Charlotte's Light Rail: Lynx Blue Line

[deleted]

11 hours ago, nmundo said:

CATS app is complete trash (as are most first party transit apps, idk why they waste money building them), I tell everyone to use Apple/Google Maps or if they're riding more than once a month Transit which is by far the best transit app I've used, shows Trains/Busses/Scooters/Bikes (including Bcycle). 

Agree completely on the CATS app.  Thanks for the tip on Transit!  Very cool app.

[kermit]

While BLE ridership still isn’t stellar, it has increased significantly over the past few weeks.  I am continually surprised by the number of riders between UNCC main and JW Clay, most of whom appear to be walking over to University Place.

Fortunately there are still a few growth catalysts coming up. Opening 36th and Sugar Creek, new  multi family at Parkwood and 25th, the Mill at 16th, and finding a way to fill up the U City deck could add another couple thousand to the daily figures.

Slow and steady....

[grodney]

How is the pedestrian experience from the BLE to IKEA?  Anyone?

 

[kermit]

10 minutes ago, grodney said:

How is the pedestrian experience from the BLE to IKEA?  Anyone?

 

As long as you are ok with sidewalks adjacent to 4 lanes of 45mph traffic its not bad. Sidewalks all the way, including the IKEA parking lot. I suggest getting on the uptown end of the train, leave the station from the crosswalk end (not the ped bridge end) and walking down U City Station blvd to IKEA blvd. You could also go down Stetson (its more interesting)no sidewalks but little traffic.

The biggest obsticle is just the wide-open suburban wasteland landscape, it makes for some boring walking.

If you get hungry the 6am-2pm shift at the  Wafflehouse is well above average. 

[grodney]

9 minutes ago, kermit said:

As long as you are ok with sidewalks adjacent to 4 lanes of 45mph traffic its not bad. Sidewalks all the way, including the IKEA parking lot. I suggest getting on the uptown end of the train, leave the station from the crosswalk end (not the ped bridge end) and walking down U City Station blvd to IKEA blvd. You could also go down Stetson (its more interesting)no sidewalks but little traffic.

The biggest obsticle is just the wide-open suburban wasteland landscape, it makes for some boring walking.

If you get hungry the 6am-2pm shift at the  Wafflehouse is well above average. 

Cool, thanks for the advice.  Doesn't look too bad.  I see a family BLE trip to UNCC and back in my future, with stops for breweries and meatballs!

 

[kermit]

Blue Line, The Good, Bad and Ugly. September 2018

The Good:

Its really nice that Blue Line riders standing at the door of crush-loaded trains habitually exit the train and wait to reboard so riders inside the train can exit more easily. While this seems like common courtesy  its not something that I have ever seen happen regularly on other rail systems. 

The Bad:

The emergency exit gates at the N end of the platforms at U City, Tom Hunter and JW Clay are taking a serious beating. Somehow they keep getting ripped off their hinges which means they are non-functional for a week or two while they await welding to repair. This has happened on at least 3 different occasions in the past month. I think people may be taking their frustrations out on the gates (intentionally damaging them) due to poor pedestrian circulation (e.g. having to climb multiple flights of stairs for the pedestrian bridge). Other emergency exit gates (like the South end of the Woodlawn platform) seem to be kinda pointless (their was a station entrance there before the platform extension) and are perpetually left open.

The Ugly:

Instead of redesigning the gates and modifying ped circulation patterns it appears that CATS has assigned their rent a cops to stand at U City station and monitor the gates and emergency exits in order to bust violators. Come on CATS, take the hint, enable those passageways for regular use.  #MedianStationsAreGenerallyABadIdea

Edited September 24, 2018 by kermit

[grodney]

32 minutes ago, kermit said:

Blue Line, The Good, Bad and Ugly. September 2018

I'll add this morning's craziness.....there was a disabled train that caused a lot of delays.  The 6:43am northbound from I-485 didn't leave until 7:11am, so it was jammed with people, and nobody could get on after about Tyvola because it was simply full.  Then you have the doofus pictured below who decided to sit in the aisle, so nobody could come up in the aisle with me to make more space below.  He even had the gall to tell the guy in front of him to turn sideways because he didn't like having a crotch in his face.  Hilarious.

Oh and then at 3rd St Station a ton of people got off the northbound, and the southbound was there at the same time.  As the ton of people were crossing the tracks, the southbound got ready to go, and the operator just blew his whistle and floored it.  There were people on the tracks quite literally jumping off the tracks to avoid being run over.  I reported the driver to CATS.  I mean I don't want to be a tattletale, but it was crazy dangerous and I have to believe against all safety protocol.

Kermit thanks for the info in your "The Good".....I had wondered if that was standard courtesy in other cities.

 

[Matthew.Brendan]

1 hour ago, grodney said:

the southbound got ready to go, and the operator just blew his whistle and floored it. 

All the other train operators need to follow this persons lead. 

Why do people think walking in front of a train is a good idea? Literally herd mentality “durr there’s a lot of us so that makes it ok” ??

So sorry you maybe have to wait the 30 seconds for the train to clear the station.... 

[nmundo]

13 hours ago, grodney said:

As the ton of people were crossing the tracks, the southbound got ready to go, and the operator just blew his whistle and floored it.

I wish all the drivers were like this. I hate when they're trying to go and people clearly ignore the bell and keep walking, or the opposite, when I'm waiting to cross the tracks and the driver feels the need to crawl through as if I don't realize the train I just got off of is going to move.

Edited September 25, 2018 by nmundo

[Desert Power]

7 hours ago, nmundo said:

9 hours ago, grodney said:

As the ton of people were crossing the tracks, the southbound got ready to go, and the operator just blew his whistle and floored it.

