Charlotte's Light Rail: Lynx Blue Line

[Scribe]

30 minutes ago, grodney said:

"Going forward, in extreme weather conditions, at the end terminals operators will be notified to keep the doors closed.".

That's a silly statement, because in the summer, our humidity is extreme 97.9% of the time, which will make the AC units work overtime in those cars. Just keep the doors closed at the terminus stations...

[nmundo]

Friend was on a train this morning that had to stop and be 'rebooted' so it seems to not have been a one off when it happened to me. Anyone have any ideas as to why they might be needing to do this?

[kermit]

25 minutes ago, nmundo said:

Friend was on a train this morning that had to stop and be 'rebooted' so it seems to not have been a one off when it happened to me. Anyone have any ideas as to why they might be needing to do this?

That also happened to me yesterday aroumd 5pm while blocking 7th st

[tozmervo]

43 minutes ago, nmundo said:

Friend was on a train this morning that had to stop and be 'rebooted' so it seems to not have been a one off when it happened to me. Anyone have any ideas as to why they might be needing to do this?

I've been on buses when that happened, but I can't remember that ever happening on a train car. 

[Guest]

46 minutes ago, kermit said:

That also happened to me yesterday aroumd 5pm while blocking 7th st

I've been on a number of Newer model Subway Cars that this has happened in. It hasn't happened in years though, and it seems to be around when they started rolling out the R160 cars.

[15895]

I swear sometimes on the extension when I’m running behind, I just want to tap on the door of the driver and tell them to step on it. 

 

Today it felt like we were going 20mph from  7th street  to UNCC.

[videtur quam contuor]

I was returning from Orr Road yesterday mid morning and the vehicle I drew next at Parkwood station was behind me at East-West. No sign of it there, no flashing lights to signal approach so driving through the center of town, city streets the whole way on a week day is well faster.  I was looking for it at every station I could see, 7th, 3d, Carson (Lexington cross), Park Avenue. Anyone else raced the light rail over an extended distance, even on a bus or bike?

[Desert Power]

2 hours ago, AirNostrumMAD said:

I swear sometimes on the extension when I’m running behind, I just want to tap on the door of the driver and tell them to step on it. 

 

Today it felt like we were going 20mph from  7th street  to UNCC.

Unfortunately they are more likely to randomly break still

[NY+SC=NC]

I know I'm late, but Wednesday the family and I decided to check out the extension. In my humble opinion other than the Noda stop and UNCC, It's like all the other stops are pointless. University City is a pedestrian nightmare. Nothing and I mean nothing looks anything close to walkable. Narrow sidewalks, steep hilly dropoffs, HUGE parking looks, businesses so far off the street that they look like you'd need an uber to get there. The challenges to create TOD look daunting to say the least. S.Blvd never felt as suburban as Ucity, but after riding the lightrail vs car, I dont think Ucity has ever felt so suburban. I couldn't even imagine using this as a mode of transportation to get to work up there. Cold winter days and hot summer days would be torture. The only plus on a hot day would be the wind from the cars zooming by while aimlessly wandering on those cement walking trails they call sidewalks. And just forget about traveling after dark. I'll reevaluate in ten to fifteen years if I live to see it. But, the ride itself was... peaceful. Very Carowinds Monorail like. 

[SgtCampsalot]

3 minutes ago, NY+SC=NC said:

I know I'm late, but Wednesday the family and I decided to check out the extension. In my humble opinion other than the Noda stop and UNCC, It's like all the other stops are pointless. University City is a pedestrian nightmare. Nothing and I mean nothing looks anything close to walkable. Narrow sidewalks, steep hilly dropoffs, HUGE parking looks, businesses so far off the street that they look like you'd need an uber to get there. The challenges to create TOD look daunting to say the least. S.Blvd never felt as suburban as Ucity, but after riding the lightrail vs car, I dont think Ucity has ever felt so suburban. I couldn't even imagine using this as a mode of transportation to get to work up there. Cold winter days and hot summer days would be torture. The only plus on a hot day would be the wind from the cars zooming by while aimlessly wandering on those cement walking trails they call sidewalks. And just forget about traveling after dark. I'll reevaluate in ten to fifteen years if I live to see it. But, the ride itself was... peaceful. Very Carowinds Monorail like. 

