Charlotte's Light Rail: Lynx Blue Line

[staffer]

Charlotte City Council agenda for tonight has an item "Northeast Corridor Preliminary Engineering" under briefings. Yesterday's Charlotte daily newspaper indicated council was schedule to take some sort of vote on the subject on January 28.

Edited January 14, 2008 by staffer

[roningreensboro]

Charlotte City Council agenda for tonight has an item "Northeast Corridor Preliminary Engineering" under briefings. Yesterday's Charlotte daily newspaper indicated council was schedule to take some sort of vote on the subject on January 28.

I hope that the vote permits the start of construction on the NE corridor.

[monsoon]

I hope that the vote permits the start of construction on the NE corridor.

It will not. Construction can't start until the MTC, not the Charlotte city council approves it, since it is the MTC that controls the transit tax. The city council can only say yes or no for CATS to actually do it.

In any case it will be a number of years before construction happens because there is no money approved to build it.

[Mobuchu]

For those of you who commute daily on the LRT, I'm curious how it went this morning? How was the ridership, were the stations icy at all, how did the shelters hold up to the wind and rain? I saw CATS workers salting and sanding this morning at Scaleybark.

Many of the parking lots around town are pretty empty (compared to usual), so I'm guessing many people just took the day off or worked from home.

[tozmervo]

For those of you who commute daily on the LRT, I'm curious how it went this morning? How was the ridership, were the stations icy at all, how did the shelters hold up to the wind and rain? I saw CATS workers salting and sanding this morning at Scaleybark.

Many of the parking lots around town are pretty empty (compared to usual), so I'm guessing many people just took the day off or worked from home.

At the risk of redundant posting, I'll copy what I said in the "snow" thread -

Summary judgement from this morning's commute: running right on time, slightly-somewhat lower ridership. I think a lot of people may just come in late. Or a lot of alarm clocks were reset - my power was out when I woke up (stupid battery backup).

New Bern station was fine. It was salted, and I was able to stay quite dry under the shelter. It was pretty much like any other day as far as LYNX is concerned.

[Charlotte_native]

Many of the parking lots around town are pretty empty (compared to usual), so I'm guessing many people just took the day off or worked from home.

The parking lots I could see from my condo as well as those I passed on the way to work were very empty. My mom works in the BofA building and the firm she works for is on a 2 hour delay. I think a lot of people, including me in a few minutes, are taking a day off just for the sake of it.

I actually will probably ride LYNX later to do some shopping and get lunch.

[Nostyle]

For those of you who commute daily on the LRT, I'm curious how it went this morning? How was the ridership, were the stations icy at all, how did the shelters hold up to the wind and rain? I saw CATS workers salting and sanding this morning at Scaleybark.

Many of the parking lots around town are pretty empty (compared to usual), so I'm guessing many people just took the day off or worked from home.

I worked a 10:30 to 7 shift today so I was on the 9:30 train from 485. It was a single car and it was PACKED. It was beyond standing room only by the time we got Uptown. There were also about three cops onboard checking tickets.

The stations seemed to have about the same number of cars as normal, from what I could tell. All the stations I walked on were very well salted.

Today was the first time I ever got on a train that was only going as far as the scaleybark station. Apparently it was a rush hour train that was on its last run. I had to jump off that train and get on the single-car train when I realized my mistake.

Edited January 18, 2008 by Nostyle

[monsoon]

Ok so today I actually made use of the Lynx train to solve a transit problem that I had instead of just doing excursion riding on it. I needed to take my vehicle to Pineville this afternoon for servicing (why did I go way down there, warranty) and instead of having someone else follow me all the way there in another vehicle in bad traffic, I decided to take Lynx back to downtown where I then hopped one of the express buses to the Lake. It looks as if the car dealers down there are all offering shuttle service to the Lynx station for their customers.

So unlike a lot of people here I did a reverse commute on the train at 4:45 pm from 485 to the CTC. Some comments:

• Again there was a broken ticket machine at 485 but there were two others working at the far end of the platform. Not a big deal at that time of day given that most people using the station were coming back to get into their cars to go home. As reflected by that, the ticket "tent" was not manned.
  
• I was the only one to get onto the inward bound train, though the outward bound trains were full of people.
  
• As we headed north, the train was empty until we got to Arrowood station. From there on it picked up a few people at most stations until we got to downtown. The train, upon arrival at the CTC had about 70% of the seats occupied. Nobody needed to stand. This was a single carriage train.
  
• Demographically the people riding on the outbound trains was remarkably different from the ones on the inbound train. Most of the inbound traffic seemed to becoming from the buses that were dropping off people from the bus routes.
  