I wish all the drivers were like this. I hate when they're trying to go and people clearly ignore the bell and keep walking, or the opposite, when I'm waiting to cross the tracks and the driver feels the need to crawl through as if I don't realize they train I just got off of is going to move.

I agree.  It really is slowing down the whole system.

[HighRiseHillbilly]

On 9/24/2018 at 10:58 AM, grodney said:

I'll add this morning's craziness.....there was a disabled train that caused a lot of delays.  The 6:43am northbound from I-485 didn't leave until 7:11am, so it was jammed with people, and nobody could get on after about Tyvola because it was simply full.  Then you have the doofus pictured below who decided to sit in the aisle, so nobody could come up in the aisle with me to make more space below.  He even had the gall to tell the guy in front of him to turn sideways because he didn't like having a crotch in his face.  Hilarious.

Oh and then at 3rd St Station a ton of people got off the northbound, and the southbound was there at the same time.  As the ton of people were crossing the tracks, the southbound got ready to go, and the operator just blew his whistle and floored it.  There were people on the tracks quite literally jumping off the tracks to avoid being run over.  I reported the driver to CATS.  I mean I don't want to be a tattletale, but it was crazy dangerous and I have to believe against all safety protocol.

Kermit thanks for the info in your "The Good".....I had wondered if that was standard courtesy in other cities.

 

Thanks to y'alls' updates, I managed to catch an early train this morning so I was able to get to work on time despite having delays caused by two malfunctioning trains in our way.

[davidclt]

52 minutes ago, HighRiseHillbilly said:

Thanks to y'alls' updates, I managed to catch an early train this morning so I was able to get to work on time despite having delays caused by two malfunctioning trains in our way.

Does the system seem to be straining? Between drivers that can't run the trains smoothly (accelerating or braking) to still irregular (but improving schedule adherence - stupid CATS App notwithstanding), to TVMs that are still out-of-order and still slow processing orders (yes, I use CATS Pass) and with banner LEDs that are still running in demo mode? The electronic station signs often have the wrong date/time and train arrival information.

Yesterday, afternoon they had to reboot the train (a 100 series car) between Bland and East.  It couldn't get to 45 MPH and seemed to be going into limp-home/fail-safe mode. Then in the East/West station after the reboot, they couldn't get the train running. Today one of the doors on my train wasn't working and the Use Other Door sign was illuminated both inside and outside the car. Are the 200 sets undergoing refit and PM currently?

[kermit]

CMPD (not the usual rentacops) was inspecting fares today (and rode from 24th to UNCC)

Weird.

and CATS appears to have significantly increased the speed limit on the Sugar Creek to Old Concord section of track. Let’s see if holds until this afternoon.

Also weird.

Edited October 2, 2018 by kermit

[CLTProductions]

1 hour ago, kermit said:

CMPD was inspecting fares today (and rode from 24th to UNCC)

Weird.

and CATS appears to have significantly increased the speed limit on the Sugar Creek to Old Concord section of track. Let’s see if holds until this afternoon.

Also weird.

I ride from East/West to CTC and they’ve been checking tickets a LOT more recently. And as far as speed goes. I gotta say the opposite. It’s been CRAAAAAWLLLLLLINGGG lately. So damn slow. Why?

[kermit]

So the higher speeds btw Old Concord and Sugar Creek held through the day, the trip from UNCC to 9th was about 1.5 minutes faster than yesterday. Now if we can get those other 7 missing minutes back....

[davidclt]

It seemed like there was some delay on the northbound route Wednesday evening. Coming south from 7th (to East/West for perspective on the distance I'm talking about) at ~5:20 last night we passed/crossed no fewer than five northbound trains on our journey. The trains arrived to 7th at the same time (and looking south I could *see* the next train below CTC pulling in slowly), crossing another between 3rd and Stonewall we encountered another train, between Carson and Bland and finally the trains arriving at East/West at nearly the same time. Initially I thought I was imagining it.

[Matthew.Brendan]

Yeah it was all whacky last night. The Northbound I was on @ 7p from 3rd St. was packed to the gills. When I exited at Parkwood and had some time to kill I watched 2 nearly empty trains pass by in near succession. 

[Desert Power]

Service has been down since yesterday.  Gold Line too

[Trickbot]

Service out between New Bern and 36th Street Stations, there is a bus bridge connecting the 2 and in between, my friend had to wait over 40 minutes for the bus from CTC to 36th this morning, apparently long lines

Edited October 12, 2018 by Trickbot

[11 HouseBZ]

 Yeah yesterday a tree came down on the inbound rails bringing with it the lines that power the trains. They came down right at and across 12th street hence the 12th street closure at Brevard. 

[Desert Power]

Still out 

[CLTProductions]

1 hour ago, Desert Power said:

Still out 

It’s insane. They should be working 24 hours a day to get this fixed. It’s a real bad look for the system. 

[Scribe]

18 minutes ago, Jayvee said:

They should be working 24 hours a day to get this fixed. It’s a real bad look for the system

Are we talking about the same CATS here? They do not seem to care much about reliability... take a look at their twitter feed, the number of tweets talking about delays (or for Gold LIne -- outages) is way too high!

[Desert Power]

36 minutes ago, Scribe said:

Are we talking about the same CATS here? They do not seem to care much about reliability... take a look at their twitter feed, the number of tweets talking about delays (or for Gold LIne -- outages) is way too high!

I would assume that there is an awful lot more daily transit riders on the Blue Line.

[CLTProductions]

Mother f