Nashville MTA: Amp is dead

The Amp, Nashville's controversial bus rapid transit proposal, appears dead once and for all after Mayor Karl Dean's top transit official said Thursday that the city plans to cease work on the project.

Metro Transit Authority CEO Steve Bland recommended to his board Thursday that detailed design on the Amp come to an end — a final stamp of defeat three months after Dean announced he would not seek capital construction funds for the $174 million project during his final term in office.

Metro, at the time of Dean's move in October, was still committed to completing $7.5 million in design and other preliminary Amp work that the Metro Council had already approved. So far, $2.5 million has been spent, but Bland's remarks mean that $5 million of unspent Amp dollars still left from that pool are no longer committed to one of the most contentious proposals in recent Nashville history.

The city now plans to look at other corridors for transit in addition to West End-Broadway, where the Amp was planned. Public meetings on this process are to begin in February.

"We should not build the Amp at this time," Bland told the board Thursday.

"Even though we aren't moving forward with the Amp, we will move forward with our strategic planning efforts and engage in extensive dialogue with residents to gain their input on transit solutions for our community," he added. "We will continue to focus on this corridor as well as others in the region."

Bland, hired to lead MTA in July, has recommended that $750,000 of the unused Amp design funds be redirected to assist MTA's ongoing strategic planning process. The goal, he said, is to engage "at least 10,000 people from all neighborhoods and sectors of the community" and explore concepts for high-capacity transit for multiple corridors, including West End, Charlotte Avenue and Hillsboro, Nolensville, Murfreesboro and Dickerson pikes.

He told The Tennessean those outreach efforts would help decide where the remaining $4.25 million would go.

"I don't think it's going to be very difficult as we engage 10,000 people to figure out really productive, really efficient, high-return-on-investment ways to spend $4.25 million on our system," Bland said, adding that Dean, the next mayor and Metro Council should be part of that conversation.

Dean, in a statement Thursday, said he is proud that his administration helped lay the groundwork for a future mass transit system in Nashville.

"To continue our momentum as a city, we have to offer more efficient and reliable transportation options in this corridor and others around the city to address increasing traffic, and I am glad that work will continue," Dean said. "We've never come so far in bringing this level of mass transit to Nashville, and we have to continue the conversation to make it a reality.

"I encourage all citizens to get involved in the strategic plan on transit for the city and region in the coming months. We can't do it without involvement and input from community and business members."

Divisive from the beginning

The mayor's comments Thursday veered from those made in October when he announced he wouldn't pursue any more local or state funds for the Amp. Back then, he said "now is not the time to put on the brakes" and that Metro had always known that a project of this size can take awhile to get off the ground.

Odds seemed against the Amp, however, even before Thursday's news that planning would cease. With a new mayor set to replace Dean in September, it seemed unlikely Nashville's next leader would carry the torch of a project that has split the city.

Dean's Amp project proved contentious from the time he rolled it out in 2012, splitting the very West Nashville neighborhoods it would serve into camps for and against it. Detractors rallied under "Stop Amp," led by auto mogul Lee Beaman, limousine company owner Rick Williams and attorney Dianne Ferrell Neal. Opponents found allies from Republican state lawmakers, who passed legislation that would have made the Amp's approval and implementation harder to reach.

Besides suspending construction designs and reallocating Amp funds, Bland recommended the following Thursday:

• "Reimagine" Nashville's public transit bus system in the upcoming strategic plan.

• As part of the strategic plan, fully engage other transportation partners: the Tennessee Department of Transportation, Metro Public Works, Metro Planning and the Nashville Area Metropolitan Planning Organization.

• Continue to engage with the Federal Transit Administration, which had approved federal funds for Dean's Amp project.

• Keep getting better "with or without" a large public transit project.

Reach Joey Garrison at 615-259-8236 and on Twitter @joeygarrison.