Monday, August 27, 2007

Rail Projects at the Mercy of U.S. Agency

Federal Guidelines, and Funds, Direct Plans for Dulles, Purple Lines at Every Step

By Katherine Shaver and Amy Gardner Washington Post Staff Writers
Monday, August 27, 2007; B01

The key decisions about Maryland’s proposed Purple Line — the route it takes, the type of rail cars it uses, the possibility of tunneling underground — will be determined not by public opinion or political pressure.

Rather, a single agency that controls the limited federal money set aside for transit projects will shape the rail or bus line that could eventually link Bethesda and New Carrollton.

The Federal Transit Administration, which helped sink plans for a tunnel through Tysons Corner and is demanding further cost accounting for the proposed Metro line through Dulles International Airport , will likewise dictate what any new transit line through suburban Maryland would look like and when — or whether — there will be money to build it.

“It’s the driving force behind the planning process,” Maryland Transportation Secretary John D. Porcari said of the competition for federal money. “You can have the best conceived transit project in the world, and it’s not going forward if it doesn’t qualify for federal funding.”

Toward that end, Porcari delayed consideration of the Purple Line for another year after deciding that the rider estimates were too crude to impress the federal officials in charge of doling out critical funding. Analysts are now recalculating ridership predictions using more sophisticated forecasting models.

Concerns about federal guidelines also led local officials to quickly rule out heavy rail — the type of trains used on Metro — in favor of slower, but far cheaper, light-rail trains or express buses. State officials have also rejected calls to run the line under the popular Capital Crescent Trail, saying it would be too expensive without saving travel time — another effort to satisfy federal criteria.

The concessions show just how focused planners are on pleasing officials at the federal agency. The Purple Line is estimated to cost as much as $1.6 billion, an amount state officials say they can’t afford without federal help.

Unlike federal highway funds, which states receive based on a formula and may spend as they wish, money for new transit projects is awarded at the discretion of the FTA. The agency doesn’t have much to dole out. The FTA has proposed spending about $1.4 billion on new transit projects next fiscal year, compared with $42 billion that states will receive for highway maintenance and construction, according to federal figures. More than 100 transit projects across the country are expected to compete for federal money in coming years, according to a federal report.

In deciding which projects deserve funds, FTA officials consider primarily which would attract enough riders and save them enough time to be worth the investment. They also consider the state and local governments’ ability to help pay for construction, maintenance and operating costs. Other considerations include impact on air quality, development around stations and the ability to move lower-income workers to jobs.

FTA evaluations can take years, because it rates a project — and grants permission for it to move forward — at several different points, controlling it from preliminary engineering through construction. The process has grown so complicated and time-consuming that, across the country, many local officials have begun to forgo federal money if they can secure enough local or private funds to build a project, according to a recent U.S. Government Accountability Office report.

“There’s less money, there’s tighter standards, and it’s a long, long haul,” said U.S. Rep. Frank R. Wolf (R-Va.) , one of the key leaders in securing federal money for the Dulles rail project.

Fearing they would jeopardize their $900 million in federal dollars, Virginia officials reluctantly dropped plans for a train tunnel beneath Tysons Corner this year. And although contractors expect to move dirt this fall on what would become Metro’s 23-mile Silver Line, transportation planners are scrambling to trim $275 million out of the budget to satisfy federal funding standards.

Transportation experts say the disparities between highway and transit-system funds — and how money is awarded — are rooted in outdated thinking. Highways have traditionally received more federal money because they have been viewed as connecting the country, while transit systems have been seen as serving individual cities.

“There’s still a lack of understanding of how fundamentally broken the transit program is,” said Robert Puentes, a Brookings Institution fellow.

Meanwhile, competition for that money is increasing rapidly. Many booming areas — including such traditional highway-loving cities as Phoenix, Denver and Houston — are turning to transit to curb air pollution and control their car-dependent sprawl.

“The demand for transit has never been higher,” Puentes said. “At the same time, the federal government substantially underfunds transit, so it’s very competitive to get those funds.”

To win, said Porcari, the transportation secretary, Maryland’s biggest challenge will be proving that a Purple Line would attract enough riders. He said he thinks it would beat out other proposals in its ability to serve a heavily transit-dependent population and blend into communities while “stabilizing and enhancing” them.

The 16-mile Purple Line, which could open by 2015, is designed to revitalize older communities, including such areas as Langley Park, where many lower-income residents rely on buses because the Metrorail system doesn’t take them east or west.

Unlike the Dulles project, which had little opposition beyond the Tysons Corner tunnel supporters, the Purple Line has met organized and vocal protest. Some residents in East Bethesda and Chevy Chase have complained that trains or buses would rumble past their back fences.

