The Piedmont Authority for Regional Transportation has a plan to improve transit services throughout Forsyth and other counties, but the improvements would come with a large price tag.
Forsyth County's suggestions include more frequent service, new and extended routes and a streetcar system.
The improvements would cost Forsyth County about $23.7 million. This could be mostly paid for with a half-cent sales tax or an $8 vehicle registration tax. Voters would have to approve the sales tax, but the vehicle registration tax wouldn't need voter approval.
PART's plan, which also includes Guilford County, aims in part to standardize transit services across the region; PART had no regional transit plan before.
The proposal is largely possible because of N.C. House Bill 148, passed last year. The bill authorizes counties to levy taxes to pay for public transportation projects, but in order to receive the money, transportation groups must have approved a detailed plan.
Under the proposal, 14 routes would be added or extended. In addition, routes with more than 750 weekday riders would be considered for Sunday service.
Several of these routes serve Kernersville, a response to growing demand in the area.
"The biggest things for Forsyth County that citizens have emphasized has been service frequency and service to areas that currently do not have transit service," said Phillip Vereen, a transit planner for the Winston-Salem Department of Transportation.
The PART board should receive final recommendations in August, and if it approves them, the board will decide with each individual county how to pay for the upgrades. Any vote, though, would have to wait until at least next year.
Also proposed is a streetcar route in downtown Winston-Salem. The route was inspired by the streetcars in Portland, Ore., which are somewhat similar to light rail, and could spur development.
The proposal also calls for a major renovation of the downtown transit center, although the details haven't been worked out.
The poor economy has resulted in PART receiving less money from car-rental taxes, said PART project manager Mark Kirstner. If this downward trend continues, he said, PART might have to cut services a few years down the road. PART hopes its plan will gain enough support among residents and legislators to prevent this.
"The nice thing about a sales tax is that it's something that the counties don't have to consider every year," Kirstner said. "Once it's enacted, it's enacted."
But Forsyth County Commissioner David Plyler said that even if the county were to request a sales-tax referendum -- already unlikely -- he doubted it would get much support.
"Until the economy improves in this area, it's probably just a pipe dream, at least this year or next," Plyler said.
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