• I had hoped there might be more local activity, but that was non-existent on this particular train. Maybe that will improve over time. No one got on the train on the Dilworth/South end stations. (basically all stations between Woodlawn and the convention center)
  
• The timing on the train worked well to get onto the express bus to the North. The express bus was completely filled and I almost did not get a seat. I was not sure if I could use the Lynx ticket for this leg of the trip, so I just paid the fare.
  

All in all it was a pretty good trip. That was 30 miles on public transit and I do have to commend CATs for getting a lot of it right even though there are issues with some of the Lynx implementations. I didn't not attempt to take the village rider from the Express P&R lot so I got someone to pick me up there.

[Nostyle]

^On the way inbound this morning we all got checked. The man sitting across from me didn't have a ticket but he weaseled his way out of it by saying that the ticket machine wouldn't take his money. The security officer let him slide. They really gotta start cracking down on this. It's only going to get worse otherwise.

Monsoon, you mentioned demographics. Now, keep in mind that my schedule puts me on a typical morning-inbound/evening-outbound train, but demographically, it seems a wide variety of different people are using the train in both directions. I typically find that the train is about 30-40% full before it even leaves the 485 station and usually picks up a good chunk of its ridership along the next three or four stations. You're right about the South End/Dilworth stations. Not a whole lot of people use the New Bern, Bland, Carson, or Stonewall stations yet, but there is a ton of construction in these areas, so the ridership at these stations will come in time.

[SCOTTER]

[*]The timing on the train worked well to get onto the express bus to the North. The express bus was completely filled and I almost did not get a seat. I was not sure if I could use the Lynx ticket for this leg of the trip, so I just paid the fare.

You can use your Lynx ticket to Ride the bus that is what the magnetic strip on the back of the ticket is for. since you were riding an express bus you would need to pay an extra 45 cents. The Lynx 7 day pass can be used to ride the bus. Like way the weeky bus pas can be used to ride the train. If you purchase a local monthly pass you can rid the express bus any time for an aditional 45 cents. If you have an express monthly pass you can ride the local buss or train any time without an aditional charge. It would help if CATS and LYNX did a better job informing the public. It seem that they want to make it as complicated as posible in order to get people to over pay for the service.

Edited January 19, 2008 by SCOTTER

[Andyc545]

Those South End stations will fill up when some of the projects are completed in the next one to 3 years. People are paying a premium to live on the tracks, so certainly they will be riding.

[Nostyle]

The station that seems the least promising is the Stonewall station. Unless you're going to or coming from the Westin, there's no need to use that station. The 3rd Street/Convention Center station will be just as convenient for riders going Uptown for the NASCAR HOF or Wachovia cultural venues. The Stonewall station almost seems unnecessary. Perhaps once the NASCAR HOF and AACC open I'll be proven wrong.

Edited January 19, 2008 by Nostyle

[HopHead]

One thing I wanted to point out is that I have noticed a lot more foot traffic the last 3 or 4 weeks... especially coming from the East Blvd station. I drive up and down and around South Blvd and East Blvd quite a bit throughout the week. Especially around lunch time and then around dinner time. Lots of people from work and families are making their way to the restaurants in that area. And I know for a fact that they are all coming from LYNX. So that's actually a good thing to see, since this exactly one of the things light rail was intended to bring.

[voyager12]

I heartily agree. I live off of East. Crossing over from West this week I saw a steady stream of people walking to EW station and down Camden. Having this increased foot traffic from the train really helps to add a happy urban and cosmopolitan vibe to the area that was long overdue.

[BDM_Charlotte]

The station that seems the least promising is the Stonewall station. Unless you're going to or coming from the Westin, there's no need to use that station...The Stonewall station almost seems unnecessary. Perhaps ...I'll be proven wrong.

As a Duke Energy employee, I'd like to disagree. I've taken the LRT daily since November 26th and I use the Stonewall station. It's 2 1/2 blocks to my building and I've seen 4-10 other people using that each time I've gotten on or off.

[Mobuchu]

Ok so today I actually made use of the Lynx train to solve a transit problem that I had instead of just doing excursion riding on it.

....

....

[*]The timing on the train worked well to get onto the express bus to the North. The express bus was completely filled and I almost did not get a seat. I was not sure if I could use the Lynx ticket for this leg of the trip, so I just paid the fare.

All in all it was a pretty good trip. That was 30 miles on public transit and I do have to commend CATs for getting a lot of it right even though there are issues with some of the Lynx implementations. I didn't not attempt to take the village rider from the Express P&R lot so I got someone to pick me up there.

Nice writeup, these are the types of trips that will take time for the average Joe to consider using. (UPers dont count...) Having rail transit, which is more sexy, is giving public transit more exposure. People have a negative perception of the buses, and wont use it because of that. I brought a coworker on the bus last weekend and he was completely surprised, saying he thought it was going to be a dirty, loud, uncomfortable ride.

