Charlotte's Light Rail: Lynx Blue Line

[nakers2]

Was up in the early daylight hours since lord knows when and I decided to take some pics on top of the JW Clay deck before I try to get some shut eye before my 6pm shift. I was surprised at all the people arriving close to this time 9am, and that they’re parking on the top of the deck out of necessity rather than choice. Not surprisingly this deck seems to be the most popular choice on the north line, I imagine once it begins to consistently hit capacity, U City will begin being more utilized, followed by the Old Concord lot, which I have noted as being more and more full each time I see it (some people simply prefer lots though) and once Sugar Creek road finally reopens, I can see people on I85 making the conscious choice to hop over and park there. Especially people who might have other after work obligations for which they’d rather use a car. 

[nakers2]

Double post, but as I was leaving I had a man ask if he needed to pay to park, and I told him as far as I’m aware he just needed to have a ticket or pass. He then asked me why the spaces are numbered, and I had no answer, any ideas? I surmise it might be to make it easier for CATS to identify the location of a car that needs towing. Like they would say “space 647 needs to be towed” 

[Trickbot]

So today while riding past the entrance to the CRI campus of UNCC at about 9:15pm I see cops all around the tracks where it starts to go down towards the tunnel. Looking around confused I see a car looks like it was tring to make a left turn onto Tryon from the shopping center and turned onto the tracks instead and got stuck in the gravel. Driving down a ways 3 trains were stopped a few hundred yards from each other. Was cleared up by 11 when i came back through though. Car was about where they grey car is but on the tracks in this Google Maps pic. I tried to get my own but with traffic/rain/night they ended up bad.

Edited November 2, 2018 by Trickbot

[kermit]

On 10/31/2018 at 9:19 AM, nakers2 said:

Double post, but as I was leaving I had a man ask if he needed to pay to park, and I told him as far as I’m aware he just needed to have a ticket or pass. He then asked me why the spaces are numbered, and I had no answer, any ideas? I surmise it might be to make it easier for CATS to identify the location of a car that needs towing. Like they would say “space 647 needs to be towed” 

I think you are right. I believe there is an ordinance that requires spaces to be numbered in order to tow cars from a lot.

[nicholas]

On 11/2/2018 at 1:35 AM, Trickbot said:

So today while riding past the entrance to the CRI campus of UNCC at about 9:15pm I see cops all around the tracks where it starts to go down towards the tunnel. Looking around confused I see a car looks like it was tring to make a left turn onto Tryon from the shopping center and turned onto the tracks instead and got stuck in the gravel. Driving down a ways 3 trains were stopped a few hundred yards from each other. Was cleared up by 11 when i came back through though. Car was about where they grey car is but on the tracks in this Google Maps pic. I tried to get my own but with traffic/rain/night they ended up bad.

Just my opinion, but if you're incapable of telling the difference between Tryon St and the light rail, you don't need to be driving.

[Trickbot]

41 minutes ago, nicholas said:

Just my opinion, but if you're incapable of telling the difference between Tryon St and the light rail, you don't need to be driving.

That was the consensus in the car i was in

[kermit]

BLE ridership is steadily improving 

Tom Hunter surprises me with its consistent afternoon traffic (but its always deserted in the morning???), Old Concord is a steady park and ride for trips in both directions, Sugar Creek can get busy (but it’s still just a bus funnel at this point -- the second level of the deck was been pretty empty when I parked there during the tree incident) and 36th has seen a noticeable increase in traffic since 36th street reopened.

Weak spots are U City station  (the deck does not appear to be adding cars, it normally has about 50ish in it each weekday), 25th (I don’t think I have ever seen anyone board), and 16th Parkwood. The last two should see steady growth soon. 

Edited November 13, 2018 by kermit

[southslider]

^Tom Hunter is a walk-up in a low-income area. Folks from there go to work at different times than bankers' hours.  And it's Parkwood, not 16th.

[Matthew.Brendan]

Parkwood is about to have several hundreds units of rental apartments in walking distance to the station come online here very shortly.

[Crown]

Can someone recommend where to find monthly ridership numbers? 

[tozmervo]

2 hours ago, Crown said:

Can someone recommend where to find monthly ridership numbers? 

The easiest place is the MTC meeting summaries, almost always at the very end. https://charlottenc.gov/cats/about/boards/Pages/mtc.aspx

[kermit]

The BLE is now consistently running at a 27 minute pace between 9th st and UNCC main. 

