Charlotte's Light Rail: Lynx Blue Line

[Scribe]

Ridership on the BLE seems to be improving, at least by the sound of this tweet. Wonder if people got tired of dealing snow and black ice over the past few days.

https://twitter.com/CATSRideTransit/status/1072895896893964288

Edited December 12, 2018 by Scribe

[CLTranspo]

The new property management for Vanguard Center (off Tyvola next to 77) is looking into adding shuttle service to connect to the nearby light rail stations. Not the biggest news but this would be a great option for commuters who may have been stymied by the walkability on Tyvola/Minuet Ln. 

[kermit]

4 hours ago, Scribe said:

Ridership on the BLE seems to be improving, at least by the sound of this tweet. Wonder if people got tired of dealing snow and black ice over the past few days.

https://twitter.com/CATSRideTransit/status/1072895896893964288

It’s not entirely good news, Based on the boardings I see, a big portion of those parkers are UNCC students (and exams change student commute patterns) It may be time to actually start charging for non-pass holders there.

The UC deck is still mostly unused. Old Concord is consistently 90% full with people traveling in both directions.

Edited December 12, 2018 by kermit

[Hushpuppy321]

I thought JW Clay Parking Deck was a Pay to Park situation?

[kermit]

4 hours ago, Hushpuppy321 said:

I thought JW Clay Parking Deck was a Pay to Park situation?

They never instituted pay to park at U City or (as best I can tell, I have not parked there) JW Clay due to lower than expected traffic.

there are large numbers of BLE riders who look like UNCC atudents who rode from JW Clay to UNCC main.

Edited December 13, 2018 by kermit

[KJHburg]

Some of these students might live in older university place apartments and townhomes near Shriners building and rude LYNX to campus to avoid parking.

[Hushpuppy321]

Yes - I had thought that JW Clay & UC parking decks are Pay to use.  I haven't been in them personally (those Decks) but I was pretty sure CATS & UNCC had worked out this situation months prior to the BLE opening.

If not - UNCC would lose tremendous revenue from students not renewing campus parking passes in lieu of using the CATS Park n Ride Decks.  UNCC Parking passes are very expensive and kids are still late to classs even when paying to Park on campus because first the traffic onto campus and second, the flow In & Out of on campus Decks are fairly atrocious.  Then they have to walk to their respective buildings.  Sometimes - Students that ride Lightrail actually make it to class faster in many cases.

Edited December 13, 2018 by Hushpuppy321

[kermit]

LOTS of riders on the BLE last night from JW Clay and UCity (and, strangely,  McCullough) to the Hornets game (I was on an SRO train at 5:30). UNCC commencement  only generated a slightly-above typical weekday volume of traffic (based on boardings at UNCC main) -- makes sense, commencement is the only day of the year when you can park for free on campus.

Edited December 16, 2018 by kermit

[kermit]

20 minute headways are BS (30 minutes is worse)

 

Edited December 16, 2018 by kermit

[Trickbot]

7 hours ago, kermit said:

LOTS of riders on the BLE last night from JW Clay and UCity (and, strangely,  McCullough) to the Hornets game (I was on an SRO train at 5:30). UNCC commencement  only generated a slightly-above typical weekday volume of traffic (based on boardings at UNCC main) -- makes sense, commencement is the only day of the year when you can park for free on campus.

Actually you can park for free every weekend. Many people park in the lot next to the station and ride the train to events as to not pay uptown parking fees. The lot is noticeably fuller during things like Panthers games and the ACC Championship 

[kermit]

Took my first ride on the South line in several years today. I am astounded at how much faster and smoother the line runs South of Scaleybark than on the N Tryon segment of the BLE.

Also surprised by how little land use change has happened South of Scaleybark (with the possible exception of the new townhouses just South of Arrowood). It also looks like the refurbishing of the old Kmart at Arrowood for call center office space never happened.

