Charlotte's Light Rail: Lynx Blue Line

[ajfunder]

4 hours ago, Desert Power said:

Right, hard to tell if it is a real trail or just a clearing.

It is a trail extension from 7th Street to 12th Street, the cement at the 9th street station just hasn't been poured yet. The trail will feed into the short cycle track (painted but no bollards yet) on 12th which will allow bikes to access the lightly traveled Brevard Street.

[SgtCampsalot]

12 minutes ago, ajfunder said:

 (painted but no bollards yet) 

Are you certain there will be? Asking because I could never get a straight answer.

[archiham04]

30 minutes ago, ajfunder said:

It is a trail extension from 7th Street to 12th Street, the cement at the 9th street station just hasn't been poured yet. The trail will feed into the short cycle track (painted but no bollards yet) on 12th which will allow bikes to access the lightly traveled Brevard Street.

Lightly traveled today... Tompkins Hall will likely be working to change that.

[ajfunder]

1 hour ago, SgtCampsalot said:

Are you certain there will be? Asking because I could never get a straight answer.

I was told so by a friend of mine who is in the know but that could have changed since, last I heard they were part of the plan.

[KJHburg]

Here is a short youtube video about the new parking garages in the University city area and how they will have retail and evidently some special night time lighting. 

 

[End_The_Sprawl]

The station is coming along very well on UNCC's campus. 

[SgtCampsalot]

Nothing too interesting, but 25th St station at track level and the entrance ramp.

[Guest]

14 hours ago, SgtCampsalot said:

Nothing too interesting, but 25th St station at track level and the entrance ramp.

Its amazing that this thing is practically done, but none of the optimist park apartments have have made any progress.

[tozmervo]

36 minutes ago, ricky_davis_fan_21 said:

Its amazing that this thing is practically done, but none of the optimist park apartments have have made any progress.

at the risk of wondering off topic, there is site work under way at Parkwood/17th for the apartments there.

[grodney]

I can't get the LYNX route schedule to work on Chrome or IE11.  Broken?  Moved?  I choose...501, Inbound, Weekday, and then it thinks for a while and then replaces part of the window with the generic search boxes again, but now its the bus routes, and 501 isn't on there.

Is it working for anyone?

Edited January 23, 2017 by grodney

[tozmervo]

19 minutes ago, grodney said:

I can't get the LYNX route schedule to work on Chrome or IE11.  Broken?  Moved?  I choose...501, Inbound, Weekday, and then it thinks for a while and then replaces part of the window with the generic search boxes again, but now its the bus routes, and 501 isn't on there.

Is it working for anyone?

looks like it's been pulled out into a "Rail schedule" specific page http://charlottenc.gov/cats/rail/routes/Pages/default.aspx

[grodney]

10 minutes ago, tozmervo said:

looks like it's been pulled out into a "Rail schedule" specific page http://charlottenc.gov/cats/rail/routes/Pages/default.aspx

Yeah that's the one that doesn't work for me.  Probably my computer is messed up or something.  Thanks for checking.

[HopHead]

moved to coffee house

 

Edited February 2, 2017 by HopHead

[KJHburg]

Update from UNC Charlotte on the light rail and some photos http://advancement.uncc.edu/newsletter-stories/light-rail-update

[dylansukkert]

Is there a completion date yet or even an opening day set? It has to be getting close! 

[Guest]

39 minutes ago, dylansukkert said:

Is there a completion date yet or even an opening day set? It has to be getting close! 

August 2017

[staffer]

3 hours ago, dylansukkert said:

Is there a completion date yet or even an opening day set? It has to be getting close! 

August 15 is opening of fall semester at UNCC (even though classes don't start til August 21) which means freshman will arrive around the 15th. That pretty much has to be a drop-dead date to avoid parking chaos.  http://registrar.uncc.edu/sites/registrar.uncc.edu/files/media/5 Year Calendar PDF - Latest.pdf

Edited February 16, 2017 by staffer

[HopHead]

The PGA Championship is in town the week of August 7th. I'm pretty sure they are set to start service of the BLE on the Saturday before. Typically the Wells Fargo tournament runs a shuttle to Quail Hollow from one of the light rail stops... I know this because I normally take it and it's always heavily used. 

Edited February 16, 2017 by HopHead

[nakers2]

19 hours ago, ricky_davis_fan_21 said:

August 2017

I've heard from a variety of sources that it will be right around the start of the Fall Semester at UNCC. I think at this point they're cautious of setting an exact date to avoid chaos if it does get delayed for some reason, but from what I hear they're well ahead of schedule. I think CATS would be very wise to start running ASAP instead of sitting on a perfectly operational line for more than a week or so. Don't rush of course, but they are set to start testing (running empty trains) as early as the start of summer, so I don't see why they couldn't begin operations as soon as this testing and training is over, especially since Charlotte isn't new to light rail. I'd say the earlier you open the better the public image as well, showing that CATS can do something efficiently and on time will no doubt garner more support for the Red Line (it's inevitable, just when is the question) Silver Line, and maybe the Gold Line. 

[southslider]

Here's a cool drone flyover of the entire extension:

 

 

[Matthew.Brendan]

Very cool! Can anyone make a sped up version??

[CLT704]

36 minutes ago, Matthew.Brendan said:

Very cool! Can anyone make a sped up version??

On a desktop version of YouTube, if you click the cog then you can speed up or slow down videos.

[SgtCampsalot]

Nice! There were a few cool shots that explain the geography better than we've been able to see.

Also, I know this shot has the rail walls casting a shadow, but in the BLE's preliminary "Bicycle Infrastructure Vision Plan" they had renderings of a multi-use trail running parallel from Sugar Creek to Old Concord station on the west side. Does anybody know if that is still happening? Not surprising but sad if not. Lost opportunity.

Sugar Creek station and NCDOT bridge:

En Route to Eastway (enough space for a trail?):

The new apartments near Tom Hunter station... nice scale!

Rocky River Rd West station... so much land on the east side to be developed. Further up on the right is where those apartments are going:

Edited February 16, 2017 by SgtCampsalot

[southslider]

A lot of the space beside freight tracks is for future high(er)-speed rail.

[Matthew.Brendan]

I thought maybe they were making a road at first. (Davidson St to the right, looking north to Craighead)