HART board approves ten year plan that does NOT include light rail

Mary Shavalier, Director of Grants Management and Planning with the agency, said that HART will concentrate its efforts on more flex routes, more express routes, Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) and High Occupancy Vehicle lanes (also known as HOV, which are essentially car pool lanes that could also be used by buses).

Noting the symbolic significance of such an inclusion during their meeting on Monday, Board member David Mechanik asked Shavalier if it was accurate that the DOT requires the Transit Development Plan to include a "reasonable, foreseeable" funding source to include in such a plan. "We can't just put in projects that we have no idea where the funding would come from -is that a fair way to put it?," he asked.

Shavalier said that was accurate, but emphasized that the plan was "not locked into" the next ten years, and if the revenue situation improves, they can reinsert that in their plans. "We're looking at our critical needs," she said. "We do recognize that continuing to study transit and other options is critical."