[grodney]

Photo taken yesterday at 3rd/Convention station.  Note the times in the left column after 6:30am.  I guess they switched back to 10-minute headways instead of 7.5 minute.  Orrrrrrr, they just haven't changed the schedules at the stations since the BLE opened 10 months ago, hahahahaha.

 

 

[JacksonH]

As I have commented in other threads, I was visiting Charlotte the last two weekends and got on the Blue Line for the first time ever.  The first time was two weeks ago (Saturday, December 22).  I got on at Tyvola Station and rode all the way to UNCC.  Then from there I rode to Carson Station, got a workout at the YMCA.  Then got back at Carson and rode to 7th Street and had lunch at the 7th Street Market.  From there I walked down to CTC and rode back to Tyvola.

A week later (Dec 29) I got on at JW Clay and rode to Bland.  Then later rode from Bland to 7th Street, then 7th Street back to JW Clay.

I found the trains to be very timely and smooth (don't get what all the complaining has been about).  I thought the ridership was quite decent for a Saturday.  When I was riding south on the BLE on Dec 22nd, it was about 1:30 in the afternoon.  As we were approaching the Sugar Creek station I looked around and noted that about one-third of the seats were  occupied.  That seemed pretty good to me.  When I rode from CTC to Tyvola, it was about 4:30 PM.  It was standing room only!  If it's SRO on a Saturday afternoon, what is it like during rush hour?

[Hushpuppy321]

On 1/5/2019 at 7:47 PM, JacksonH said:

As I have commented in other threads, I was visiting Charlotte the last two weekends and got on the Blue Line for the first time ever.  The first time was two weeks ago (Saturday, December 22).  I got on at Tyvola Station and rode all the way to UNCC.  Then from there I rode to Carson Station, got a workout at the YMCA.  Then got back at Carson and rode to 7th Street and had lunch at the 7th Street Market.  From there I walked down to CTC and rode back to Tyvola.

A week later (Dec 29) I got on at JW Clay and rode to Bland.  Then later rode from Bland to 7th Street, then 7th Street back to JW Clay.

I found the trains to be very timely and smooth (don't get what all the complaining has been about).  I thought the ridership was quite decent for a Saturday.  When I was riding south on the BLE on Dec 22nd, it was about 1:30 in the afternoon.  As we were approaching the Sugar Creek station I looked around and noted that about one-third of the seats were  occupied.  That seemed pretty good to me.  When I rode from CTC to Tyvola, it was about 4:30 PM.  It was standing room only!  If it's SRO on a Saturday afternoon, what is it like during rush hour?

I hear you bro!  Some do complain about low ridership but everytime I'm riding (weekends and the occasional weekday) the Lightrail is usually busy.

[Trickbot]

Just got back from winter break and what is the first thing I see? A train running with only 1 car doing regular service.  Anybody have any insight in this? Sorry it's far away as it was speeding off as I saw it

[Hushpuppy321]

Was probably Out of Service 

[Trickbot]

15 minutes ago, Hushpuppy321 said:

Was probably Out of Service 

It was running, people were getting on and the driver had announcements about the train leaving just before it left

[nakers2]

5 hours ago, Trickbot said:

It was running, people were getting on and the driver had announcements about the train leaving just before it left

I’ve seen that a few times, not really sure what’s up. Maybe they can run the trains tighter if they put a few single cars inbetween the standard trains. I’m just waiting for them to buck up and get to using three car trains, that would be nice.

[Matthew.Brendan]

I have been meaning to ask.... does anyone know how many total train cars there are? How many are in service and operating on the tracks at any given time?

[kermit]

^ its an equipment availability issue. If more than a couple of units are down for maintance then they are unable to run all double units at peak. Their is an equipment roster out there somewhere, the missing info is I have never seen a tally of how many trains are needed to provide peak service - this number is calculable from the schedule.

[grodney]

7 minutes ago, kermit said:

^ its an equipment availability issue. If more than a couple of units are down for maintance then they are unable to run all double units at peak. Their is an equipment roster out there somewhere, the missing info is I have never seen a tally of how many trains are needed to provide peak service - this number is calculable from the schedule.