The station that seems the least promising is the Stonewall station. Unless you're going to or coming from the Westin, there's no need to use that station. The 3rd Street/Convention Center station will be just as convenient for riders going Uptown for the NASCAR HOF or Wachovia cultural venues. The Stonewall station almost seems unnecessary. Perhaps once the NASCAR HOF and AACC open I'll be proven wrong.

For the time being it will, but the new Wachovia headquarters and that entire block really, are closer to Stonewall station then the 3rd/Conv. station. I say that because they can cut through the Green instead of walking around the convention center. Trump if it ever happens plus the 277 interchange parcels will help too.

Edited January 19, 2008 by Mobuchu

[dubone]

The Stonewall Street Station is really THE station for the NFL stadium, the new Wachovia Tower, Nascar Tower, and any development that happens along Stonewall (e.g. Trump and the land opened up by rebuilding the Belk interchange). It is also a choice for many Convention Center goers, as in some cases, it will be much closer to get to this station than the 3rd Street station, depending on where you are in the center.

Stonewall Station is only .4 mile away from the stadium (an ~8 minute walk) versus .6 mile from Carson (a ~12 minute walk) and .7 mile from 3rd Street (a ~14 minute walk). That is why Stonewall crowds up after the NFL games.

It is only .2 miles away from the new Wachovia tower and the arts projects, versus almost .4 miles from the 3rd Street station. When thousands of people work in that complex, cutting the walk in half will be a significant difference psychologically, which will help support transit use for many of those workers.

The Nascar HOF has an entrance on the northern edge, so it is better served by 3rd Street, but the Nascar Tower is at Stonewall and Caldwell, which will be much closer to Stonewall Station. There will be hundreds of workers in that building, so having a station only 2 blocks away will be a good chance to get many of them on transit.

When people are factoring in their the walks into their commutes, having a station that is only half the walk can make a big difference. But either way, other than operational considerations, it wasn't that expensive to keep that station as there was already a lot of station infrastructure there, including the platform, built as part of the Westin to get a big trolley station there.

[New Name]

Stonewall's biggest drawback seems to be it's signage... namely, there is none. You have to know how to walk in, or you might miss it. I feel that way about 3rd St. too. Matter of fact, WHY is there no real pedestrian signage for these stations? Most cities have clear gateways to their transit stations.

[dubone]

I'm not sure about after you are block away or something, but it has a big sign above the staircase that says "Stonewall Station". Maybe they are simply relying on everyone's favority 'wayfinding' signs to lead them there.

[Nostyle]

You guys have made some good points about Stonewall. As a typical rush hour commuter, the station is dead. But I can see your points about ridership from tourism or events at the stadium. I just haven't seen it first hand.

[atlrvr]

I haven't been to the Stonewall station since the LRT opened so I can't really comment on the signage. I did stay at the Westin back in September, and I don't remember much indicating the there would be a stop there. I think Charlotte really needs some uniformly branded signs indicating entrances...maybe the have them, but I just haven't noticed.

Here are some examples of what I'm talking about.

Boston

New York City

From Forgotten-NY.com

[New Name]

Admin's Note, Images from previous quote deleted. Please try not to quote unless necessary

That's what I'm talking about! Gateways! ...

I had business at the Westin a few weeks ago and was in the giftshop. I was chatting with the manager and told her that I thought I would hop on the train and ride to Chipotle for lunch, and asked if my vehicle would be okay for an hour with security. She seemed amused that I was riding the train, surprised and generally confounded. It even triggered her to remember that she had a stack of schedules in a drawer for Westin customers. She said she lived uptown and had never used it, and didn't know the first thing about it. Mostly, it was sad to think that she would had never suggested it to hotel guests. Maybe she does so now, but as a concierge, I would think she should be "on board" (pardon the pun!!)

Edited January 20, 2008 by monsoon

[monsoon]

I think Charlotte really needs some uniformly branded signs indicating entrances...maybe the have them, but I just haven't noticed.

...

I think that is one of the problems with the Lynx brand that CATS came up with. It does not lend itself to branding on a transit sign.

[dubone]

I am just relieved that CATS didn't keep that ridiculous shading on the CATS logo when they put it on the LYNX stuff. The logo on the buses actually appears like the paint is wearing off! It even looks that way on their web graphics. I had originally assumed they just didn't repaint the logos on the buses in order to save money, but the fact is, they actually have someone put the logo on and MAKE it look like that.

I think something like the T logo to direct people to the station when they are a block away would be a good move. I'd want something icon like this. Knowing Charlotte, though, they'd add a crown to the top :

[buds]

I'd want something icon like this.

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