The Incline Railway is expected to reopen by summer after a small wildfire Dec. 7 damaged cable, rail and ties, said Chattanooga Area Regional Transit Authority President and CEO Charles Frazier.
At its monthly board meeting Thursday, CARTA recognized 12 employees who worked for four straight days to assess and stabilize the Incline on a 72-degree slope that smoldered for days.
“It will be months, not weeks,” Mr. Frazier told the board.
CARTA must replace 5,100 feet of cable, which it replaced in April this year during routine maintenance. The same company will provide the custom-made 1.5-inch cable, and has quoted CARTA the same price.
The board voted Thursday to approve $85,470 in emergency procurement funds for the cable. It takes 12 weeks to manufacture and at least three weeks to install.
There were no injuries or deaths and no damage to the top or bottom rail stations, or to rail cars. But CARTA must replace 1,100 feet of rail plus 200 ties and bordering guard rail timber. CARTA has not yet identified who will make these repairs, which may add weeks to the reopening timeline.
Mr. Frazier said insurance will cover lost revenue until the Incline reopens.
PLAN Chattanooga
A handful of research organizations have theorized redesign plans for CARTA in recent years, including transit consultant Jarrett Walker, Via infrastructure software, and others led by the U.S. Department of Energy and UTC.
Mr. Frazier underscored the amount of research those studies have brought to CARTA’s transit recommendations for zoning and land use map PLAN Chattanooga, a citywide growth plan designed by the Chattanooga-Hamilton County Regional Planning Agency.
CARTA’s transit routes, parking lots and imagined downtown mobility hub, or bus station, were studied for these redesigns and have been incorporated into PLAN Chattanooga, Mr. Frazier said.
Parking
Mr. Frazier said CARTA’s first hour free program at the North and South downtown garages is succeeding to make safe, clean, affordable parking in the “downtown core” more accessible.
He said he has begun to meet monthly with private parking lot owners and representatives of the Chattanooga mayor’s office to unite and iron out downtown parking problems. Space is not the issue, but signage and competing technology are making it hard for patrons to find parking and use it, he said.
CARTA will pause its partnership with Modii online parking spot finder while the group works to better align urban parking citywide.
Care-a-Van
Board Chair Johan de Nysschen continues to orient around the bottom line, at Thursday’s meeting pointing out that expenses for Care-a-Van continue to rise month by month. Care-a-Van for ADA riders is not designed to produce revenue, but the gap is noticeably growing, he said.
“The delta between revenue and expenses is problematic,” he said. “I suspect the situation for CARTA Go is even worse.”
As the popularity of the CARTA Go on-demand service has begun to spike, so has its deficit, he said, at an unsustainable rate.
Mr. de Nysschen said CARTA has a responsibility to service outliers beyond traditional routes, but he worries about long-term sustainability of such programs without a plan to specifically counter those expenses with new revenue.
“Care-A-Van is a cornerstone of our service to the community,” he said.