WESTLAKE, Texas — A multimillion-dollar bond package to build a light rail system for Fort Worth could go before voters in the next 18 months, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram reported.
If approved by voters, a light rail system – at a projected cost of $120 million to $200 million – could be operating by 2008.
“I think this is a major community decision, a major community commitment,” Fort Worth Mayor Kenneth Barr said Saturday during the City Council’s biannual retreat.
“We would spend millions of dollars on this and lay the groundwork for spending millions more,” he said. “We need community feedback.”
The light-rail method officials are considering focuses on electric vehicles, such as streetcars, that would run on rails along city streets at up to 65 mph. Officials say such a system has been successful in other communities, including Denver and Portland, Ore.
Several proposals are being considered for Fort Worth, officials said.
The most expensive route, at a cost of about $200 million, would include West Seventh Street, East Rosedale to Texas Wesleyan University, downtown and Hemphill Street, and would extend the Trinity Railway Express commuter rail program.
The option would have an annual operating cost of $7 million, Assistant City Manager Charles Boswell said.
A smaller system – which would leave out the western leg and extension of the commuter rail – would cost about $120 million, with a $4 million annual operating cost, Boswell said.
A bond election to let voters decide the issue could be held as soon as 2004, Boswell said. Barr, who said he prefers the broader option, said the city and residents must be cautious before deciding to scale back plans simply to cut costs.
“If we start with too small a system that doesn’t connect the corridors … it just doesn’t go anywhere,” he said.
Council members discussed the rail plan during the second day of their biannual weekend retreat, held at a Westlake hotel. Other issues discussed included budget priorities, annexation, central city revitalization and economic development.
City officials have long touted the benefits of a light rail system, saying it can boost increased mobility and economic development and cut down on pollution by getting motorists out of their vehicles.
A new survey, released Saturday, indicates local support for light rail. Seventy-one percent of residents surveyed say they are very or somewhat supportive of developing a light rail system in Fort Worth that connects surrounding suburbs with downtown.
Twenty percent are not sure, and 9 percent are not supportive, according to the survey.
“It’s a clear mandate,” City Manager Gary Jackson said.
City officials said local residents may support light rail because they’ve seen a nearby example that works, the Dallas Area Rapid Transit system.
At the same time, 56 percent say they are very or somewhat supportive of a slight increase in taxes if the funds were used to develop a light rail system in Fort Worth.
Twenty-one percent said they don’t support a tax increase and 23 percent are not sure, according to the survey.
Christopher E. Tatham, vice president of the Kansas- based ETC Institute, conducted the survey and presented early results to the council Saturday. The city- sponsored poll was a telephone and mail survey of 1,600 residents, conducted April 13-25. The margin of error is plus or minus 2.5 percent.
“This is an OK position to be in,” Tatham said. “A campaign to do this could be successful, but it would have to be a good campaign. With a bad one, you could lose.”