Charlotte's Light Rail: Lynx Blue Line

[AP3]

Took a drive around the light rail construction this weekend:

9th St Station

36th St Station with Crescent project

Bridge at Craighead

Old Concord Rd

 

Bridge details over City Blvd

University City Blvd Station

Apartments under construction at I-85 entrance and Tryon

JW Clay Station

Edited October 17, 2016 by AP3

[KJHburg]

Lots of trees and plants coming along the light rail line to University area http://www.universitycitypartners.org/light-rail-bringing-natural-beauty-and-shade-to-north-tryon-street/

[Spartan]

On 10/12/2016 at 3:21 PM, GeauxCLT said:

Acording to the city employees at the Parkwood/Plaza traffic calming meetings last week, the Parkwood avenue streetscape map you posted is not a sure thing. I challenged them that it was already funded with bonds already passed and they said it was not officially on yet. Which is frustrating since I participated in a community meeting where the city said it was a go about a year ago and we voted on options. 

 

I agree with your frustration that the different groups work in silos and don't communicate. I also worry city employees in the same department don't commnicate. 

I think the confusion here is that there are two Parkwood projects where there used to be one.

1- The Parkwood Streetscape project is funded by NECI and is a go.

2- The Parkwood road diet is the recommended concept from the Parkwood/Plaza Corridor Study. This portion is not an officially funded project yet. Based my understanding, City Council still has to approve the concept before funding can be allocated. The other confusing thing is that the study looked at a road diet on Parkwood from Belmont Ave to roughly Hawthorne which overlaps the NECI project. The road diet project, assuming it moves forward, will have no impact on the NECI project other than affecting lane striping. I attended the PPCS meetings and saw the NECI project incorporated into their proposed design, so one has to assume that the various departments are talking to each other.

[GeauxCLT]

I noticed the overlap and asked specifically with knowledge of both projects and got a different answer.  Might just have been the city employee I was speaking with, but he said "the streetscape project is not officially on yet."

[tozmervo]

Per nextdoor, train cars have been moved into the new north yard. The maintenance building is far from finished, but I guess it's now being used for storage

[CLTranspo]

Light rail looking south into uptown 

[KJHburg]

Light rail to the University area is transforming this area. New JW Clay station taken today. 

[nakers2]

A little news from the light rail forum at UNCC yesterday. 

-As it is currently the light rail is on schedule for commencement of service before the Fall semester at UNCC.

-Three car platforms will not be completed on the entire line until later in 2017-2018, CATS is considering an express train service, or game-day service with three car trains terminating Uptown. 

-Bus lines will be adjusted to feed passengers into the line, bus 11U will still exist but will terminate at IKEA and will run less frequently (details sparse, was referred to the bus operations department for more details) 

-Operation will still be from about 5am to 1:30am with "room for change" if need be. I can almost guarantee the drunk college student population will eventually push CATS to operate past 2am. Maybe a "last call" train of some sort. 

-Improvements in the campus shuttle system, bikeshare program.

-Paid light rail ticket/receipt to exit the parking deck to prevent illegal parking. 

-Probably the most exciting for students: Light rail will be included in the student transportation fees (approx 25 dollars per semester) so students will not need to pay per ride, simply "tap" their student ID card to ride. Faculty will also be included in this. This is definitely cool, it will make it a no-brainer for students and faculty, especually those who work both at the Uptown campus and main campus, as well as dual CPCC/UNCC students/faculty. Unfortunately for me, because I graduate in May 2017 I will not get any sort of break on my transit pass, though I will definitely push for consideration in allowing first year alumni the same benefit, it will probably be fruitless, just my luck, that's what I get for graduating on time!   

 

[15895]

1 hour ago, nakers2 said:

A little news from the light rail forum at UNCC yesterday. 

-As it is currently the light rail is on schedule for commencement of service before the Fall semester at UNCC.

-Three car platforms will not be completed on the entire line until later in 2017-2018, CATS is considering an express train service, or game-day service with three car trains terminating Uptown. 

