CATS board, Metro Council to weigh in on proposed $50 million express bus routes in BR

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CATS board, Metro Council to weigh in on proposed express bus route

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The Capital Area Transit System board and Metro Council will each take up a cooperative endeavor agreement between CATS and the city-parish that’s needed in order for Mayor Sharon Weston Broome’s proposed 10-mile express bus route to move forward.

Under the agreement, CATS and the city-parish will each pay half of a $440,000 fee to HNTB, the firm designing the bus rapid transit line.

East Baton Rouge Parish Redevelopment Authority CEO Chris Tyson is hopeful both groups will approve financing for the project. The CATS board is expected to vote on the agreement this evening, while the Metro Council will take it up Wednesday.

“We’ve discussed this pretty extensively over the past few months,” Tyson says. “This is just one step. There are many more.”

The Federal Transit Administration has agreed to match city-parish funds for a 3-mile tram connecting downtown to LSU. However, since Broome redefined the project to include a bus rapid transit line instead, it will have to be vetted again by the FTA. The cooperative endeavor agreement is a first step to regaining FTA approval.

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Upon completion, the transit line is estimated to cost somewhere between $40 million and $50 million. Based on what other cities across the world have paid for similar systems, Tyson calls the estimate a “back-of-the-envelope cost per mile of building the average bus rapid transit system.” CATS Communications Director Amie McNaylor says some costs on CATS’ end include $800,000 for three electric buses, as well as additional dollars for enhanced shelter stations and digital kiosks, the latter of which won’t roll out until after early fall 2019, once the first phase of the project is expected to be complete.

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