Oh man I remember the Carowinds Monorail, right alongside Smurf Island. 

And the UCITY stops, I agree. It'll take longer than that for them to be retrofit, if even. 

But, Sugar Creek, Old Concord, Tom Hunter: ripe for urban projects. 

[HighRiseHillbilly]

Forgive me if this has been asked before, but why isn't there a stop at/near the hospital or the shopping center across the street? Why are they so far from....things?

[CLT2014]

54 minutes ago, HighRiseHillbilly said:

Forgive me if this has been asked before, but why isn't there a stop at/near the hospital or the shopping center across the street? Why are they so far from....things?

It is .2 miles from the JW Clay Station to the Hospital. That is about the length of 1.5 Walmart Supercenter or 3 football fields. The problem is perception since the area is so suburban and auto-friendly that .2 miles feels like eternity when traffic is going by at 55 mph. 

JW Clay is also across the street from the Shoppes at University Place. It should be an 8 minute walk from the station to Michaels, all the way on the other side of the shopping center lake. 

If there was a stop every .2 miles the ride would take forever. 

The problem with the way University City is set up and the light rail, is that while the light rail line is convenient for getting to Noda or Uptown, it doesn't really help facilitate running errands or going places in the neighborhood. Unless you go to UNCC where there is a station on campus, if you live in most of the residential areas, you'd be better of driving. By the time you took a bus to connect to the rail or walked all the way out of your sprawling suburban garden apartment complex....  you could have just driven to the Ross, Michaels, Ikea, or any other chain super store that University City residents are used to shopping at in the neighborhood. A 10 minute errand isn't really facilitated by the light rail because there is so much walking and crossing huge streets to reach your sprawling suburban apartment or house from the station.

The Hudson Commons Apartments are a good example. They are in theory relatively close to the light rail, but it would take 16 minutes to walk to the station from most of the units. If you were going to Ikea, you could have driven to Ikea 2 miles away and back in 15 minutes outside of the worst of rush hour. Let's say rush hour is really horrific... maybe 25 minutes? Vice versa on the train, the commuting portion of the errand would probably take 1 hour roundtrip at all times due to walking time + train waiting + train travel.

Edited April 6, 2018 by CLT2014

[kermit]

^ This!

I did break my ride home last week with a stop at JW Clay to grab a late lunch at Cava. It was a surprisingly short walk from the station. Unfortunately their were two downsides. First, the timing on the crosswalks at the station is _awful_ (they basically force you to jaywalk through one of the two crosswalks). Second, once you are in the _recently remodeled_ center you discover that they didn't bother to build any helpful sidewalks so you gotta thread your way through parked cars.

Decent urbanism doesn't need to be complicated, but developers need to pay for some GD sidewalks through their parking lots.

[nmundo]

I just got on a train at JW Clay and the first 2 floors of the deck were basically full. It definitely seems like night life use from non-students is picking up based on the people I saw on the train vs what I was seeing on the first week.


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[15895]

2 hours ago, nmundo said:

I just got on a train at JW Clay and the first 2 floors of the deck were basically full. It definitely seems like night life use from non-students is picking up based on the people I saw on the train vs what I was seeing on the first week.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Outside of the 5pm rush, the extension ridership seems to be the same as southline now. But the 5pm/8am crowd on the south line is super packed 

 

Edit: 11:50pm starting 7th at. To UNCC standing room only. UNCC is pumping hundreds of students into uptown. Even at 12 loads of students are pouring into uptown from the extension and there’s random waves of students uptown 

Edited April 7, 2018 by AirNostrumMAD

[nmundo]

Trains seem to have been busy throughout the weekend. This was a train from NoDa to Uptown around 11:30pm on Saturday.

