MARTA riders can put aside any concerns about further increases in basic daily fares or service cutbacks -- at least for one year -- under an $800 million budget approved Monday.
MARTA board Chairman Frederick Daniels said at a board meeting the transit authority has forestalled more cutbacks and hikes for the next fiscal year, which begins July1. He couldn’t promise a repeat for 2014, though.
MARTA raised basic one-way train and bus fares to $2.50, from $2, last October.
System officials say they avoided more hikes and cuts this coming fiscal year because additional federal dollars became available for operating costs and through cost cuts. Daniels said the board has hired a consulting firm to help the authority increase savings and operate more efficiently.
“We want to make sure we look very closely at our expenses,” Daniels said.
Before the full board meeting, members of a board committee raised concerns that the Atlanta Streetcar project already needs an extra $750,000 to get four streetcars scheduled to start chugging between the MLK historic district and Olympian Centennial Park next year.
The extra money is needed to pay storage costs for streetcars that are expected to be finished ahead of schedule, months before the line becomes operational in 2013.
That pushes costs for streetcar acquisition to about $19 million, 9 percent more than the original $17 million budget. The committee approved adding $750,000 to an existing $860,000 contingency fund intended to deal with cost variables.
Daniels noted that the overall project -- funded largely by a $47 million federal grant -- had already used more than the approved contingency costs within three months of board approval of the streetcar project budget in March.
After the meeting, however, Daniels said some overruns are to be expected.
“You very seldom have a construction project come in on budget,” he said. “ You are going to have expenses that were not accounted for.”
Board member Roderick Edmond worried overruns could make the transit agency less competitive for federal grants. The streetcar is a City of Atlanta project but MARTA’s name is attached because it has a contract to operate it.
“That is a grave concern of mine,” Edmond said. “There are just so many aspects of this project that are not under MARTA’s control. If this project blows up, will it affect MARTA’s ability to get federal funds?”
Board member Adam Orkin also expressed concern: “If we’ve already eaten into our contingency fund and we’re a year and a half out, there is no more room in that budget,” he said.
The transit agency’s chief operating officer, Dwight Ferrell, said MARTA’s ability to get federal funds won’t be jeopardized. Ferrell said the Atlanta project was further along than any similar rail project nationwide, and he assured board members, “we don’t expect any more hiccups.”
In March, the MARTA board awarded a $46.6 million contract -- paid for by a federal grant -- to URS Energy & Construction Inc. to design and build a streetcar to link the tourist destinations of Centennial Olympic Park and the King Center, which is being billed as an economic development project.
The project’s total estimated cost is about $94 million.
Atlanta city officials say the project won’t simply ferry tourists but will act as a feeder to MARTA rail and eventually to the Atlanta Beltline. They contend it will spur housing, retail and office development within its corridor, which includes Auburn and Edgewood avenues.
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