Dreaming of public transportation between Carson City and Reno

When the V&T railroad ran between Reno and Carson City it was a popular excursion to pack a picnic lunch and take the train to Washoe Valley for a day at Bower's Mansion park. I thought about that the other day when I talked to local business owner Clint Darquea. Clint lives in Reno, works in Carson City, and would like to be able to commute by light rail. Every car commute is a gauntlet, he says, of road rage, impaired drivers, and high gas prices. He says the hour spent driving is wasted time, time he could be relaxing on a train.

I'm a bus commuter myself, so I asked him why he doesn't take the bus. "I work nights and weekends," he said "and the bus doesn't run then."

I thought about a man I'd talked to at the bus stop a couple of weeks ago. The previous Saturday he'd gotten a ride to his job in north Reno, but to get back home he took a Reno bus as far south as he could then walked " yes walked " all the way home to Carson City. I remembered another conversation I'd had with a blind gentleman in his eighties who was taking the bus regularly to Reno to visit his wife in the hospital. He wanted to visit her every day, but couldn't go on weekends because the bus didn't run.

How do we get a light rail when we can't even run an intercity bus on weekends? I called Patrick Pittenger, Carson City's Transportation Manager. Patrick is in charge of JAC, Carson's almost 3-year-old bus system. I told Patrick about Clint's light rail idea and asked his opinion as a transit professional. What's the future of public transportation in northern Nevada, with gas prices climbing to $4 a gallon and beyond? Could light rail have a future here?

Patrick told me that when JAC started in 2005, there were 4,000 riders a month. Last month there were 10,200 riders. Ridership has more than doubled in less than three years, and gone up over 8 percent in the past three months alone. Clearly there is a future for public transportation. But what kind?

Clint thinks that trains are the thing. He says, "People enjoy using light rail. It's not an eyesore. People feel cultured and sophisticated when they take the train; they feel poor when they take the bus."

But buses serve people who don't have cars, who can't afford to drive, or who can't drive. I asked Patrick to compare light rail and buses. How much would a light rail line between Reno and Carson City cost? He didn't speculate, but he did say that a new light rail line in the Phoenix area will cost about $1.6 billion for 20 miles by the time it's done later this year. Why does anyone build light rail if it costs so much?

He told me it has advantages. In cities with light rail lines, major corporations and other businesses seek to locate near train stations - so there's a business development effect. Trains carry more passengers than buses do, and they get where they're going faster than buses.

But he told me about a newer idea called bus rapid transit (BRT). He said Las Vegas had considered light rail but went with BRT instead because they found they could cover much of the city with BRT for the cost of one light rail line.

Even though I ride the bus I share Clint's preference for trains. Why would I want to ride BRT? Patrick says BRT has the same operating characteristics as a train. The buses run very frequently, and stops are like train stops, with flat platforms from which you step straight into the bus.

I remembered hearing about a potential BRT line down Virginia Street in Reno " what ever happened to that idea? And could it be extended to Carson City? I called David Jickling, director of the Public Transportation Department of Washoe RTC. He says that a BRT line along Virginia Street had been slated to begin construction in the spring of 2009, but with decreased RTC revenues due to decreased sales tax, that time frame has probably moved back by several years. It's still being planned however, and Washoe RTC has a grant application in to the Federal Transit Administration to fund 80 percent of the $40 million cost of the project.

David said the BRT would be constructed in three phases, with the final phase reaching as far as the Summit Sierra shopping area " still 18 miles from Carson City.

So it looks like those of us who want to use public transportation between Reno and Carson City will be stuck with a weekday bus route for quite a while. But we can always dream. Clint and I finished up our discussion about light rail with some speculation about the future. The Carson freeway? "Compared to light rail, a new freeway is a step backwards " and I'll never be able to afford to drive on it."

What about the V&T? "Who will that serve?" he asked. "Not people who live here " only tourists."

Besides, he said, in cities that have modern light rail, the light rail itself becomes an attraction that draws visitors to the city. So let's take a journey back to the future. You step on a train (or BRT) in Carson, turn on the laptop, and before you know it you're in Reno. On Sunday you take the kids on the train to Washoe Valley for a picnic. Tourists arrive at the Reno Amtrak station and take light rail to the interesting, restored, walkable downtown Carson City. Why not? It could happen.

- Fresh Ideas: Starting conversations by sharing personal perspectives on timely and timeless issues. Anne Macquarie, a private-sector urban planner, is a 19-year resident of Carson City.