Charlotte's Light Rail: Lynx Blue Line

[UPNoDa]

^Interesting that when I change the date to 3/19/18, my route from NoDa headed to Bank of America  stadium states 44 min by train vs 30 min by bus. I believe this is due to the 36th Street station not opening with rest of line and forcing one to walk an additional 17 minutes to get to that station from say NoDa Dog Bar. 

Surely there is pedestrian access to that station from the N. Davidson side, if not, that will require a lengthy hike to get to the other side.   

[kermit]

4 minutes ago, UPNoDa said:

Surely there is pedestrian access to that station from the N. Davidson side, if not, that will require a lengthy hike to get to the other side.   

Based on construction underway two weeks ago ped access to 36th street should be good to go on Friday.

I have never used google transit in Charlotte but I have found it to be ridiculously unreliable in other cities. 

[nmundo]

4 hours ago, southslider said:

If you change your departure date in Google Maps to Monday, March 19, or later, you can see how to travel on the fully extended Blue Line and new bus connections. 

It seems to be incomplete, doesn't give directions to 36th st (wants me to get off at Sugar Creek and walk to NoDA) nor 9th St (wants me to get off at 7th an walk.) It also doesn't seem to know you can get to UNCC  Main from campus, this is what it wants me to do from my apartment.

 

[southslider]

^Sure, there still are some walk-access issues on Google's end. But generally speaking, still  a cool way to compare before and after BLE travel.

 

[15895]

Too bad the private company Bikeshares aren't at University. I have seen not a single soul ride a UNCC bike. No one is interested in the UNCC bikes. I'm not sure what the point of them are. Other than they look pretty on campus. I'm not sure it would ever make sense to ride bikes anywhere I've ever been at UNCC....

 

From the art building to Friday? No bike docks at any of those buildings I've seen (Popp Martin, Colvard, etc.). From Friday to the College of Health? Still don't recall any bike docks other than the one by Prospector...  The parking lots I don't recall seeing any bike share racks. I do think there is one by the visitors deck on Mary Alexander....

 

I guess before typing all of that I could've googled a map:

 

 

 

The reason I am posting this in the BLE thread is because my point is dockless bikes make the "last/first" mile on transit much better. Bikes that require docks are pretty much pointless in many scenarios unless you are lucky.

 

 

[staffer]

OK, we have the "inaugural" of the BLE Friday at 10 am, with 12:15 am basketball doubleheader at Spectrum Arena with UNC-Chapel Hill playing. Probably over around 5 pm.  Then a second doubleheader at 6:40 pm with possible end to the second game around midnight.  What could go wrong?  Is service actually starting BEFORE 10 ? Certainly would be a good idea. Will we have continual peak hour service all day ?  Shorter headways than usual that evening?  I assume this is all planned -- it was known when they set the March 16 opening that this would be one of the biggest non-Panthers game events of the year Uptown.

Edited March 12, 2018 by staffer

[navigator319]

I think this confluence is a disaster (PR related)  waiting to happen.  Thursday should have been their inaugural day or better yet a week+ before an event this size. 

Fingers crossed though no issues, but I can just hear the local 'news' stations now :/

[teeg]

3 hours ago, navigator319 said:

I think this confluence is a disaster (PR related)  waiting to happen.  Thursday should have been their inaugural day or better yet a week+ before an event this size. 

Fingers crossed though no issues, but I can just hear the local 'news' stations now :/

I think you're right, although I do not actually expect mass hysteria on Friday (my fingers are crossed too).  I don't think that there are going to be that many fans visiting Charlotte who are even aware that BLE is an option.  And even if they were aware, for a family of four, round trip fares on Lynx would pretty well pay for a parking space near the arena.   And from what I saw three years ago, a ton of people only showed up to watch their team play.  

Unfortunately, if local 'news' wants to make a story of this (and they surely do) they only need to find that one family from Rhode Island that spent thousands of dollars on their once in a lifetime trip, only to have it ruined because they missed tipoff  because they could not figure out the fare machine up in University City.  The real story is that they would have missed tipoff anyway because they did not give themselves an extra hour to clear security at the arena,  but that will be left on the editing room floor.  

[videtur quam contuor]

Eight or so years ago there was a similar NCAA first weekend at the Arena and I boarded at Bland and the light rail was crowded and I mean Tokyo Maronouchi line type crowded. Locals? Out of towners? Dunno but mashed in we were. 

[dylansukkert]

I would think the 20,000+ St Patrick’s day bar crawl and St Patrick’s day parade would

bring more riders than the NCAA tournament, more locals. 

[Boricua]

Does anyone know any other university that has light rail/mass transit going on to their campus?

[15895]

11 minutes ago, Boricua said:

Does anyone know any other university that has light rail/mass transit going on to their campus?

Pretty sure maybe it’s Portland that has a streetcar line? I’m sure there must be others 

[kermit]

16 hours ago, Boricua said:

Does anyone know any other university that has light rail/mass transit going on to their campus?