It was 32 minutes at opening, but promised to be 22 minutes pre-opening. FWIW.

There was a bizzare WSOC story earlier in the week about the underused parking decks at U City and JW Clay. They blamed the problem on CATS charging riders to use the decks if they didn’t have a pass. However, I frequently use the U City deck and CATS has not charged for its use since it opened. Based on the number of UNCC students riding to JW Clay I am guessing CATS has not been charging there either.  Journalism????

Edited December 4, 2018 by kermit

[navigator319]

1 minute ago, kermit said:

The BLE is now consistently running at a 27 minute pace between 9th st and UNCC main. 

Itvwas 32 minutes at opening, but promised to be 22 minutes pre-opening. FWIW.

Thwre was a bizzare WSOC story earlier in the week about the underused parking decks at U City and JW Clay. They blamed the problem on CATS charging riders to use the decks if they didn’t have a pass. However, I frequently use the U City deck and CATS has not charged for its use since it opened. Based on the number of UNCC students riding to JW Clay I am guessing CATS has not been charging there either.  Journalism????

Local news is not journalism.  It's an infomercial for creating fake issues with loaded headlines and reports with buzz words that are meant to convey fear or controversy or a problem.  Context and actual correct facts you'd be lucky if they make the bottom half of the 10 point checklist of if it makes it on the air or not.

[Trickbot]

From last night when the trains were not running and the station was quiet (minus the announcements)

[kermit]

8 minutes ago, Trickbot said:

From last night when the trains were not running and the station was quiet (minus the announcements)

how many times did you hear that the next train to 485 was arriving in 5 minutes?

[elrodvt]

They stopped running the train for this?

[Popsickle]

4 minutes ago, elrodvt said:

They stopped running the train for this?

You know folks in the south can't drive in the snow...

[kermit]

2 hours ago, elrodvt said:

They stopped running the train for this?

Yup, I believe it was one of the overpasses South of Woodlawn accumulated too much ice on the rails for trains to make it over without wheel spin. Slipping wheels cause flat spots, the one train I heard go past today was badly flat-spotted (loud clanking sound). I assume this happened yesterday since I don't think I have ever heard one on the blue line before.

While I want to say this is a serious design flaw, it may have just been a flukey type of ice.

I do agree that paying $$$ for rail really should buy all-weather transport.

Edited December 11, 2018 by kermit

[elrodvt]

No kidding

[nmundo]

They stopped running the train for this?

They stopped running revenue service after 12 but I still saw out of service trains go back and forth into the night


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[elrodvt]

1 hour ago, nmundo said:

 

They stopped running revenue service after 12 but I still saw out of service trains go back and forth into the night


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I'd be really psyched to get out of my minimum wage job at 12 with no way home. 

They need to do more emergency? preparedness and give the public some expectations. I think it's easy to foresee more nights like this and also bad windstorms with lines or trees across tracks. I know we can't plan for sea rise due to the rwnj's (right?) but assume cats can plan for the expected increase in extreme weather. 

Count me out of spending for more lines without it.

[videtur quam contuor]

Heavier rail vehicles and even the original car 85 had the traditional sand compartment near the front and rear of the car which enabled the operators to drop sand to grit the rails in icy weather and other slick conditions. Sometimes newer is not better.

[elrodvt]

7 minutes ago, tarhoosier said:

Heavier rail vehicles and even the original car 85 had the traditional sand compartment near the front and rear of the car which enabled the operators to drop sand to grit the rails in icy weather and other slick conditions. Sometimes newer is not better.

I might be wrong but I think I saw plow and grit engines coming by periodically on RTD tracks.

[kermit]

17 minutes ago, elrodvt said:

I might be wrong but I think I saw plow and grit engines coming by periodically on RTD tracks.

I am sure RTD has snow equipment. Do they have steep access ramps to overpasses like we do?

Chicago has a very effective bad weather strategy for the el, they run more trains — brushing off any accumulation before it becomes a problem. Breaking our two unit trains apart (and magically making double the drivers appear) would do the trick here. But I think they should do that all the time anyway.

Edited December 11, 2018 by kermit

[elrodvt]

^I'm not sure but thought RTD ran things more often too.

I'm not sure about the steep accesses. Can you give an example?