Tim wondered about how Art Leahy quitting might affect the lrt project. I don't know whether they hired a deputy for lrt yet. I believe that they did hire an lrt maintenance director already, which I thought seemed far in advance of need, since there won't be anything to maintain for two or three years. The Federal Transit Adminitration has submitted it for approval. This can have three results: approval, rejection, or (most likely) approval by 60 days of inaction. That's why Met council was so happy about it being submitted before December, because the 60 days inaction period would extend past the January 31 dealine for state funds. Once the feds and state/local authorities have signed the full funding agreement, the budget overruns will begin to become visible, since a full funding agreement commits the feds to a fixed dollar amount and the state, county, and cities will have to pay everything else, no matter how great, to finish the line and operate it for the 20 years projected or pay back everything the feds paid. I don't understand why the city was in such a hurry to build the 4th Street contraflow bus lane ($865,000) before the project was approved, since it would be at least a year before it would be needed due to closing 5th for construction. After all, we still don't know where the Cedar-Riverside stop will be located. In a related topic, Portland recently announced the results of improving bus service along a certain route by the unprecedented track of doing what the riders wanted, such as more frequent service, schedules posted at stops, longer hours (I think), and more straight-forward routes. Ridership is up by 20%. Around here they think that ridership might go up 25% by spending four times as much on lrt as they would on a better bus service. So, we'll get a 5% increase in ridership for a 400% increase in spending. Same kind of ridiculous idea on the extension of lrt to Apple Valley as opposed to a busway. Bruce Gaarder Highland Park Saint Paul [EMAIL PROTECTED]
