Champaign — An Opposing View

Rail Transit Online, April 2004

The Urbana City Council has voted in favor of further study of a fixed guideway transit system, taking the opposite tack of lawmakers in adjacent Champaign who in February decided they didn’t want any part of the proposal (see RTOL, Mar. 2004).  The Urbana council’s 5-2 vote endorsed a streetcar or guided bus line linking downtown Champaign with Urbana and the University of Illinois as the locally preferred alternative, backing up the results of an alternatives analysis completed last year.  The motion also approved the Champaign-Urbana Mass Transit District's (MTD) attempt to obtain federal funding for continued engineering and design studies.  However, to placate opponents who insist the region does not have the financial resources for such a system, estimated to cost $178 million, an amendment was added stating that, “We as a council are undecided at this point about the size of the support we can reasonably offer as a city.”  MTD Assistant Managing Director Tom Costello said Urbana’s backing along with the qualified support by the University of Illinois will go a long way toward obtaining financial help from Washington.  “I'm pleased with the vote,” Costello told the News-Gazette.  “We know it is not an easy process.  We don't expect it to be an easy process.”  However, although the University said it is “…appropriate at this time” to continue evaluating a fixed guideway system, the institution will oppose “…any project which requires significantly increased student fees.”  The MTD board of directors will vote on the project Mar. 31 and, if it is approved, the alternative analysis will be forwarded to the Federal Transit Administration.  MTD would be seeking $5 million to $7 million to bring preliminary engineering to the 30-percent level along with an environmental impact study.