Orange County NC passes their 1/2 cent transit sales tax referendum yesterday. Passage will allow planning to begin on the Chapel Hill to Durham segment of the Triangle area light rail system (Durham County passed their tax referendum last November). In addition some of the Orange County funds will be used to build a new Amtrak station on the Piedmont and Carolinian route in Hillsborough.
Wake County has not yet voted on the 1/2 transit tax necessary to bring the LRT network into Raleigh.
I believe that Triangle area commuter rail (on the NCRR tracks that Amtrak currently operates on) is dependent on Wake County's tax contribution.
http://www.newsobserver.com/2012/11/06/ ... ading.html
The current legislature has made it much more difficult to deliver state funds to rail transit. However, the NC Governor elect, Pat McCrory was an enthusiastic (and effective) supporter of light rail in Charlotte as the mayor, although he had to temper his pro-transit views to gain tea-party support for his gubernatorial election. I suspect the future of rail transit in the Triangle will be largely determined as much by McCrory's fiscal stance towards transit as the Wake county vote.
Wake County has not yet voted on the 1/2 transit tax necessary to bring the LRT network into Raleigh.
I believe that Triangle area commuter rail (on the NCRR tracks that Amtrak currently operates on) is dependent on Wake County's tax contribution.
http://www.newsobserver.com/2012/11/06/ ... ading.html
The current legislature has made it much more difficult to deliver state funds to rail transit. However, the NC Governor elect, Pat McCrory was an enthusiastic (and effective) supporter of light rail in Charlotte as the mayor, although he had to temper his pro-transit views to gain tea-party support for his gubernatorial election. I suspect the future of rail transit in the Triangle will be largely determined as much by McCrory's fiscal stance towards transit as the Wake county vote.