Wake Transit Plan Neither Financially Nor Technically Feasible, But Hey, Let’s Do It Anyway

The push for transit in the Triangle, including rail, is continuing as the usual groups make the rounds to drum up support.

Representatives from groups including AARP, Capital Area Friends of Transit and Wake Up Wake County urged the Morrisville Town Council to support the Wake County Transit Plan at a recent public input session.

Analysis of Wake County’s transit plan, however, shows its many flaws:

The Wake County transit plan “contains numerous optimistic assumptions, errors of fact or omission, and calculations that are at variance with standard practice in the transit industry,” according to report authors Dr. David Hartgen, emeritus professor of transportation studies at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte and president of The Hartgen Group, and Thomas Rubin, an Oakland, Calif.-based consultant specializing in public-sector accounting in projects involving transit, highways, and schools.