WPCNR MAIN STREET JOURNAL. From The Mayor’s Office. June 5, 2004: The City of White Plains announced Friday it had secured a $250,000 grant from the New York State Department of Transporation to conduct a study of a trolley bus service in the downtown. Mayor Joseph Delfino, in a memo to the Common Council members announcing the grant wrote it, “will make it possible for us to develop an implementation plan for the project and will provide us with some seed money for start-up costs, assuming we go through with the project.”
The city had committed approximately $20,000 in Community Development funds to start researching the “WPRT” system at last week’s work session. The $250,000 grant now apparently frees up this money.
Funding Sources Sought.
In his memorandum to the Common Council introducing the grant, Mayor Delfino wrote the city was undertaking “an implementation plan” that would “include cost and revenue projects so that we can know with reasonable certainty how much it will cost to fund such an operation and where we might be able to secure outside funding from.”
Light Rail Would Cost Millions. Bus System Contemplated: Lawson
Ted Lawson, the city’s Grant Writer on the staff of the Mayor’s office, said when asked by WPCNR if a light rail system or a bus-self-contained vehicle system was being considered, said that light rail cost $6 Million to $10 Million a mile, and would obviously have to have a source of outside funding. Lawson stressed the city was completely open to any proposals, expected a bus-trolley kind of system, but if a firm proposed light rail and a source of funding for it, it would be considered.
Asked what kind of firms he was expecting to send in proposals, Lawson described them as “transportation consuting firms and economic development companies” with the contracting sources to execute the project.
RFP Suggests Bus/Trolley System: Feasibility, Costs, Funding Source.
The city RFP requires descriptions of who would do the work on any “White Plains Rapid Transit” system, fees for services.
The RFP is described as a “Downtown Shuttle Service,” and that the city is “not anticipated that the City will be providing significant funding for this service so providing funding mechanisms are a key component to the study and may also infludence the design of the system.”
The RFP asks respondents to “determine the market potential for a consolidated shuttle service,” including analysis privately run shuttle services already existing, to see if a new community shuttle service would be needed.
The proposal wants specifics on the type of vehicle, size, number of vehicles, routes, stops, frequency of service, hours of operations, personnel requirements, and a fare structure.