The trains on the Hiawatha Avenue light-rail line are already running behind schedule: Transit officials plan to push back the start of service on the new line from fall 2003 to April 2004 to save money.

A six-month delay will defer $2 million in hiring and training start-up costs for the line and help the Metropolitan Council comply with the Department of Finance order to all state agencies to reduce their budgets by 10 percent starting July 2003, according to Met Council Chairman Ted Mondale.

James Langsford watches LRT construction.

Richard Tsong-taatarii

Star Tribune

The Met Council will officially vote on the plan at its Aug. 28 meeting.

Until Tuesday's announcement, the project had been progressing at a fast pace and is about 50 percent finished.

Passenger fares are expected to cover 30 percent of the line's $12 million-a-year operating costs. Mondale said the delay is not a signal that the state cannot afford the operating subsidies. Rather, he said, it's a reminder that the state needs a transportation funding increase to pay for road and transit improvements.

"At some point the Legislature has to pay for a decent transportation system," said Mondale, who has led a push to double the metro area's transit system by 2020. He said traffic congestion is growing faster here than in most U.S. cities and "it's going to take money" to address that.

Derek Rogers stands where trains are supposed to travel.

Richard Tsong-taatarii

Star Tribune

The postponed start is a letdown for light-rail enthusiasts.

"There is a saying in railroading that late trains get later," said John DeWitt, a member of the board of the advocacy group Transit for Livable Communities. "There is the potential for even more slippage any time something starts falling off like that."

The delay in this first rail line will slow down the political push for other lines, DeWitt said. "Typically what we've seen is once you get a light-rail line up and running, there is a lot more support for extensions. We've seen that in virtually every city in the country."

Mondale noted that the state contributed $100 million to the $675 million light-rail line and said he has no doubt that the Legislature will come up with operating costs.

Rep. Phil Krinkie, R-Shoreview, who has been an ongoing critic of the rail project, said Tuesday that when asked to vote on light-rail operating funds, "my question is going to be the same as the question I raised two years ago and that is, 'Are we in a situation where we are going to be taking funds from or having to reduce funding for the existing bus system in order to try to fund light rail?' "

Krinkie said that if "they are already delaying light-rail start-up because of budgetary concerns, then one is going to impact the other."

He added that he is loath to spend the money on rail operations. "I would just as soon turn it into the Jesse Ventura train museum and we wouldn't need to worry about paying all those operating costs." As governor, Ventura has been a staunch supporter of the project.

The 12-mile light-rail line will run between downtown Minneapolis and the Mall of America in Bloomington. Officials had planned to open an initial stretch between downtown and Fort Snelling for service in the fall of 2003, then complete the line -- with service to Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport and the mall -- beginning in December 2004. Now the service to Fort Snelling will begin in April 2004, with completion of the line still set for later that year.

The initial schedule was intended to give rail supporters a part of the project as soon as possible, while allowing time to work out any bugs in the cars or service operations before the full line opened.

Now, in light of the state's sagging tax revenues, a year to work out the kinks is a luxury the line can't afford, Mondale said.

A staff report to the council's Rail Transit Committee Tuesday said:

"Given the uncertainty of legislative funding in the upcoming session and the fact that previous transit funding was cut last session, it is prudent to conservatively plan for rail-operations funding.

General Manager Mike Setzer said, "the Legislature has not appropriated the first dollar for rail operations yet." Beginning service in late 2003 would presume that they would provide $6 million in funding for the rail line next year, he said.

Frank Hornstein of Minneapolis, a member of the council's rail committee, said at Tuesday's meeting that prudence is in order. "This will give us two legislative sessions to work with."

The delay also will mean the Met Council will have 16 to 18 light-rail cars when the line starts up, compared with the eight expected to be delivered by fall of next year. More trains would make it easy to add cars and avoid leaving anyone on the platform in case ridership exceeds expectations, Setzer said. Twenty-two cars have been ordered and the first will be delivered in January.

Starting service in April also will mean the council will be able to test the cars, stations and rails -- and train drivers -- during cold and snow, Setzer said. "The project has so much potential we want to do it right."

Waiting until April to start service also will allow time to extend the initial leg of the line from Nicollet Mall to the Warehouse District in downtown Minneapolis, Setzer said.

Transit funding

Mondale said the light-rail service delay fits into a larger picture of transit funding cuts. During the last legislative session, legislators cut $2.7 million out of the agency's budget for this year. That will be reflected in service cuts beginning in September.

And the directive to reduce its budget by 10 percent requires the Met Council to prepare a transit budget with cuts totaling $56 million for the two years between July 1, 2003 and July 1, 2005, Mondale said.

"We are looking for revenue to allow us to double the system over the next 20 years, and that's at 3-to 5-percent growth per year, and what we are getting now is cuts," Mondale said.

Service cuts, a fare increase and a downturn in the economy have led to a loss of ridership on the bus service since July 1, 2001.

"My hope is that we will have a transportation funding bill next year that will get us back on track and we will regain the momentum we had," he said.

He said the public is willing to pay higher taxes in exchange for better transportation options and less congestion.

He said the proposal this year, which had considerable support, was to raise the gasoline tax by 5 to 7 cents per gallon for roads and then use other funds that had been directed into the road fund for transit. That would have resulted in a $36-million-a-year increase in transit funding, plenty to pay for light-rail operations, he said.

The state will not be required to pay the full $12 million in operating costs. In addition to the funds raised through passenger fares, the Met Council will use a $10 million federal grant for air pollution reduction to help pay rail operating costs for the first three years.

-- Laurie Blake is at lblake@startribune.com.