CARTA warns Incline Railway could close if Lookout Mountain ordinance passes
LOOKOUT MOUNTAIN, Tenn. (WDEF)- “These are absolutely stunning developments.”
The Incline Railway is at the center of a brewing controversy between the Chattanooga Area Regional Transportation Authority (CARTA) and the town of Lookout Mountain, Tennessee.
CARTA leaders raised some concerns they had with some recent ordinances proposed by the Lookout Mountain, Tennessee town commission.
The commission is looking to enact a one dollar per passenger tax, along with limiting the daily number of passengers to 5,000 per day and hours of operation.
According to the minutes for one town commission meeting, board members are concerned about the impact that the over 200,000 visitors that the attraction brings to the mountain each year is having.
They say they want CARTA to reimburse them for providing emergency services to those tourists.
However, CARTA CEO Charles Frazier says that the town already levies two separate taxes on the attraction.
One of those is a privileged tax of 9.25%, and the other is a sales tax on food and merchandise sales at the attraction’s mountain station.
Frazier says on their peak days, they transport over 1600 passengers up and down the mountain.
He argues that the ordinance could severely limit the amount of revenue CARTA would be able to generate.
Frazier said, “If we’re limited to 5,000 passengers , that’s a third of what we serve and two-thirds of the revenue would be lost. We will run the numbers, but that would put us in a position that we’re not able to cover our operating cost if we lose that much revenue.”
He says the Incline Railway would have to cease operations if these new rules were enacted.
Board members like chair Johan de Nysschen say they feel the proposal is short-sighted and exclusionary.
de Nysschen said after a discussion he had with town leadership, he came to the conclusion that, “The residents of the town of Lookout Mountain would not be heartbroken to see the Incline close, which obviously is a startling sentiment to digest.”
Concerns were raised about the impact on public transit across the city of Chattanooga, as the Incline Railway generates on averages millions in revenue that supports CARTA’s broader transit network.
de Nysschen said if the Incline closed, “The transit service that we provide to the frankly vulnerable members of our community, because let’s face it, that’s the majority of our riders, would probably have to be severely curtailed.”
The town of Lookout Mountain did not provide a comment when we asked Thursday afternoon.
Frazier says he has a meeting scheduled with town officials at the end of the month to try to negotiate a deal before the town commission takes a final vote.