Georgia State
U Minnesota
Boston College
Boston U
Harvard
MIT
Penn
Temple
American U
Gaulladet (sp?)
Howard
U DC (if it still exists)
George Washington
Pretty much every school in NYC
U Colorado Denver
Utah
BYU (well, its commuter rail)
Portland State
San Francisco State
Cal Berkley
U Illinois Chicago
IIT
DePaul
Wayne State
Tulane
Loyola (New Orleans)
Loyola (Chicago)
Loyola (Maryland) (the trifecta!)
Rice
University at Buffalo (one campus)
Case Western Reserve
U Wash
U Wash Tacoma
Washington U (St. Louis)
Arizona
Arizona State
San Diego State
USC (the other one)
McGill
Concordia
U QUAM
University of Montreal
U Toronto
York U
 

In two/three years JCSU!

little carried away, sorry...
 

Edited March 13, 2018 by kermit

[KJHburg]

Good summary article about all the development along the new LYNX extension.   https://www.bisnow.com/charlotte/news/construction-development/development-popping-up-like-weeds-along-charlottes-light-rail-opening-this-week-85974?be=kj%40charlottehomes.com&utm_source=Newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=mon-12-mar-2018-000000-0400_charlotte-re

[staffer]

and here is the LRT schedule effective March 16: http://charlottenc.gov/cats/bus/schedule-change/Documents/18-03/501%20LYNX.pdf (except 7th St to UNC-C opens 10 am Friday March 16)

[grodney]

On 2/26/2018 at 5:33 PM, tozmervo said:

It does appear that the new train and revised bus timetables aren't available yet, but according to the route change documents:

Trains will run every 7.5 minutes during the weekday rush hour and every 15 minutes during non-peak. Weekend service will be 20 minutes during peak hours and 30 minutes during non-peak

Apparently the route change documents were not correct....or they got considerable blowback on the 20/30-minute Saturday headways.   Saturdays will still have 15 minute headways during peak.

And if I'm reading the schedule correctly, after 7am Saturdays will never be longer than 20 minutes.

 

 

 

Edited March 14, 2018 by grodney

[KJHburg]

in terms of the new stations with parking garages in the University area what are the parking rates?  I can't find this information anywhere.  (By the way I dont think they should charge for these stations because of UNCC make any student parking there pay with the ID but commuters should be free) 

[15895]

12 minutes ago, KJHburg said:

in terms of the new stations with parking garages in the University area what are the parking rates?  I can't find this information anywhere.  (By the way I dont think they should charge for these stations because of UNCC make any student parking there pay with the ID but commuters should be free) 

UNCC has nearly 30,000 students.

if there are 3,000 spots in a deck, it would only take 1/10 students to fill that entire deck up. Park free hop on LRT or pay 500$ To park 5 minutes down the road 

[kermit]

Why can’t CATS have their crap together enough to show countdown timers on the existing LED boards at every station? 

The audio announcements are awfully vague when you have trains coming from both directions.

[KJHburg]

21 minutes ago, AirNostrumMAD said:

UNCC has nearly 30,000 students.

if there are 3,000 spots in a deck, it would only take 1/10 students to fill that entire deck up. Park free hop on LRT or pay 500$ To park 5 minutes down the road 

I get why they are doing it but it seems to penalize the residents and taxpayers of the University area with a parking charge that NO other lot or garage has along the route.  What is to stop the students from parking and filling up the Sugar Creek garage or even further every  parking spot in the Scaleybark station?  I can assure you most days it will be cheaper for me to drive to uptown for my occasional meetings than using the the LYNX and that is a shame.    and why have the parking rates not been announced it is opening this Friday for crying out loud? 

[DavieNative]

21 minutes ago, kermit said:

Why can’t CATS have their crap together enough to show countdown timers on the existing LED boards at every station? 

The audio announcements are awfully vague when you have trains coming from both directions.

I've wandered this for a while??  That's a common thing in most cities and we can't seem to figure out how to make it happen..

4 minutes ago, KJHburg said:

I get why they are doing it but it seems to penalize the residents and taxpayers of the University area with a parking charge that NO other lot or garage has along the route.  What is to stop the students from parking and filling up the Sugar Creek garage or even further every  parking spot in the Scaleybark station?  I can assure you most days it will be cheaper for me to drive to uptown for my occasional meetings than using the the LYNX and that is a shame.    and why have the parking rates not been announced it is opening this Friday for crying out loud? 

I've heard parking will be free for anyone buying more than a one way ticket.

[15895]

26 minutes ago, DavieNative said:

I've wandered this for a while??  That's a common thing in most cities and we can't seem to figure out how to make it happen..

I've heard parking will be free for anyone buying more than a one way ticket.

I think they said a weekly or monthly pass. 

 

I think parking should be free weekends, before 8am and after 5pm and with company vouchers and vouchers from uptown, SouthEnd and NoDa area business 

Edited March 15, 2018 by AirNostrumMAD

[southslider]

$10 to park unless day pass or higher

 

[grodney]

Now that BLE is opening (tomorrow!), what's the status of that ped bridge thing near the original NoDa location?

[tozmervo]

1 hour ago, grodney said:

Now that BLE is opening (tomorrow!), what's the status of that ped bridge thing near the original NoDa location?

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