 

They still seem to be having issues, on Saturday around 5 they had a train sitting at JW Clay for about 10-15 mins causing the train behind to run behind schedule, while I was at 25th St yesterday an announcement came on saying they were having delays both north & southbound, and this morning my friend told me that his train had to be restarted. That's 3 days in a row with at least 1 issue...

[Scribe]

On 4/6/2018 at 6:47 PM, kermit said:

Second, once you are in the _recently remodeled_ center you discover that they didn't bother to build any helpful sidewalks so you gotta thread your way through parked cars.

Decent urbanism doesn't need to be complicated, but developers need to pay for some GD sidewalks through their parking lots.

I honestly don't know how you could miss this, but there is a nice/wide/clean/perfectly functional pedestrian walkway from JW Clay at N Tryon to CAVA without having to wade through a single car!:

[CLT2014]

http://www.charlotteobserver.com/news/politics-government/article208324354.html

CATS partnering with Lyft to get riders to / from the station to a fenced area along the more suburban areas of the route with limited bus access. While ride share apps are a potential contributor to the decline in public transit ridership nationwide (particularly ditching the bus for a ride share), these areas have limited bus access so this could actually stimulate transit ridership rather than cannibalize transit bus ridership. 

Edited April 9, 2018 by CLT2014

[EllAyyDub]

Looks like you can get to/from PNC & JW Clay with this.  Nice.

[southslider]

11 hours ago, EllAyyDub said:

Looks like you can get to/from PNC & JW Clay with this.  Nice.

But PNC is labelled as just outside the Lyft share code area outlined in red:

http://charlottenc.gov/cats/rail/Pages/first-mile.aspx#JWClay

Music Factory is also outside the area for Parkwood station:

http://charlottenc.gov/cats/rail/Pages/first-mile.aspx#Parkwood

 

Edited April 10, 2018 by southslider

[nakers2]

1 hour ago, southslider said:

But PNC is labelled as just outside the Lyft share code area outlined in red:

http://charlottenc.gov/cats/rail/Pages/first-mile.aspx#JWClay

Music Factory is also outside the area for Parkwood station:

http://charlottenc.gov/cats/rail/Pages/first-mile.aspx#Parkwood

 

It looks like Pavillion Boulevard is the boundary, drop off at 49 North or the QT on North Tryon at 485 and walk the gap, better than dealing with that parking hell. 

[southslider]

14 hours ago, nakers2 said:

It looks like Pavillion Boulevard is the boundary, drop off at 49 North or the QT on North Tryon at 485 and walk the gap, better than dealing with that parking hell. 

So wait to book your trip leaving a concert until you walk out to the main road?

[staffer]

On ‎4‎/‎9‎/‎2018 at 2:23 PM, CLT2014 said:

http://www.charlotteobserver.com/news/politics-government/article208324354.html

CATS partnering with Lyft to get riders to / from the station to a fenced area along the more suburban areas of the route with limited bus access. While ride share apps are a potential contributor to the decline in public transit ridership nationwide (particularly ditching the bus for a ride share), these areas have limited bus access so this could actually stimulate transit ridership rather than cannibalize transit bus ridership. 

AMTRAK Station is in the zone for Parkwood !!

[southslider]

^BLE resulted in the limited bus service condition along N Tryon, where frequency was cut in half.  And for the section of N Tryon beyond 11th St, like Amtrak, all the way to Eastway Dr or Old Concord Rd even, it really is a bleak walk to the nearest station. 

Edited April 11, 2018 by southslider

[15895]

485 station is usually full but at 10am every overflow spot (which there’s like, 3 overflow lots) plus parking in every inch that didn’t block an entrance was full and about 7 cars circling around.