CATS Long Term Transit Plan - Silver, Red Lines

[seththom]

https://charlotte.axios.com/324407/cats-investigation-transit-train-derailment-mtc-charlotte/

Uh-oh.

[lit]

Did anybody go to the Silver Line Rail Trail Meeting at the Independence Library last night? How was it?

[kayman]

On 3/28/2023 at 1:40 AM, lit said:

Did anybody go to the Silver Line Rail Trail Meeting at the Independence Library last night? How was it?

It was decent turnout. People want the Rail Trail regardless when the regional rail is built. As most saw the Rail Trail as a needed piece of regional connectivity.

[kermit]

Sigh….

 

[kayman]

22 hours ago, kermit said:

Sigh….

 

It shows that Charlotte city management nor the City of Charlotte should be responsible over daily operations of CATS. A public transit authority is looking more and more viable option...

Edited March 31, 2023 by kayman

[southslider]

Press conference also revealed FTA offered to complete a full review. However, FTA's last triennial review (done every three years) was actually just last year. You know, 2022, the same year of the derailment and well after missed bridge inspections.  Talk about public trust.

[kayman]

6 hours ago, southslider said:

Press conference also revealed FTA offered to complete a full review. However, FTA's last triennial review (done every three years) was actually just last year. You know, 2022, the same year of the derailment and well after missed bridge inspections.  Talk about public trust.

Yeah FTA did do just a triennial review.  However, I've been personally told that FTA Region IV will be conducting an additional review and audit of CATS operations now. 

For those that are unfamiliar with this situation.  It's extremely similar to what happened to the City of Atlanta being forced to relinquish daily operations of the Atlanta Streetcar in 2018 to MARTA due to Atlanta's failure to report several series of safety incidents and issues with hiding it from the public. "FTA sends stern letter to city, MARTA over Streetcar woes". As a result GDOT sent an ultimatum to Atlanta relinquish the operations of the streetcar to MARTA or we will shut it down.  "State threatens to close Atlanta streetcar"  I lived there and worked in transportation and regional planning in Metro Atlanta when this all went down. It got very ugly really quickly.  

Yeah, that's why an independent, regional transit authority is our only solution to maintain integrity with the wider public and hope of any future regional transit expansions. 

Charlotte Mayor Vi Lyles mentioning the authority idea was onto this and voiced this serious look because it's making the City of Charlotte (CoC) look like it's more worried about public image than actual public safety.  We can say what we want about Mecklenburg County Commissioner Leigh Altman, but her extremely harsh criticisms are on point of how most of the greater public sees CATS and the CoC.

The lack of understanding how serious this is and how some will say the CoC should continue to operating the regional transit system don't seem to see that this has occurred in other places. It ended up with the state stepping in forcing the city to relinquish the operations.

Otherwise,  FTA will be forced to sanction and force said state takeover the operations of the fixed guideway components (rail and streetcar) themselves. I highly doubt NCDOT has the ability to do that since it's so shortstaffed itself and lacks technical know-how to operate regional rail transit (which is different from long-distance passenger railway) and/or streetcar.   For the sake of the control of the fixed guideway components remain under local control then an public transit authority is our only real solution.

 

Edited March 31, 2023 by kayman

[kermit]

Pick one:

1) CATS is so mind-bogglingly incompetent that its communications people can’t tell its two rail lines apart.

2) CATS is having some bizarre, inside-baseball, April fools day fun

Number one is much more likely.

 

 

Edited April 1, 2023 by kermit

[Durhamite]

13 hours ago, kermit said:

Pick one:

1) CATS is so mind-bogglingly incompetent that its communications people can’t tell its two rail lines apart.

2) CATS is having some bizarre, inside-baseball, April fools day fun

Number one is much more likely.

 

 

Probably severely understaffed.  They made a harmless mistake, get over it.  Maybe someone should cherry-pick all the BS everyone else f’s up at their job.

I ride twice a week now, since only have to go to office twice a week.  Guess I’m the lucky one, I just don’t experience the fallout that seems is the focus on this forum or either I am accustomed to the nuance of public transportation using DC metro everyday for years.  DC metro raised my tolerance, good days and bad days…you just never know but you ultimately got there.  And DC has a very mature system….

Edited April 2, 2023 by Durhamite

[tozmervo]

According to the grapevine, NCDOT has had to step in because CATS has not been appropriately staffing its own control center. 

[TCLT]

According to the grapevine, NCDOT has had to step in because CATS has not been appropriately staffing its own control center. 

Observer is reporting it:
https://www.charlotteobserver.com/news/politics-government/article273924445.html

Charlotte’s transportation system must fully staff its light rail operations or suspend service, according to a letter from the North Carolina Department of Transportation.
An unannounced inspection by the state’s transportation department revealed the Charlotte Area Transit System’s Rail Operating Control Center, known internally as the ROCC, has sometimes operated with only one controller.
It’s standard for at least two controllers to work at the same time to run both Charlotte’s Gold Line and Blue Line trains efficiently, the NCDOT inspection found. It’s preferable for a rail controller chief to also be working with them, interim CATS CEO Brent Cagle said.
“If the ROCC cannot be staffed with at least two (2) fully qualified ROCC employees, on any work shift, then CATS shall cease revenue service on the line affected by not having a dedicated ROCC employee assigned,” an April 1 letter from the NCDOT to Cagle says.
The letter says this is effective immediately.
Cagle said he has implemented a mandatory overtime schedule to ensure two controllers can be on the clock at all times. Staffing is expected to get back to normal in three to six months, when Cagle said he expects to hire additional light rail controllers.

