Item A: Joint Meeting with Lane Transit District Board of Directors

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June 12, 2006 TO: Eugene Mayor and City Council Lane Transit District Board of Directors FROM: Stefano Viggiano, L TO Director of Development Services RE: Selection of Third EmX Corridor Background Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) is identified as a key transit strategy in TransPlan and the Regional Transportation Plan. L TO has been pursuing implementation of the EmX, the name given to our community's BRT system, on a corridor-by-corridor basis. Franklin EmX, the first EmX corridor, links downtown Eugene and downtown Springfield. That corridor is under construction and scheduled to open in December 2006. The second EmX corridor, Pioneer Parkway EmX, will extend the Franklin EmX from downtown Springfield into the Gateway/RiverBend/lnternational Way area of northwest Springfield. The two EmX corridors would operate as a single, continuous route, providing direct service among all activity centers on both corridors. The Pioneer Parkway EmX is in the environmental analysis stage, with completion of the Environmental Assessment and project approval scheduled for September 2006. If environmental reviews, project approvals, and funding approvals go as planned, service on the Pioneer Parkway EmX could begin as soon as late 2009. It is expected that the third EmX corridor will be in Eugene. In 2002 the City Council selected Coburg Road as the next EmX corridor in Eugene. L TO staff and City staff conducted a planning study in collaboration with a Coburg Road stakeholder group. The stakeholder group had many varied opinions about the benefit and feasibility of a possible EmX line. In January 2004, the group approved a report that documented the advantages and disadvantages of various possible EmX design options along the corridor. Since it became apparent that funding for a third EmX line was many years out, a decision was made not to pursue at that time a more detailed follow-up design study for the Coburg Road corridor. It was further agreed by both the Eugene City Council and the L TO Board that when it became time to start working again on a third EmX corridor, a new corridor selection process should be conducted--rather than assuming that the third corridor is going to be Coburg Road. Schedule for Third ErnX Corridor The L TO Capital Improvements Program currently shows construction of the third EmX corridor in 2014 and 2015. This assumes, of course, securing the necessary federal matching funds. When federal funds are used for a project such as this, a prescribed series of steps that include an alternatives analysis and an environmental analysis are