz Area Chamber is our commitment to educate our members about the nuisances how local governments function and how their voting trends can enhance or impact the business community. For years, your Chamber staff has put in the extra hours covering city council meetings in all four cities of our county, attends County Board of Supervisors meetings, Regional Transportation Commission meetings, Metro Transit District meetings, Soquel Creek Water District and other local government agency meetings throughout Santa Cruz County. We will continue to be the voice of the business community at these meetings whenever logistically possible knowing how important it is to “be a part of the discussion” at public debates on issues that can help or harm the business community. Your Chamber has a solid record of delivering for our members and will continue on that path. As an example, as you open up this weekly eNews your Chamber staff is attending and speaking at the Regional Transportation Commission (RTC) meeting this morning about an item on the RTC agenda: RTC Agenda 1-17-19. The item is familiar to many of us who have been at ground zero regarding the future of our county’s transportation infrastructure. At today’s meeting, the RTC will take up Item 20: Unified Corridor Investment Study – Final Report & Determination of Exemption from CEQA & Grant of Phase II of Administration, Coordination and License Agreement to St. Paul and Pacific Railroad. The Chamber has been actively engaged with the UCS following the passage of Measure D and has encouraged a robust public process to evaluate the various scenarios in an effort to identify the most efficient and economical option to best serve our central coast community (from north county to south county). With that background, today, we urge the RTC to adopt the latest preferred scenario resulting from the Unified Corridor Study (UCS) but modified to ensure that rail transit on the rail corridor remains an option. Why do we want the RTC to adopt the latest preferred scenario modified to select rail transit on the rail corridor? Some community leaders are proposing the RTC further study and compare Passenger Rail Transit to Bus Rapid Transit by providing an additional layer of public discussion and alternative analysis. Do we need another study? The comprehensive UCS provided substantial data implying that the superiority of Passenger Rail Transit over Bus Rapid Transit makes it difficult to justify spending any more time and taxpayer money on comparing alternatives. Here are the key reasons Passenger Rail Transit appears to be a better investment than Bus Rapid Transit: 1) The UCS predicts Passenger Rail Transit will carry 75% more passengers than Bus Rapid Transit every day 2) The UCS predicts Passenger Rail Transit travel time will be 35% faster than Bus Rapid Transit in the mornings - saving you 22 minutes on your way to work is really valuable (41 min via train vs 63 min via bus) 3) The UCS predicts Passenger Rail Transit will result in an overall 25% increase in public transit use than Bus Rapid Transit - increased public transit use is better for the environment and improves social equity 4) Passenger Rail Transit is eligible for substantial state funding to both plan and build while there appears to be limited resources to fund Bus Rapid Transit Passenger Rail Transit would use the entire rail corridor, the rail corridor is preserved for all future uses. Bus Rapid Transit will only use 28% of the rail corridor and it appears that Bus Rapid Transit would place the rail corridor easements at risk and could result in losing the rail corridor for any future transit use between Watsonville and Santa Cruz. Furthermore, while we can continue to study additional alternative analysis this would further delay building the Coastal Rail Trail. The Santa Cruz County community has waited long enough! Instead of an alternative analysis pitting bus against rail, the Chamber recommends spending that time and money on how to integrate faster and better Passenger Rail Transit Service into a comprehensive public transportation service that will provide our community with the best possible transportation system. In the past several years as Metro faced tough financial times and needed the business community’s support, the Chamber stepped forward to offer letters of support to Metro’s many grant applications to the state and federal government. Our position regarding the future use of the rail corridor does not take away the fact that Santa Cruz County deserves a multi-modal transportation network that includes ALL services - bike and pedestrian improvements, safe routes to schools, Highway 1 auxiliary lanes, bus-on-the shoulder where applicable, and Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) on specified transit corridors. Changing gears from RTC to the City, the Chamber will be producing a new tool to keep our members informed on what local government is doing. Starting this week and whenever possible, the Chamber will include a City Council Report Card on the latest action by your elected officials. Please see the attached report. We’ll provide this update on other local government agencies where appropriate throughout the year. This ‘score card’ is a helpful reminder to keep track of what your public sector leaders are up to. We look forward to hearing your thoughts on this new tool. You can e-mail your comments to me here: casey.beyer@santacruzchamber.org
One of the strengths of your Santa Cruz Area Chamber is our commitment to educate our members about the nuisances how local governments function and how their voting trends can enhance or impact the business community. For years, your Chamber staff has put in the extra hours covering city council meetings in all four cities of our county, attends County Board of Supervisors meetings, Regional Transportation Commission meetings, Metro Transit District meetings, Soquel Creek Water District and other local government agency meetings throughout Santa Cruz County. We will continue to be the voice of the business community at these meetings whenever logistically possible knowing how important it is to “be a part of the discussion” at public debates on issues that can help or harm the business community. Your Chamber has a solid record of delivering for our members and will continue on that path.
