Charlotte's Light Rail: Lynx Blue Line

[Norm2]

So.....the car purposefully ran over the statue and drove either onto or right next to the light-rail tracks? damn.....

[Raintree21]

So.....the car purposefully ran over the statue and drove either onto or right next to the light-rail tracks? damn.....

I doubt it was purposeful. Probably a pretty decent wreck. If a car came onto the tracks, they would have gotten stuck. No one would do that on purpose.

[uptownliving]

Since that is a T intersection I'm guessing that a car was coming down Sharon Rd West and the driver didn't realize that the road ended at South Blvd and then careened into the sculpture and down the embankment.

Perhaps the City should put up a metal barrier there...or at the very least a yellow sign similar to this one:

[Raintree21]

If CATS and the city are going to insist on placing millions of dollars of artwork right next to the road, they need to invest a little bit more money and place some concrete bollards between them and the road to protect our investment. It was only a matter of time before this happened although I expected the clay plates to go first.

[monsoon]

Actually, there appear to be places for barriers around that particular artwork, but for some reason were not installed yet. Note the four circular dots around each mount spot. However I do agree these stations have sacrificed too much functionality to look pretty (no weather protection, dysfunctional ticketing) and I hope they have learnt from this lesson when they build future stations.

I do agree that it looks like an accident rather than deliberate vandalism as whatever car did that is going to take significant damage as well. (not to mention risking collision with the train)

[monsoon]

For those of you who are interested, this is the text of H.R.2764 that is relevant to Charlotte Transit getting an earmark from the Feds. The President reluctantly signed this bill into law last week all while complaining that about this kind of "pork barrel" spending being added to his Iraq war funding. On the whitehouse.gov page "These projects are not funded through a merit-based process and provide a vehicle for wasteful Government spending." G.W. Bush

As you can see, Charlotte Rapid Transit, North Carolina, $1,960,000. is one of the line items. It's does not appear to direct CATS on how the money is to be spent but presumably this is most of the money they were requesting to do the engineering work on the NE line.

There does not seem to be any other appropriations specific to Charlotte. (I could be wrong, it's a long bill)

[rockhilljames]

Got to agree about the stations. They offer NO protection from the elements.

[ASUman23]

Well this is my first post on this forum so lets see how this goes. Anyways, I'm a student at Appalachian so I am only here over holidays/summer and try to get downtown any time I am here. I decided to take the LYNX downtown on New Year's just to get a look at the construction progress since it had been a few months since i had been down there. I am pretty excited about the prospect of the areas around the LYNX station inside the loop. The first thing I noticed when going crossing the bridge over 277 was the impact the Wachovia towers will have on the entrance to uptown on the LYNX. With the arena and the completion of EpiCentre and other projects the areas around those uptown stations should attract many more people than they do now. I am very excited by the amount of growth(mostly good) I see down in that area and can't wait until the summer when i should have plenty of time to get down there more often and see the actual effect these projects will have on how "hopping" downtown is.

[revitalize]

It appears that somebody ran over one of the sculptures at the entrance of the Sharon Road West Station.

oh man, this sux!!! thx for the pics.

I didn't even notice this today while riding on the LYNX. After looking at the photos, i think the 4 round holes surrounding each of the sculptures are uplighting, not bollard holes. So i'm sure there was no plan to protect these in any way. What a shame!

[RiverwoodCLT]

Some art work at the East - West station in South End.

[atlrvr]

I happened to be in Charlotte last night so I decided to ride Lynx blue line for the first time last night. I rode from Tyvola to 7th St, around 10pm. The seats were essentially full and several people stood. There were 2 surveyors on the train. It seemed to be a mix of people taking the ride for the novelty, and transit riders going to CTC to make bus connections.

Here is a pic insided CTC when I briefly stepped on the train.

And here is a pic at the end of the line (7th).

Overall, my impressions were that it was an extremely smooth ride (well driven) and very quiet. I really liked the configuration of the train (seats, doors, poles, etc.). Like everyone, the ticket machine was the weakest link, though I did find it more intuitive than I expected (probably because of all the quirks that I've read about on here). It was slow to print, and I had trouble finding the dollar bill insert, as I'm relatively tall and it wasn't visible without bending down. It was late at night, so there wasn't much to see, but my impression of the stations were positive. Also, I liked how clean it is...so far.

[tozmervo]

Does anyone know what the landscaping is supposed to be like at the stations? Most of the grounded platforms have gravel-filled holes where I suppose trees will eventually go, and that would dramatically change the character of those stations. I'm also curious to see what is done along South Blvd at Scaleybark station. I happen to love the discs, but I'm sure a little greenery will help 'soften' them for most people.

[Larryfla]

Was up from Florida on New Year's Day. I rode Lynx. It was a nice ride. The train is very nice and similar to ones I have traveled on elsewhere. My biggest complaint would have to be the pitiful problem getting tickets out of those machines. It probably took everyone one whole minute to get their ticket. People could not get on the train as they had to stand in line for a ticket for 15 minutes. That is a real problem and there needs to be a kiosk to sell tickets as an alternrative. The next problem was that I was somewhere south of downtown and the marquis said that we were entering 7th Street station. Finally, there were several gang looking punks riding and being roughty without buying tickets. There was nobody checking. Security seemed precarious at best. I feel that the system will get better with time and I feel that it will go to other parts of town sooner than planned (I am hoping anyway). I became quite annoyed at people beotching and complaining to the point that I just told them to get a grip and understand that the system is new and there will be some growing pains. I think it is a great thing for Charlotte and the problems I saw will be worked out before long.