Efforts to save money by building most of the line aboveground also have drawn complaints. Trains or buses would pass through the Columbia Country Club’s golf course, and Capital Crescent Trail fans say the line would destroy the trail’s tranquillity while requiring thousands of trees to be cut between Bethesda and Silver Spring. Some University of Maryland officials have also argued that running trains or buses through the College Park campus would be unsafe for pedestrians.

Posted by M at 13:20:21 | Permalink | No Comments »

Why is Greece on fire?

Saturday’s high winds helped spread wildfires across Greece, scorching villages and sending smoke across the Ionian Sea, as seen in this satellite image from NASA.

As at least 170 wildfires spread, many say that a lack of environmental protection is to blame.

By Nicole Itano| Correspondent of The Christian Science Monitor
from the August 27, 2007 edition - http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/0827/p01s03-woeu.html
ATHENS

The scenes of desperation played out on television: residents phoned local media outlets begging to be saved as walls of fire descended on their houses and villages, while overstretched firefighters battled more than 170 blazes that erupted seemingly simultaneously.

 

On Sunday, at least 51 people were confirmed dead in the worst series of fires to hit Greece in decades. And still, fires, many of them blamed on arsonists, continued to spread across the country, fanned by gale-force winds and fed by vegetation dried out from long months of drought.

Now, as authorities struggle to deal with the immediate crisis, the fires have pushed the environment to the top of the political agenda in a country where such issues previously won little attention. With Greek national elections less than three weeks away, questions are being raised about how seriously the government takes the protection of the country’s open spaces.

Calling the fires an “unspeakable tragedy,” Greek Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis declared a state of emergency Saturday, along with three days of mourning. For the time being, campaigning in the election has been called off and some analysts suggest that the election may even be delayed. Indeed, the fires have spawned outrage and anger across the country.

“Right now we’re in state of hiatus, and no one knows how it will finally shake out, but clearly it will be a key issue,” says John Psaropoulos, editor of the Athens News, from near Zaharo, one of the hardest hit areas of Greece where dozens have been killed.

This has been one of the hottest and driest summers in recent history, and much of southern Europe has been plagued by forest fires. In Greece, the dry conditions have played a role. But many of the fires, government and forestry experts say, have been set by arsonists, hoping to clear land for development.

“So many fires breaking out simultaneously in so many parts of the country cannot be a coincidence,” Mr. Karamanlis said in a nationally televised address Saturday. “The state will do everything it can to find those responsible and punish them.”

Already, at least three people have been arrested for setting this weekend’s fires; one, accused of setting a blaze that killed six people, is being charged for murder as well as for arson. But in the past, local activists say, the state has had a poor record of catching and prosecuting these types of arsonists. The problem persists, they say, and in large part perpetrators have previously gotten away with it.

“Most of the reasons concern changing of land use – from forest to something else [such as] construction, or building, or to grazing, or agriculture,” explains Nikos Georgiadis, head forest officer for the Greek office of WWF (the World Wildlife Fund). “But the response from the government has not been effective at all.”

But there is beginning to be a backlash against government inaction – as Greek villagers desperately battle blazes using garden hoses and buckets of water – that is likely to intensify as a result of this weekend’s fires.

Earlier this summer, after a fire burned one of the last remaining forests on Mount Parnitha, near Athens, thousands of people took the streets outside the Greek parliament demanding more action from the government to protect forests and ensure that burned areas were replanted.

Many observers saw that fire as a turning point in local politics toward a greater green consciousness.

“People in Athens, but also around Greece, are becoming more green,” says Dr. Georgiadis, who said that hundreds of people called the WWF office in the aftermath of that fire, outraged and offering to help. “Since the response that we got after the big forest fire on Parnitha mountain, there is a big change. More and more people became sensitive on environmental matters.”

Greece has one of the worst records in the European Union on environmental issues, and on forest protection in particular. Environmental groups say recycling is in its infancy, development is largely unregulated, and protected areas neglected.

Although forested areas cannot legally be built on, that law is difficult to enforce because Greece – unlike every other country in the European Union – has no national record of what land is forested.

For now, the country is focusing on putting out the blazes and helping those affected. Thousands are now homeless and whole villages destroyed. At least 12 countries have responded to Greece’s plea for international help.

But ultimately, says Georgiadis, Greece must develop a long-term plan for saving its natural spaces.

“Forests are an ecosystem that needs time to grow, time to manage,” he says. “It’s not something you can do in one or two weeks.”

Posted by M at 11:23:53 | Permalink | No Comments »