UTA head wants faster federal reviews for rapid transit

A Utah Transit Authority official told Congress on Friday that it needs to hit the accelerator on the slow and costly federal process used to review and approve funding for new rapid-transit programs.

"We need some revolutionary changes," UTA General Manager and CEO John Inglish told a symposium organized by the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee.

He said UTA has learned much about the process as it has gone through many reviews for "new starts" in the past 10 years. "Ten years ago, we were a bus company. Now, we operate 70 miles of rail," he said. "And we have another 70 miles of rail under construction."

He said the process is slower than it needs to be and increases costs.

"Time is our enemy. The public is pressuring us constantly to get it done, and get it done now." He said the public often asks, "What is holding this up? Usually, it's a piece of paper sitting on a desk in Washington. We need to process that a lot faster."

Inglish added that projects that use only local money "move along a lot faster." He said they require the same environmental work, for example, but "I sign it, and we're done. It's six months to a year ahead of what might be involved with a federal project."

He added, "We need to make it easier to do these projects in cut time. … That's just one of the areas where we can save a lot of money."

He said the federal government also might consider giving some sort of expedited review to agencies like UTA that have handled many new starts. "We've done this. We've done it a lot of times. We've done the environmental work. We know how to do it. We know how to do it well."

He also said a lack of federal standards for funding makes murky which projects may receive federal help and how much — and whether current practices are fair.

"We don't have a good sense of looking at this nation and saying, 'Where do we need a better balance in our transportation networks?' Some cities are moving out like Salt Lake and putting our own local moneys on the line to make it happen, and other cities aren't doing anything. How do we sift through that?"

The committee invited representatives from many transit authorities nationwide — from New York City to Houston, Charlotte and Denver — to a roundtable discussion on the topic as it begins work to possibly overhaul the "new starts" rapid-transit program.

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