[Raintree21]

With the ticket machine problems seemingly the #1 complaint both at UP and among riders and having the constant inconsistencies with their capabilities as the headline story in today's Observer, you would think that CATS would be working 24/7 to get this fixed NOW. Today's article mentions that city attorneys are "monitoring the situation" and that CATS have given the manufacturer an extension on the agreed upon 30 day "shake-out period." At what point do you think they will say this isn't working, you (the manufacturer) need to come up with some solutions NOW or give us our money back.

[SCOTTER]

Why does Cats not offer a mini Bus that takes riders from the 485 stop to the shopping center across the street. On a regular basis especially on the weekend. This would definately be benificial if one wanted to see a movie at the AMC theater. I am suprised that the management company for the shoping center has not aproached Cats to get this done.

[Raintree21]

Maybe because it's about 1/4 of a mile distance? I'd think it would be cost prohibitive to have a bus route that short.

[tozmervo]

Why does Cats not offer a mini Bus that takes riders from the 485 stop to the shopping center across the street. On a regular basis especially on the weekend. This would definately be benificial if one wanted to see a movie at the AMC theater. I am suprised that the management company for the shoping center has not aproached Cats to get this done.

It doesn't even take 10 minutes to walk to AMC from the station. HOWEVER, I would agree that the Carolina Pavilion badly needs better pedestrian access through the parking lots. And by better, I mean something other than none at all.

[monsoon]

Unfortunately Carolina Pavilion was not designed at all with the pedestrian in mind. It's a very long walk between stores and you have to watch for drivers while doing it. And if you buy anything in those stores you have to drag it all the way back to the train. What would be great is if they pushed the whole thing down and built something like Birkdale Village instead. Probably not going to happen.

I could see a mini-circulator bus running a route through there that included the transit station, but it would take a bit of an investment to make it effective as it would need some kind of bus shelter to encourage people to use it.

[swampfox43]

Why does Cats not offer a mini Bus that takes riders from the 485 stop to the shopping center across the street. On a regular basis especially on the weekend. This would definately be benificial if one wanted to see a movie at the AMC theater. I am suprised that the management company for the shoping center has not aproached Cats to get this done.

I think it would make more sense to provide a mini bus to Carolina Place Mall from the the I-485 station, especially on weekends and/or during the Christmas shopping season.

[BlueDevil37]

Here goes...

Finally took my first trip on the light rail this afternoon. Walked over to the 7th St. station on this beautiful sunny and 65 degree day in the middle of winter. Saw a few other people waiting for the station. One man and his kids were trying to get a ticket from one of the machines but weren't able to. I asked if I could try, and quickly realized that not only was the machine not accepting credit cards (which I expected), it also wasn't accepting any bills. We walked over to the only other machine at the station which was working, and barely were able to get our tix in time for the train.

I think others have pointed out the problems with these machines more eloquently than I can so I'll keep it short and sweet. They're laughably bad compared to ANY others I've ever used. In fact, they are so bad that I sort of think they should be looked at either a. as a sunk cost and just go and buy functional ones, or b. demand the city's money back and do it right this time.

The ride down from 7th St. to the I-485 stop was great. The train was pretty full the whole way, with most/all the seats taken as well as some people standing up. Everyone was friendly who I encountered, and I witnessed people who I wouldn't never expected having very friendly conversations with each other.

It's been pointed out on this board in the past, but I witnessed first hand that people from all different places/walks of life were interacting/enjoying each others company at the station and on the train itself. This was absolutely great to see and really made Charlotte feel like a city.

Other than the ticket machines, a great experience!

[dubone]

I agree wholeheartedly about the lack of pedestrian infrastructure in Carolina Pavilion. It is bad enough that is it a standard big box strip mall, but the sidewalks are simply not there. I did some Christmas shopping there one day last month and took the train. Not only are the pedestrian crossing lights horrible (I eventually 'jaywalked' with the car green light because I had waited 2 cycles without the pedestrian green light coming). Then if you walk along that greenway-like sidewalk along South Blvd, you just can't get into the development without either walking on the street or walking across the grass and through a bush. Maybe there are one or two sidewalks that connect to the sidewalks along the store fronts, but I didn't find it.

I'm glad everyone is still chiming in with their experiences (welcome to new members, by the way!).

[uptownliving]

I think it is really sad that the company that provides New Jersey with their EZ Pass Toll Road Collection system can't make our simple Ticket machines work properly and effiecently. They can process the toll for a car driving down the road at 70 mph in less than a second....but to process a ticket with our machines takes about a minute. What a joke.

ACS needs to quit sending their B and C rated employees to Charlotte to work on our machines. This is not rocket science. This same company runs the systems for Berlin, Dubai, Houston, Los Angeles etc etc....but somehow they can't make our machines work. Maybe the bad press and veiled threats of lawsuits will get the company's attention and they will send in their "A" team to get these damn things working.

[uptownliving]

I think it would make more sense to provide a mini bus to Carolina Place Mall from the the I-485 station, especially on weekends and/or during the Christmas shopping season.

Route 58 is exactly that. A loop route from the 485 Station to Carolina Place Mall.

There is also Route 42 which is a loop route from 485 to Carowinds.

[monsoon]

I saw on another website where it's presented that CATS is carrying far fewer people on the trains than that which is claimed by CATS. The perception of packed trains is from the fact that CATs isn't running enough trains to handle the volumes at any particular time. I have noticed that when I was on a train that was full of people there were a significant number of trains off-line in the rail yard near Clanton Rd. (for whatever reason) And though it might be partially related to the ticket machine failures, CATS assumed that it would collect $6100/day the first year it was open yet the number is about $1000 less than that. $5,100.00/$1.30 = 3923 full fares/day.

Something does not add up here. If they are in fact carrying 12,000 people day, they are only collecting money = 1/4th of that. I don't believe that the other 8000/day can be explained away by non-payers, reduce fares and/or bus xfers.

[sax184]

What website? Can you provide a link?