[southslider]

^And as tweeted by local media, when the command center is down to one staff, Gold Line closes before Blue Line.

[kermit]

Sitting near the driver today I heard  significantly more radio chatter (about operations) on the Blue Line radio this morning. Wonder why….

Edited April 4, 2023 by kermit

[kermit]

It appears that the new breed of anti-business republicans (I am paraphrasing from the WSJ article which contrasts these guys to “pro-business republicans”) is digging in to fight against renewal of a half cent sales tax increment for transportation in Maricopa County (Phoenix).  They are particularly upset that 30% of the funds are earmarked for mass transit. Failing to renew the tax could result in failure to build promised infrastructure for big economic development projects such as Taiwan Semiconductor. 

Quote

PHOENIX—A fight in Arizona over a half-cent sales tax that funded much of the highway system is creating a rift between some Republicans and the business community and threatening to impede the operation of a major semiconductor project.

.....

GOP state Rep. Kevin Payne, who wants to see a plan with little to no light-rail funding, said, “Light rail is a waste of money, a waste of time. It doesn’t help the businesses” He said if the business community insists on significant light-rail funding, then they deserve for the Republican Party to distance itself.

Depending on how this transpires, we should probably expect similar ideological pushback against a Mecklenburg sales tax increase from Raleigh.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/arizona-fight-over-half-cent-sales-tax-threatens-semiconductor-expansion-1cd5c552

Edited April 4, 2023 by kermit

[kayman]

4 hours ago, kermit said:

It appears that the new breed of anti-business republicans (I am paraphrasing from the WSJ article not making a political statement here) is digging in to fight against renewal of a half cent sales tax increment for transportation in Maricopa County (Phoenix).  They are particularly upset that 30% of the funds are earmarked for mass transit. Failing to renew the tax could result in failure to build promised infrastructure for big economic development projects such as Taiwan Semiconductor. 

Depending on how this transpires, we should probably expect similar ideological pushback against a Mecklenburg sales tax increase from Raleigh.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/arizona-fight-over-half-cent-sales-tax-threatens-semiconductor-expansion-1cd5c552

I guess they do not realize they (GOP) needs the business community's money and tacit support via PACs to survive?  Oh well, if they keep this up the backlash against them will be epic. The business community wants transit because they know Millennials and Generation Z professionals want urban, less car-reliant living with transit and multiuse paths/trails accessibility.  The rural areas are dying and the stats supports and verify this as empirical evidence.  Playing with fire but a severe burn will come very soon and they (GOP) will learn... 

Edited April 4, 2023 by kayman

[elrodvt]

I think you'll be surprised how easily the business community will fall in line if they get to let their coal tar flow into our rivers or <insert basically any financial incentive>.

Sadly I think the only way out is really vigorous, non-violent, protesting, strikes and product boycotts. I don't think people in NC have the courage for it tho. To fix gerrymandering we need to look back at the battles of the 60s and have some guts.

[TheMightyBK]

I would argue it’s not the courage of the voters, it’s inadequate bandwidth.  The average voter has no capacity to know exactly what they’re voting for or against, and most just ignorantly vote their legacy “colors”.  That said, the NC GOP has become one of the most underhanded, backstabbing cadre of legislators in the country.  There’s history there, of course- who can forget Jesse Helms and his jowls. These days, there is no thought given to the electing populace- only to the PACs.  As much as loved my time in Charlotte, I’m appalled at what I see happening in NC politically.  I never thought I’d say it, but Maryland is really a better place to live from a political perspective…at least it has been for the last decade or so.  

[JRCLT]

Don’t see why they’re so opposed to keeping rural areas rural… or do they want suburban infill? Or no? Sometimes their urban views do not coincide and seems like they’re all over the place in perpetual limbo. Transit would help densify urban areas and avoid encroachment on more rural land. I know a lot of people who support GOP want to remain a smaller town where they live. GOP unsurprisingly like either political party devolves into a cat and dog fight with the other in a meaningless strife and stunts any progress. Transit is what we all want, but don’t want to pay for, yet we paid billions upon billions on highways. Rail has suffered and we all know better to diversify than to rely on one mode or area so heavily. Adapting for any worst case scenario will be a nightmare if not served with a diverse set of tools.

Drove through stallings and Indian trail and Matthews…. Commuter rail park and ride would be very much a solution relieve the traffic there. Especially if travel times and benefits of riding are competitive. Same as for the northern communities.

