Charlotte (Part 2)—- For Doug Tollett, the recent visit to North Carolina's largest city to view its growing transit system hit home.

How is it that Charlotte has been able to build about 10 miles of light rail in the past three years while metro Atlanta has stood still?

Tollett, one of Gov. Sonny Perdue's appointees to the Transit Planning Board (as well as the agency's vice chairman), quickly understood one reason. "They are able to work with the state," Tollett said of Charlotte's transit system, which receives about 25 percent state support for capital improvements and about 10 percent funding from North Carolina for its transit operations. By comparison, the state of Georgia provides virtually no funding for MARTA, the region's largest transit agency by far.

"I think the state of Georgia needs to understand that metro Atlanta can't function if they can't move people through it, if they starve Atlanta to death," according to Tollett.

A group of 44 leaders from metro Atlanta took a one-day bus ride to Charlotte 10 days ago to better understand how that region has been able to expand its transit offerings.

Keith Parker, CEO of the Charlotte Area Transit System, or CATS, explained that his agency receives "real commitment" from North Carolina.

"Charlotte is the biggest activity center in the state in terms of revenue," he said. "And the governor has been supportive of public transit."

Charlotte's transit system also receives a half-cent sales tax dedicated for public transportation. That tax is giving Charlotte a solid chance of implementing its 2030 transit plan, which includes 14 miles of Bus Rapid Transit with dedicated lanes, 21 miles of light rail, 16 miles of streetcar lines and 25 miles of commuter rail.

For the past couple of years, metro Atlanta's leaders have been hard at work putting together a regional transit plan for light rail, express buses and commuter rail. For the plan, look for Concept 3 at http://tpb.ga.gov/. Public meetings on the plan are being held throughout the region through April 29.

Having a plan is great. But metro Atlanta needs to figure out how to build out its plans, explained Chick Krautler, executive director of the Atlanta Regional Commission.

"We have done the planning part," Krautler said. "Now we've got to focus our attention on funding and governance."

Funding? The state Legislature is working on a constitutional amendment that would permit regions across the state to pass a 1 percent transportation tax. But no one knows how much of that tax in metro Atlanta would go to transit.

"I would love to see the whole penny go to transit," said Cheryl King, the Transit Planning Board's staff director.

"It's certainly my hope that much of the funding would go to transit," said Sam Olens, ARC's chairman, who also chairs the Cobb County Commission.

Governance? That's also tricky. The Transit Planning Board is supposed to go out of business by the end of the year. And so far, there's no entity to implement its plans.

The Charlotte trip led some to reconsider whether the TPB should go away. In Charlotte, the unstaffed Metropolitan Transit Commission sets regional transit policy while CATS implements it and operates the system.

Perhaps the Transit Planning Board could become the policy board and work with a reconfigured MARTA as the operating entity.

"What's so good about TPB is that all the agencies are working together," Tollett said. "Everybody is represented."

MARTA General Manager Beverly Scott is open to ideas. "Certainly the governance structure is going to have to change to reflect the broader region. Why couldn't it be an expanded MARTA?" Scott said, adding she just wants a solution that works. "We can't stand in the way."

Charlotte also opened people's eyes on commuter rail.

"The right of way already exists," explained Parker. "It's the easiest thing for us to do. We could be up-and-running in about 18 months. The complexity is the funding part."

Specifically, Charlotte can't secure federal funding to build its commuter rail line. So it is busy trying to raise local and state dollars to build the commuter rail line without federal funds.

By comparison, Georgia has $108 million —- $86 million in federal funds —- sitting unused to build commuter rail from Atlanta to Lovejoy.

The state won't move forward until it knows which governmental entity will pay for its $4 million annual operating costs after its first five years.

So for years and years, Georgia has done nothing.

The trip to Charlotte showed local leaders that we can do better.

Dick Anderson, the new executive director of the Georgia Regional Transportation Authority, said he admired Charlotte's simple management structure for transit.

He added that metro Atlanta needs to "move quickly to a fully integrated transit plan," with common pricing, integrated routes and a single strategy for transit.

Already, he has told MARTA's Scott that GRTA will not plan any new route for its X-Press bus service independent of MARTA.

That's a start.

But before we can really tackle congestion with a reasonable transit policy, we need dedicated funding, state financial support, a regional transit entity, true commitment for commuter rail and a desire to move forward.

As Tollett said, we are going to have to build transit one way or another.

"Traffic is strangling our city," Tollett said. "We are going to have to fund it sooner or later. And later, it will cost more. The problem is not going away. It's getting worse."

—- msaporta@ajc.com

> Go to ajc.com for last week's column.