As an example, as you open up this weekly eNews your Chamber staff is attending and speaking at the Regional Transportation Commission (RTC) meeting this morning about an item on the RTC agenda: RTC Agenda 1-17-19. The item is familiar to many of us who have been at ground zero regarding the future of our county’s transportation infrastructure. At today’s meeting, the RTC will take up Item 20: Unified Corridor Investment Study – Final Report & Determination of Exemption from CEQA & Grant of Phase II of Administration, Coordination and License Agreement to St. Paul and Pacific Railroad. The Chamber has been actively engaged with the UCS following the passage of Measure D and has encouraged a robust public process to evaluate the various scenarios in an effort to identify the most efficient and economical option to best serve our central coast community (from north county to south county). With that background, today, we urge the RTC to adopt the latest preferred scenario resulting from the Unified Corridor Study (UCS) but modified to ensure that rail transit on the rail corridor remains an option.
Why do we want the RTC to adopt the latest preferred scenario modified to select rail transit on the rail corridor? Some community leaders are proposing the RTC further study and compare Passenger Rail Transit to Bus Rapid Transit by providing an additional layer of public discussion and alternative analysis. Do we need another study? The comprehensive UCS provided substantial data implying that the superiority of Passenger Rail Transit over Bus Rapid Transit makes it difficult to justify spending any more time and taxpayer money on comparing alternatives. Here are the key reasons Passenger Rail Transit appears to be a better investment than Bus Rapid Transit:
1) The UCS predicts Passenger Rail Transit will carry 75% more passengers than Bus Rapid Transit every day
2) The UCS predicts Passenger Rail Transit travel time will be 35% faster than Bus Rapid Transit in the mornings - saving you 22 minutes on your way to work is really valuable (41 min via train vs 63 min via bus)
3) The UCS predicts Passenger Rail Transit will result in an overall 25% increase in public transit use than Bus Rapid Transit - increased public transit use is better for the environment and improves social equity
4) Passenger Rail Transit is eligible for substantial state funding to both plan and build while there appears to be limited resources to fund Bus Rapid Transit
Passenger Rail Transit would use the entire rail corridor, the rail corridor is preserved for all future uses. Bus Rapid Transit will only use 28% of the rail corridor and it appears that Bus Rapid Transit would place the rail corridor easements at risk and could result in losing the rail corridor for any future transit use between Watsonville and Santa Cruz. Furthermore, while we can continue to study additional alternative analysis this would further delay building the Coastal Rail Trail. The Santa Cruz County community has waited long enough! Instead of an alternative analysis pitting bus against rail, the Chamber recommends spending that time and money on how to integrate faster and better Passenger Rail Transit Service into a comprehensive public transportation service that will provide our community with the best possible transportation system. In the past several years as Metro faced tough financial times and needed the business community’s support, the Chamber stepped forward to offer letters of support to Metro’s many grant applications to the state and federal government. Our position regarding the future use of the rail corridor does not take away the fact that Santa Cruz County deserves a multi-modal transportation network that includes ALL services - bike and pedestrian improvements, safe routes to schools, Highway 1 auxiliary lanes, bus-on-the shoulder where applicable, and Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) on specified transit corridors.
Changing gears from RTC to the City, the Chamber will be producing a new tool to keep our members informed on what local government is doing. Starting this week and whenever possible, the Chamber will include a City Council Report Card on the latest action by your elected officials. Please see the attached report. We’ll provide this update on other local government agencies where appropriate throughout the year. This ‘score card’ is a helpful reminder to keep track of what your public sector leaders are up to. We look forward to hearing your thoughts on this new tool. You can e-mail your comments to me here: casey.beyer@santacruzchamber.org