[kermit]

Love a good system-wide crayon:

Credit to @_Rob__G_ from tiwtter today

 

 

[kayman]

https://www.charlotteobserver.com/news/politics-government/article274289220.html

Tober has some good points. However, him giving Cagle any props after Michael Gallis broke down that Cagle is not a good government steward.  After fumbling the bag with Norfolk-Southern and the needed improvements of railway connections between the Intermodal Facility at the CLT Airport and the Port of Charleston. FYI, that was idiotic move because Charlotte's main seaport is ironically the Port of Charleston not Wilmington due to its closer distance and depth to handle much larger cargo barges. 

Everyone pretty much sees that a regional public transit authority needs to lead and do the regional transit planning efforts and operate the transit system not the City of Charlotte.  The City of Charlotte needs to focus on implementing the 2040 comprehensive plan to accommodate transit-oriented development, infill development, more sustainable land uses, more housing choices for all income levels, and construction and maintenance of locally maintained roadway & sidewalk infrastructure within the city limits and unincorporated Mecklenburg County. 

Edited April 19, 2023 by kayman

[RANYC]

14 hours ago, kayman said:

https://www.charlotteobserver.com/news/politics-government/article274289220.html

Tober has some good points. However, him giving Cagle any props after Michael Gallis broke down that Cagle is not a good government steward.  After fumbling the bag with Norfolk-Southern and the needed improvements of railway connections between the Intermodal Facility at the CLT Airport and the Port of Charleston. FYI, that was idiotic move because Charlotte's main seaport is ironically the Port of Charleston not Wilmington due to its closer distance and depth to handle much larger cargo barges. 

Everyone pretty much sees that a regional public transit authority needs to lead and do the regional transit planning efforts and operate the transit system not the City of Charlotte.  The City of Charlotte needs to focus on implementing the 2040 comprehensive plan to accommodate transit-oriented development, infill development, more sustainable land uses, more housing choices for all income levels, and construction and maintenance of locally maintained roadway & sidewalk infrastructure within the city limits and unincorporated Mecklenburg County. 

Gallis really dragged Jones and Cagle for sure.  On many occasions, I’ve certainly asked why Jones isn’t implicated in CATS’ dysfunction given it is such a substantial part of annual expenditures out of the city’s coffers.  By the way, I can’t pull up the city’s annual report for fiscal year 2022 right now.  Anyone else seeing the broken link?

I also hate how the city’s annual report is presented.  It’s glossy and reads like a chamber of commerce marketing deck, when all I want to see is a totally sanitized, sterile, cold set of facts assessed by an independent third party on the degree to which my hard-earned dollars have been wasted and/or mismanaged. 

[kermit]

^ yea, Gallis really went off the rails w Cagle (and the CBJ added a bunch of fact checking / corrections in their story which indicates they thought so too).

Can't speak to the Jones issue, but as we were talking about  Lewis' incompetence over the past 4-5 years (in this thread), the city had the POV that getting rid of Lewis would substantially delay transit expansion. So the city choose to not rock the boat. That decision seems awfully shortsighted at the moment and will be even stupid if we miss infrastructure bill cash.

 

 

Edited April 20, 2023 by kermit

[kayman]

8 hours ago, RANYC said:

Gallis really dragged Jones and Cagle for sure.  On many occasions, I’ve certainly asked why Jones isn’t implicated in CATS’ dysfunction given it is such a substantial part of annual expenditures out of the city’s coffers.  By the way, I can’t pull up the city’s annual report for fiscal year 2022 right now.  Anyone else seeing the broken link?

I also hate how the city’s annual report is presented.  It’s glossy and reads like a chamber of commerce marketing deck, when all I want to see is a totally sanitized, sterile, cold set of facts assessed by an independent third party on the degree to which my hard-earned dollars have been wasted and/or mismanaged. 

 

8 hours ago, kermit said:

^ yea, Gallis really went off the rails w Cagle (and the CBJ added a bunch of fact checking / corrections in their story which indicates they thought so too).

Can't speak to the Jones issue, but as we were talking about  Lewis' incompetence over the past 4-5 years (in this thread), the city had the POV that getting rid of Lewis would substantially delay transit expansion. So the city choose to not rock the boat. That decision seems awfully shortsighted at the moment and will be even stupid if we miss infrastructure bill cash.

 

 

TPTB have protected Jones along with the status quo for a continuation of a part-time, 2-year, council-manager form of municipal government for a city of nearly a million inhabitants. There are sentiments of only wanting to operate Charlotte as a medium sized town with an uninformed legislative elected body by ignorance allowing an appointed city management monopolizing everything no questions asked. We're at a point where those very things are so out-of-touch that it is literally hurting the regional transit infrastructure and future its growth. 

[RANYC]

Completed tracks set atop a dust bowl are yet more of Marcus Jones' handi-work:

"The North Carolina Department of Transportation says its portion of the project is done and deferred questions to the city about when the station would open and timing related to the second phase. The city did not provide staff for an interview after multiple requests from The Charlotte Observer, only saying there’s no updated timeline on construction of the mixed-use component."

Read more at: https://www.charlotteobserver.com/news/business/development/article268176877.html#storylink=cpy

 

[KJHburg]

Until we can right this ship and that includes CATS bus system I dont see how any plan can go forward.  We have to do better than this.  

https://www.charlottemagazine.com/cats-on-the-ground/

Edited April 25, 2023 by KJHburg