Charlotte's Light Rail: Lynx Blue Line

[Desert Power]

17 minutes ago, tozmervo said:

This one? http://charlottenc.gov/Projects/Pages/25thStreetConnection.aspx

Hah, just looked this one up yesterday too.  Dumbfounding that this will be over a year behind the opening of the rail.

[tozmervo]

1 minute ago, Desert Power said:

Hah, just looked this one up yesterday too.  Dumbfounding that this will be over a year behind the opening of the rail.

That delay I chalk up to the reality of budget and bond cycles. It's the insanely delayed reopening of 36th street and Sugar Creek that perplex me. 

[Desert Power]

3 minutes ago, tozmervo said:

That delay I chalk up to the reality of budget and bond cycles. It's the insanely delayed reopening of 36th street and Sugar Creek that perplex me. 

Sugar Creek is likewise bad because it really makes the station useless for a while.  25th street bridge not being there makes it pretty unusable for the entire Villa Heights neighborhood.  36th station will still be heavily utilized without the street open.   I'm looking forward to doing that tomorrow.

[15895]

Bad picture. light rail is just sitting there not moving... for the solid 5 minutes it took for me to get through the light....

Edited March 15, 2018 by AirNostrumMAD

[nmundo]

23 minutes ago, AirNostrumMAD said:

Bad picture. light rail is just sitting there not moving... for the solid 5 minutes it took for me to get through the light....

Around 12 I noticed a bunch of traffic at the Hebron St. crossing, near where I work, and the train crossed extremely slowly. The gates were also down for a while, as where the ones at Sweden Rd. when I tried avoiding the Hebron backup. I wonder if they were having issues with the signals again. 

[11 HouseBZ]

Saw a ton of last minute testing this morning coming in to work. Saw 3-4 trains from the short drive from Parkwood station to Matheson. 

[southslider]

^Running new schedule, just can't board until 10am

 

[Guest]

Happy Rex Manning Day!

Oops, I mean Happy BLE Day!

Edited March 16, 2018 by Guest

[nakers2]

10:04am at UNC Charlotte Main, and the train had been sitting with the doors open for 15 mins. Nobody does optics better than CATS. 

[nmundo]

Just now, nakers2 said:

10:04am at UNC Charlotte Main, and the train had been sitting with the doors open for 15 mins. Nobody does optics better than CATS. 

According to the timetable train should leave at 10:06

[nakers2]

38 minutes ago, nmundo said:

According to the timetable train should leave at 10:06

They advertised it as leaving at 10am. So that’s what I was going off of.

[ah59396]

Pretty exciting day!  Someone post a video for us.

[11 HouseBZ]

I missed seeing the first train at 36th, had to leave right before. 

[tozmervo]

38 minutes ago, ah59396 said:

Pretty exciting day!  Someone post a video for us.

Lots of "live" videos posted up at https://www.facebook.com/CatsBlueLineExtensionUpdates/

https://www.instagram.com/explore/tags/uncc2clt/

[Matthew.Brendan]

I’ll be riding 3rd St to Sugar Creek home today   Now where do I buy a monthly pass...

[tozmervo]

6 minutes ago, Matthew.Brendan said:

I’ll be riding 3rd St to Sugar Creek home today   Now where do I buy a monthly pass...

I think most Teeters and Food Lions in CLT carry them. And of course at the Transit Center - there's a customer service booth in the center. Finally, there's the mobile pass app assuming you aren't also using it on buses.

[Matthew.Brendan]

Yep just remembered I had already downloaded the CATS Pass app. Looks like it will not pro-rate the remainder of the month, you must purchase in full for April.

Also the “Light Rail” app has not yet been updated. Which of course should likely just be rolled into the RideCATS app, but anyhoo.... naw having 3 separate apps is awesome 

[KJHburg]

Nice article on the importance of the Light Rail to campus from the UNCC Chancellor. https://www.bizjournals.com/charlotte/news/2018/03/16/light-rail-extension-marks-completion-of-unc.html

and he mentions the new Marriott hotel that will be built on campus right by the JW Clay station. 

