Gloria Reyes is mistaken about BRT, Madison Metro

Madison mayoral candidate Gloria Reyes is making a number of false claims concerning the metropolis's new speedy bus plan as she seeks workplace, town’s transit supervisor mentioned in a Cap Occasions interview. 

Reyes’ marketing campaign continues to accuse Mayor Satya Rhodes-Conway of reckless spending on the long-anticipated bus speedy transit system, though Reyes has by no means contacted town’s Metro division to confirm her data.

She continued with the assault at a Tuesday press convention.

“It is time to face up to the serious financial crisis brought on by the mismanagement of the BRT (bus rapid transit) program,” Reyes mentioned. “As you know the BRT is a radical change to how Madison Metro operates. Unfortunately, it has not been well thought out.”

Bus speedy transit, within the works for years, goals to be a quicker, extra dependable system that makes use of bigger buses to move extra riders. Its purpose is to ship all-day service and direct routes with fewer stops. Rhodes-Conway has staked a lot of her tenure as mayor on her work pushing ahead and implementing bus speedy transit, sustaining her help for this system all through her marketing campaign.

Funding by means of the federal Infrastructure and Jobs Act allowed town to purchase a fleet of 46 all-electric buses for the speedy transit system with out native funding.

Town final week started constructing lanes and platforms for BRT that can take over a yr to finish and embrace 44 new stations, primarily on the east-west line. Stations can be 60 ft lengthy and 10 to 12 ft huge. Work has already began for stations on Sheboygan Avenue, North Dickinson Avenue and North Few Avenue and is predicted to be completed early summer time. 

Reyes has claimed for months that bus speedy transit will trigger metropolis deficits due to its use of one-time federal grant funding and that town’s separate Metro redesign gained’t attain the residents most in want. At a current contentious debate with Rhodes-Conway, Reyes referred to as the speedy transit system “inequitable,” claiming quicker, dedicated-lane routes gained’t attain everybody, and she or he steered the set up of the brand new busing system will lead to $32 million in debt for town of Madison. 

In response to the Cap Occasions, which sought to examine the accuracy of the candidate’s statements, Metro division supervisor Justin Stuehrenberg mentioned none of Reyes’ claims is true.

“This is about trying to say that the BRT project is bankrupting us in some way. I just want to refute that. That's just not true, from either a capital or an operating standpoint,” Stuehrenberg mentioned. 

Madison Metropolis Council President Keith Furman echoed Stuehrenberg’s level in a current letter to the Cap Occasions, explaining the present capital plan really spends fewer native dollars on transit than former Mayor Paul Soglin proposed in his 2019 price range. By consolidating totally different routes beforehand within the speedy transit hall right into a single, frequent one, the hope is for the bus path to turn into extra usable and environment friendly with out rising prices.

“This project is not increasing our operating budget. This project doesn't change our long-term budget outlook, one way or the other,” Stuehrenberg mentioned. “There's no doubt that our state restrictions on our ability to raise revenue would cause a long-term challenge for the city as a whole and Metro is obviously part of that city. BRT is not contributing to that long-term concern.”

Reyes mentioned Tuesday, if elected, she’ll evaluate preexisting and promised spending by town, together with the “apparent failure to include funding for fiber optic connections.”

“This means that the only way people can make payments and share info is via cellular connection, which is susceptible to hacking and inefficiency and may not be feasible for all riders,” Reyes mentioned.

The feedback are just like these made by former mayoral candidate and longtime metropolis engineer Scott Kerr. Reyes acknowledged she by no means spoke to anybody with the Metro division about her issues over bus speedy transit, however that may be “one of the first things” she’ll do if elected. She mentioned she was taking steering from Kerr.

“Scott Kerr, who was a candidate before the primary, had a significant amount of information and has guided me along the way on key issues and challenges of the implementation of the BRT,” Reyes mentioned Tuesday.

Kerr, who endorsed Reyes after dropping within the main, this week despatched a message to the Madison Metropolis Council asking alders to look into bus speedy transit spending.

“The BRT design promised WiFi connections for all and heated platforms to address snow and ice concerns, but failed to investigate if the city fiber network had capacity to connect the bus loading platforms and … there is no connection to the storm or sewer from the areas that will be heated,” Kerr mentioned in an electronic mail obtained by the Cap Occasions. He additionally requested the council to look into the grant funding and why it was used for BRT against “reducing Metro’s carbon emissions even more dramatically” with extra electrical buses, in addition to an honor-system fare assortment.

“Who is responsible for these issues and how will they be addressed without increased expense?” Kerr requested.

Stuehrenberg mentioned he was not conscious of any promise of WiFi ever made and that there is state legal guidelines to stop public WiFi, typically. Even so, he mentioned, the speedy transit stations have gear to supply web entry if town ever determined to take action. As for snow soften, Stuehrenberg mentioned Kerr’s feedback had been “a fundamental misunderstanding of how the system works.” He additionally mentioned Kerr has by no means reached out to him to debate BRT or any of the questions he has raised.

“Scott Kerr and Gloria Reyes, they've been making a lot of statements, both in the public realm, as well as in private, about the project. The former mayor (Soglin) is also sending constant requests for information to various city staff trying to identify some potential challenge or pitfall,” Stuehrenberg mentioned. “It's clear that they're all actively working together on this.”

He mentioned a number of the factors raised are completely “made up” and others are coming from just a few disgruntled staff sad with the adjustments Metro is making. 

“I don't believe that information represents the whole of Metro,” Stuehrenberg mentioned.

As for the undertaking's budgeting, Stuehrenberg mentioned the Small Begins Grant town obtained to fund the system is particularly for speedy transit, so it's “flat out false” that the cash may very well be spent in different methods. The fare assortment is just not honor-based, Stuehrenberg mentioned, and can be just like the present system with extra up to date expertise.

Reyes has mentioned, if elected, she's going to do a full audit of how cash was spent on bus speedy transit and think about slicing this system altogether. However Stuehrenberg mentioned all of the items are already in movement, contracts are signed and budgets are authorised. Undoing that may require the council to rescind all their earlier approvals and pay out contractor damages.

“It would just be an incredible waste of money for no benefit at all,” Stuehrenberg  mentioned. “We wouldn't be able to use any of the federal grant, so we wouldn't probably end up saving any money by doing that.

“We would just spend the same amount of money and not have a project to show.”

Reyes has additionally argued low ridership ranges require a better take a look at the bus speedy transit system and an evaluation of whether or not it is wanted. However Stuehrenberg pointed to current reviews that present a number of predominant routes with extra riders than in 2019 pre-pandemic and traits exhibiting 16% extra riders this yr thus far than final yr. 

“If the service is faster, more people will be likely to ride it. In many ways, doing something like BRT could improve our fare revenue and ridership going forward, and we do expect it to,” Stuehrenberg mentioned. “Saying that ridership is down so we should cut services just doesn't make sense to me, especially when the ridership trajectory is very much back in the upward direction.”

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