I was looking at the schedule yesterday and it is 57 min S-N and 59 min N-S, which is weird but whatever.  As you have noted, the BLE time is longer than originally stated/promised, which means more cars necessary to cover peak than originally thought.

I had a single car during early afternoon rush the other day.  Doesn't happen often.....I assume just due to maintenance/breakdown.....as kermit said.

 

[orulz]

May have missed it, but... has anybody done a clear analysis of why the run times are longer than stated? Were they forced to have slower than anticipated speed limits on N Tryon due to the grade crossings? Are the grade crossing gates not working properly? Are the vehicles not performing up to spec? BLE is a median running line but it is supposed to have full signal preemption so run times should be very predictable.

[tozmervo]

If someone can point me to a document that shows the originally advertised times, I will have an opportunity this week to ask CATS directly. 

[Hushpuppy321]

4 hours ago, nakers2 said:

I’ve seen that a few times, not really sure what’s up. Maybe they can run the trains tighter if they put a few single cars inbetween the standard trains. I’m just waiting for them to buck up and get to using three car trains, that would be nice.

I believe that CATS does plan to run three (3) car trains in the future (distant) but the older stations to the south need to be lengthened beforehand to accommodate longer trains.  I believe we definitely have enough Peak & Special Event ridership to justify it but just not yet ready infrastructure wise.

Edited January 9, 2019 by Hushpuppy321

[kermit]

1 hour ago, orulz said:

May have missed it, but... has anybody done a clear analysis of why the run times are longer than stated? Were they forced to have slower than anticipated speed limits on N Tryon due to the grade crossings? Are the grade crossing gates not working properly? Are the vehicles not performing up to spec? BLE is a median running line but it is supposed to have full signal preemption so run times should be very predictable.

IMO there are two big reasons for reduced speeds (and one small one).

The first is the N Tryon grade crossings, while they appear to be working as designed, their design is crappy. Car drivers waiting to turn left across the tracks frequently end up waiting on the wrong (unprotected) side of the gate, other drivers are clueless and stop under the gate before it is fully lowered and this will prevent the rail signaling system from showing the intersection as clear. The combination of these two things led CATS to reduce top speeds along N Tryon and has made the LRT operators extra cautious when approaching each intersection (further reducing speeds). IMO this issue could be corrected with reconfiguring the gates to get rid of the left turn lane gates and replace them with gates that parallel the tracks. 

The second issue is on station approaches on N Tryon. Trains will slow dramatically (and sometimes come to a full stop) before entering a median station (this does not happen at the non-median stations). I suspect this is caused by these stations only having a pedestrian entrance at one end at ground level. This leads to people ‘sneaking’ into the station through the emergency gates (or walking on the tracks) at the end without the entrance in order to save another 100 yards of walking. I think this happens just enough to make LRT drivers excessively cautious. 

The smaller issue is at the end of the line. The approach to UNCC main often includes two full stops to wait for dispatcher clearance and then switch movement before entering the station. Trains often will spend a full minute stationary outside the station. I don’t understand why its not just one stop. The signal clearing trains to head south from UNCC main is also about 10 south of the platform, so at every departure the train closes its doors and moves about 10 feet and then stops for a few seconds to wait for the signal — I don’t understand why they can’t wait for the green while waiting on the platform, its certainly not a line of sight issue.

tldr: I think it is crappy design and/or value engineering.

1 hour ago, Hushpuppy321 said:

I believe that CATS does plan to run three (3) car trains in the future (distant) but the older stations to the south need to be lengthened beforehand to accommodate longer trains.  I believe we definitely have enough Peak & Special Event ridership to justify it but just not yet ready infrastructure wise.

The current CATS plan for this is to finish station lengthening as part of the big bang (so it will be a while)

Edited January 9, 2019 by kermit