 

Edited March 16, 2018 by KJHburg

[Miesian Corners]

Being the geeks we are, dubone, uptownliving, and I were at 9th St for the ribbon cutting and the first arrival from UNC Charlotte. We'll be the three exceedinly handsome men in the background on WBTV News later today.

[nakers2]

 From my experience on the first ride, the train left campus on time ( I was initially under the impression that the train was late, but it turns out his left right on time at 10:06 AM)  I was unable to get on the first train, but was able to ride the second one, I noticed that at each station the train seemed to slow almost to a stop just before the station before then rolling into the station, I assume this is because the operators are still new to the line, I also saw a lot of engineers along the line, probably ready to jump in in case there were any kinks.  

There were only a few zones where the train got up to speed, once again I attributed this to the newness of the line, I was pretty young when the original blue line opened, but I do remember my first ride being similar in that the train seemed to slow down and speed up a lot.

The decks, and the parking lot at Old Concord were relatively empty, I think it was wise to open the line after the morning rush, I can’t imagine the mess and the PR nightmare if something failed.  Hopefully any minor issues can get worked out over the weekend, and commuters can start using the line reliably on Monday morning.

 Overall, for a first day, I give the experience an A, I plan to ride again soon once the line gets “seasoned” hell, I may ride again today.

If I had to be critical about one thing though, it was the cleanliness of the line, and some of the views along the line.  I realize there’s only so much CATS can do about their neighbors, but the abundance of garbage, construction debris, abandoned homeless camps, was noteworthy, I had some out of town people in front of me clearly appalled at some of the conditions south of Sugar Creek. What was most annoying to me though was the amount of dirt and small debris (cups, nail gun casings, etc) laying around the University Stations, frankly it looked as if they finished some of the work the day before. 

[15895]

I’ll be a user at least 5 days a week, most likely 6 days a week multiple times a day. (I can imagine most UNCC students will. Just getting on and off with no 2.20 fare? Yas). I only have 2 months but hey. It’s something 

Edited March 16, 2018 by AirNostrumMAD

[kermit]

Exactly 30 minutes from 9th to UNCC.

People actually applauded upon arrival at the end of the line!

[nakers2]

8 minutes ago, AirNostrumMAD said:

I’ll be a user at least 5 days a week, most likely 6 days a week multiple times a day. (I can imagine most UNCC students will. Just getting on and off with no 2.20 fare? Yas). I only have 2 months but hey. It’s something 

They still use the “honor system” for the fares, so students just need to show their ID when asked, but from my understanding there’s no way for them to know if you’re graduated or not. (Do what you want with that info) But I think it would be wise for UNCC to switch up the design of the ID’s each year to prevent grads from holding on to them. Unless the plan to roll out a smart card system soon, I noticed the touch pads for “smart cards” on the fare machines. 

[nmundo]

3 minutes ago, nakers2 said:

They still use the “honor system” for the fares, so students just need to show their ID when asked, but from my understanding there’s no way for them to know if you’re graduated or not. (Do what you want with that info) But I think it would be wise for UNCC to switch up the design of the ID’s each year to prevent grads from holding on to them. Unless the plan to roll out a smart card system soon, I noticed the touch pads for “smart cards” on the fare machines. 

UNCC switched to ID cards with NFC last year and you can tell wether it's a new one or not just by looking at it. What I've been hearing is that inspectors will start carrying validators at some point in the future to make sure the cards are actually valid (I'm sure this is super important with faculty since they don't all automatically have passes.)  The system seems to already be in place since cards have to be tapped on the fare box to get into a bus. We'll see how long it takes them to get the whole system is up and running. 

 

I wonder if they'll have a different punishment for people using invalid IDs as that probably falls under fraud along with fare evasion.

[15895]

My impression of riding it. Charlotte looks very, very gritty. I’m not hating it though. South Blvd just looks like typical South Blvd or Independence. The extension looks like a gritty city until it gets into UC