wwSpeaking of the Federal Transit Administration — where is it?

Back in mid September CATS CEO Ron Tober said he was expecting a preliminary answer from the FTA on the question of federal funding of the $750 million Northeast light rail line. That project would extend the South line from Uptown to UNCC.

Here is what Tober told The Charlotte Observer on September 16:

The northeast corridor is going to be much harder to build than the commuter rail line, and harder to build than the South Boulevard line, because much of the project isn’t in existing rail right-of-way.

“Without federal funding, it can’t go forward,” said CATS chief executive Ron Tober, who is retiring in December. “There’s a lot of elevated structures (on the rail line). It’s just too bloody expensive.”

Tober said he’s optimistic the FTA will fund the project, and that he’ll get a response by late October as promised.

Well, we got a couple days left for the feds to come through on that promise. The transit tax vote couldn’t be having an impact on what the FTA says and when it says it — could it?

No. Surely that is crazy talk. Politics never plays a role in government transportation plans and spending. The nation’s train-building czars could not possibly be concerned one way or another about the continuation of a $70 million a year tax which enables hundreds of millions of dollars in transit spending. Pure fantasy.