Mass transit trains skirting backyards raise concerns

Stephen Curran

Friday, Feb. 25, 2005 | 9:07 a.m.

Residents living along the route proposed for a mass transit system that would eventually link Henderson to North Las Vegas are nearly split on whether the system would be good for Southern Nevada, a committee formed to study the system said Thursday.

In a series of public meetings held last month to gauge public opinion, the Regional Transportation Commission's regional fixed guideway steering committee found that a small majority -- 54 percent -- of residents surveyed saw no benefit to such a system. The remainder, 46 percent, believed the system would benefit the valley, committee meeting facilitator and local architect Craig Galati said.

High on respondents' list of concerns were worries about noise, impact on surrounding property values and public perception of the project itself, with 42 percent of those surveyed saying "neighborhood" impacts most troubled them, according to statistics compiled by the committee.

The findings indicated that committee members may have a hard time selling the project to area residents unfamiliar with the technology, committee chairman and Las Vegas Monorail executive Gary Johnson said.

"We need to help people understand what kind of transportation they're dealing with," he said.

The successful Metropolitan Area Express in place since the summer along the resort corridor is regarded by many as a bus system, but its dedicated travel lane qualifies it as a fixed guideway system under the Federal Transportation Administration's definition. That system may be among the most difficult to promote despite a likely cost advantage, Jane Feldman, a committee member and local Sierra Club representative, said.

The solution to clearing up the perceived inferiority of rubber tire-driven systems, Feldman said, may be as simple as referring to the MAX system as a "rail-free train."

"We have to stop ruling out rubber wheels," Feldman said. "People see trains as being middle-class or upper middle-class but look down on buses."

Also under consideration are a diesel passenger train, an electric rubber-tires version and electric light rail guided along an existing track. Each fits the Federal Transportation Administration's definition of fixed guideway, which includes light rail and bus options guided along a dedicated travel lane.

Many of the concerns isolated in the meetings centered on whether system would be noisy and whether it would drag down the value of homes in the areas along the route, Galati said.

If approved, the new system would run from the Nevada State College at Henderson to downtown Las Vegas and could be completed by 2008. A second phase, which officials have previously predicted could be finished by 2014, would extend the route from downtown to a planned UNLV satellite campus in North Las Vegas.

Officials have estimated the cost of a new system at $700 million -- about $20 million a mile -- but it could be as much as $2.1 billion, depending on what type of system RTC members approve.

The steering committee, formed in September, is expected to recommend a technology to the RTC sometime this summer. The group can also recommend the RTC take no action on the proposal.

The concerns outlined in prior public meetings directly conflict with information provided by the county agency. The RTC in the past has been quick to point to studies outlining double-digit spikes in property values around transit systems in other cities.

That study was of little comfort to Ralph and Twyla Richter, whose Green Valley home backs up to the little-used Union Pacific rail line that would serve as a backbone for the system.

Both questioned the study's data.

"They're being very vague and they're not telling us what kind of research they used," to reach their conclusion that the trains are not noisy, Ralph Richter said.

A construction equipment salesman, Ralph Richter said he had no plans to trade his car keys for a public transit system, despite a daily commute to his North Las Vegas office.

That 33-mile rail line that could be used travels through 10 miles of residential neighborhoods, which makes the Richters worry about the noise of a train barreling behind their house.

"Would you want a train 'wooshing' through your backyard?" Twyla Richter, a school health worker, said. "If they built a tunnel, then I wouldn't mind it, but not to have a train 'wooshing' by every 20 minutes."

Miyoko Ono-Moore, a band assistant at Clark High School and fellow Green Valley resident, said she would happily trade her car keys for a train pass.

Ono-Moore travels more than 20 minutes each way to work, picking up a co-worker who lives nearby but does not have a car, she said. A Southern Nevada resident for more than 10 years, Ono-Moore said the idea is long past due.

"I dream of public transit many times," she said. "I totally believe in the environment. It's worth it."