The C-Tran Board of Directors on Tuesday directed its staff to reach out to TriMet and revisit a controversial light-rail contract the two agencies signed last year.
The move again delays definitive action on an issue that has now lingered for months. Some board members and residents have called for C-Tran to terminate the deal tied to the defunct Columbia River Crossing project. That hasn’t happened.
Instead, the C-Tran board on Tuesday decided to again engage TriMet on the subject, almost a year after the two agencies negotiated the original deal. The board’s action followed a closed-door executive session, but almost no public discussion.
C-Tran and TriMet inked the contract last fall, detailing how the agencies would have operated light rail in Vancouver as part of the CRC.
When the proposed Interstate 5 Bridge replacement plan fell apart this year, the project’s demise left the contract in limbo. The contract takes effect only if the CRC is actually funded and built, but it also has no expiration date. A few board members have publicly expressed interest in ending it for good.
The contract includes language allowing for termination by one party “as a result of a material breach of an obligation” by the other. It also could be terminated if both parties sign a written agreement. But TriMet General Manager Neil McFarlane has indicated that his agency has no intention of doing so.
In a letter to C-Tran board members in July, McFarlane noted several milestones the shuttered CRC would have to reach for the contract to come into play, but he appeared to hold out hope they may happen someday.
“For its part, TriMet views the agreement as valuable and important to retain in the event that those milestones are achieved and a viable project emerges from future bi-state discussions,” McFarlane wrote. “Given this view, TriMet will take no action to formally terminate the agreement.”
It’s unclear whether new talks could change that stance, or if C-Tran will act alone. The C-Tran board plans to discuss the contract again in September.