-Bus lines will be adjusted to feed passengers into the line, bus 11U will still exist but will terminate at IKEA and will run less frequently (details sparse, was referred to the bus operations department for more details) 

-Operation will still be from about 5am to 1:30am with "room for change" if need be. I can almost guarantee the drunk college student population will eventually push CATS to operate past 2am. Maybe a "last call" train of some sort. 

-Improvements in the campus shuttle system, bikeshare program.

-Paid light rail ticket/receipt to exit the parking deck to prevent illegal parking. 

-Probably the most exciting for students: Light rail will be included in the student transportation fees (approx 25 dollars per semester) so students will not need to pay per ride, simply "tap" their student ID card to ride. Faculty will also be included in this. This is definitely cool, it will make it a no-brainer for students and faculty, especually those who work both at the Uptown campus and main campus, as well as dual CPCC/UNCC students/faculty. Unfortunately for me, because I graduate in May 2017 I will not get any sort of break on my transit pass, though I will definitely push for consideration in allowing first year alumni the same benefit, it will probably be fruitless, just my luck, that's what I get for graduating on time!   

 

 

Holy cow that is awesome. I'll be in my senior semester and it will be heaven commuting from work in uptown to classes at UNCC. Billions of times better than driving in traffic.

[LKN704]

So, that means both UNCC and CATS will be unveiling smart cards in less than a years time-that seems kind of a short notice, considering the time it takes for transit systems to implement smart cards.

[michaelef]

^^perhaps they have been working on a smart card system this year. I know they began installing the new fare boxes on city buses that are smart card capable

http://www.charlotteobserver.com/news/local/article68718577.html

[nmundo]

28 minutes ago, LKN704 said:

So, that means both UNCC and CATS will be unveiling smart cards in less than a years time-that seems kind of a short notice, considering the time it takes for transit systems to implement smart cards.

UNCC started handing out ID cards with contactless capabilities this year and you can tap them pretty much anywhere. I'm pretty interested to see how CATS handles it though, specially on the light rail.

[kermit]

^ contactless payments are used in barrierless transit systems all over the world (e.g. Seattle or London Overground).  Its not substantially different than our current system, an rfid card and a tap take the place of a paper ticket.

Load value onto your rfid card from a fare machine or online (or UNCC will load a pass onto each id card). Tap your card on entry for an electronic time stamp (and a deduction of fare value from your account if you don't already have a pass). Fare inspectors will carry a small electronic card reader which will show a green light if the rider has a valid fare (time stamp) when inspected.  That is really all there is to it. I doubt CATS will require riders to tap out on exiting, instead all time stamps (taps) will automatically expire after an hour or two.

I am puzzled by parking at JM Keynes. If all UNCC students will have a virtually free pass to ride the BLE, and a ticket to ride is the price of admission to the deck then there there is nothing stopping them from parking in the JM Keynes deck and riding the blue line one stop to campus. Sounds like the deck is going to be filled with uncc students instead of commuters. What am I missing?

Edited December 1, 2016 by kermit

[KJHburg]

I think you are right I am not sure what campus parking fees are now but they were high many moons ago when I was there. 2 out of first 3 stations away from UNCC have parking garages including the huge one at Tryon and IKEA Blvd. If students flood those garages the commuters will not be able to get uptown. 

[15895]

22 minutes ago, KJHburg said:

I think you are right I am not sure what campus parking fees are now but they were high many moons ago when I was there. 2 out of first 3 stations away from UNCC have parking garages including the huge one at Tryon and IKEA Blvd. If students flood those garages the commuters will not be able to get uptown. 

$450

[tozmervo]

Practically speaking, parking in that deck and taking the train to campus to go to classes sounds crazy impractical and time-consuming. Once you get to the station you still have a long way to go to get to classroom buildings.

[Niner National]

35 minutes ago, tozmervo said:

Practically speaking, parking in that deck and taking the train to campus to go to classes sounds crazy impractical and time-consuming. Once you get to the station you still have a long way to go to get to classroom buildings.

Yep. The on campus station isn't near any academic buildings. The walk from the JW Clay station wouldn't be much worse than just walking from the campus station.

