RTC of Southern Nevada's Onboard plan prioritizes light rail and BRT; several corridors advance with federal grants
Loading...
Summary
The RTC of Southern Nevada presented Onboard, an aspirational mobility plan that ranks light rail and bus rapid transit highly in public surveys and advances Maryland Parkway, Boulder Highway and Charleston Boulevard projects with federal funding and ongoing alternatives analysis.
The Regional Transportation Commission (RTC) of Southern Nevada told the AB256 Regional Rail Working Group that its Onboard mobility plan, an unconstrained regional vision, ranks light rail and bus rapid transit (BRT) as top public investment priorities and is advancing several corridors through federal grant awards.
"The onboard mobility plan... received over 13,000 responses," Andrew Kelman, deputy CEO of the RTC of Southern Nevada, said. Kelman said Onboard groups projects into four categories: improvements to existing transit, short-trip connections (walking, biking), emerging technologies and high-capacity transit such as light rail and BRT.
Kelman highlighted three corridors moving toward implementation: Maryland Parkway (project under construction, supported by a $150 million Federal Transit Administration award and receiving $125 million in fuel revenue indexing dollars); Boulder Highway (15-mile corridor with a $40 million federal award for the southern half); and Charleston Boulevard (alternatives analysis phase, safety-focused and on the city's high-injury network).
The RTC also presented capital and operating cost comparisons to the committee: "It's about $230,000,000 for 1 mile of light rail transit... and 40,000,000 cost per mile for bus rapid transit," Kelman said, underscoring a sizable capital cost differential. He added that local sales tax revenues remain the primary source to fund operations and maintenance, meaning local sustainable funding sources are critical to any light rail expansion.
Kelman said the public budgeting exercises showed broad support for high-capacity transit across demographic groups and zip codes, including outlying areas that view light rail as an amenity. He said the RTC is aggressively pursuing federal discretionary grant funding and has begun implementing corridors as grant funding becomes available.
Committee members asked about coordination with freight and Brightline West; Kelman said the RTC coordinates freight through the Nevada State Rail Plan and has incorporated Brightline studies into regional travel-demand modeling and early coordination on site access.
What happens next: the RTC will continue project development activities (alternatives analysis and funding pursuit) on prioritized corridors and coordinate with local governments and NDOT on project funding and delivery timelines.