[Guest]

Can anyone get a dude some Construction update pictures? I wish BLEUpdates did more BLE updating. This is the last thing posted that was a pic, its cool and all but I want more! lol

Edited December 1, 2016 by Guest

[nakers2]

2 hours ago, KJHburg said:

I think you are right I am not sure what campus parking fees are now but they were high many moons ago when I was there. 2 out of first 3 stations away from UNCC have parking garages including the huge one at Tryon and IKEA Blvd. If students flood those garages the commuters will not be able to get uptown. 

A legitimate concern but I doubt that would be a huge issue, $450 for a full 12 months of parking August to August is actually a pretty good deal, I think if this does become a problem then the university could do any number of things, first they could spread public awareness of how the parking fee on campus is actually rather affordable, show that 450/12 months is only $37.50 per month, compared to 100+ dollar fees uptown and elsewhere. Another option could be simply make it to where the Niner ID card would not let you exit the deck in the same way a normal CATS Card, or whatever they will call it, would do. The only issue I could forsee with that is that off campus students going uptown for pleasure business and Uptown Campus students would be unable to park in the deck.

At the end of the day if students DO decide to park and ride to main campus, are they really breaking the rules? They are commuters after all. I think education and the fact that uptown commuters will probably get there first in the early morning will prevent most students from wanting to deal with "gaming the system" so to speak.  

[Kenneth Disraili-Jean]

Does Charlotte have just a blue line now or are other lines planned. Atlanta will be getting its first light-rail line from a future infill subway station to Emory University down to MARTA'S Avondale heavy rail station. Unfortunatley because of density most of the new light rail will be subway with a small portion elevated. I am sure Charlotte's system is more enjoyable to ride with all the great views either at-grade rail or elevated rail.

[kermit]

Mary Newsome has a nice summary of the UNCC BLE meeting and answered the parking deck question:

"Lape said the CATS parking decks at the University City and the J.W. Clay stations are intended for people riding the light rail. DeLong of CATS said the plan is for parking at those decks stations to be free – as long as you have paid for a transit ticket. You’ll have to swipe your transit ticket to get out of the deck, she said. The university ID cards won’t work at the CATS decks."

Other tidbits:

Campus bikeshare should open Spring semester

Campus bus shuttle should depart the BLE station every five minutes (yea, right)

The #29 CATS bus route to campus will be spilt. The bus will originate from Eastland rather than Southpark (but it will have connecting service to Southpark). Not sure I understand the logic of this.

http://plancharlotte.org/story/light-rail-ble-unc-charlotte-bike-share#sthash.L5ANrLBU.dpuf

 

Edited December 1, 2016 by kermit

[tozmervo]

28 minutes ago, kermit said:

Mary Newsome has a nice summary of the UNCC BLE meeting and answered the parking deck question:

Her article also led me to find the proposed bus map that's now posted online for comment: http://charlottenc.gov/cats/transit-planning/envisionmyride/Documents/Proposed-Scenario-1.pdf

[Guest]

39 minutes ago, Kenneth Disraili-Jean said:

Does Charlotte have just a blue line now or are other lines planned. Atlanta will be getting its first light-rail line from a future infill subway station to Emory University down to MARTA'S Avondale heavy rail station. Unfortunatley because of density most of the new light rail will be subway with a small portion elevated. I am sure Charlotte's system is more enjoyable to ride with all the great views either at-grade rail or elevated rail.

There is also the 1st segment of the gold line which goes from uptown to elizabeth. By 2019 it will extend from just outside uptown on the west side to Plaza Midwood. Beyond that there are other lines planned, but no funding in place.

[Kenneth Disraili-Jean]

What a coincidense in the fact that Atlanta has a gold line, which was origionally planned to be the yellow line, but the Asian community screamed that it was racist by making fun of thier skin color so MARTA had to change it to gold.

Anyway thank you Ricky for updating me on your very awesome light-rail system in Charlotte. I know it will get thousands of cars off the freeways and onto  Lynx for a hassle free ride to and from work or wherever you need to go. I am also very impressed with the housing going up near the stations, which will help to make Charlotte a truely, live, work, shop, and play city all tied together by your impressive light-rail system.

[Matthew.Brendan]

Charlotte should be so lucky as to have a subway. lol. I have family in Atlanta and was very excited to hear about the LRT expansion!