Charlotte's Light Rail: Lynx Blue Line

[QClifer]

Needs to happen more often

[t_money]

6 hours ago, navigator319 said:

Here’s to hoping we thin the heard by one. Darwinism in action. We prob get stuck with his medical bill also. Seems like good chance someone that does this does not carry insurance as well.

 

 

4 hours ago, QClifer said:

Needs to happen more often

We shouldn't be wishing death on people. Even if they are making bad decisions. That seems totally uncalled for.

[Durhamite]

33 minutes ago, t_money said:

 

We shouldn't be wishing death on people. Even if they are making bad decisions. That seems totally uncalled for.

It's all CATS fault!  They had an opportunity to purchase a state-of-the-art AI neural  inference machine with a nascent telepathic dual processing algorithm that could intercept/capture fragile (human) decision-making which in essence would mitigate or avoid such incidents.  Essentially wiping out those massive 1-3 minute delays between stations.     It was only half a mill.   #Do Better CATS

[kermit]

Kermit is live, on the scene,  bringing you all the news that matters:

4:59: sat down w my pizza at Blaze (I can do without your judgement -- I missed lunch)

5:00: A driver of a white SUV takes out crossing gate on westbound West and blasts through the intersection. Two pedestrians do their best to move the gate out of traffic.

5:02: CATS rental cops are at the gate. They finish moving gate out of the street and begin directing traffic

5:07: CATS ‘managerly’  looking repair guy is on scene (parked at future Furman building)

5:15: finish pizza (I can still do without your judgement)

5:17: actual CATS repair guys arrive and begin work. They parked at Walgreens (which was a good call)

5:21: Gate has been reassembled and is now in working order. The busted gate basically bolted right back on -- good job on fastener choices guys!

5:23: First train through since repair. gate is back in business

Honestly I am very impressed with their one-pizza response time. Particularly at rush hour.

#NiceJobCATS 

 

 

 

Edited September 18, 2019 by kermit

[tozmervo]

17 minutes ago, kermit said:

#NiceJobCATS 

what'd they put in that pizza?  I need some of that. 

[nakers2]

21 hours ago, kermit said:

Kermit is live, on the scene,  bringing you all the news that matters:

4:59: sat down w my pizza at Blaze (I can do without your judgement -- I missed lunch)

5:00: A driver of a white SUV takes out crossing gate on westbound West and blasts through the intersection. Two pedestrians do their best to move the gate out of traffic.

5:02: CATS rental cops are at the gate. They finish moving gate out of the street and begin directing traffic

5:07: CATS ‘managerly’  looking repair guy is on scene (parked at future Furman building)

5:15: finish pizza (I can still do without your judgement)

5:17: actual CATS repair guys arrive and begin work. They parked at Walgreens (which was a good call)

5:21: Gate has been reassembled and is now in working order. The busted gate basically bolted right back on -- good job on fastener choices guys!

5:23: First train through since repair. gate is back in business

Honestly I am very impressed with their one-pizza response time. Particularly at rush hour.

#NiceJobCATS 

 

 

 

CATS, like many transit systems has a very good maintenance and repair team. They have multiple facilities to maintain and make sure the buses and light rain vehicles, and soon streetcars, are in good working order. They also have contingencies to make sure a stalled train or some other track issue wont shut down the line, and in a worst case scenario, a bus is almost always waiting in the wings to fill in the gaps. 

The main issue with CATS is the management. Our surrounding towns and counties are largely on board with major transit projects into their locales, I would even dare to speculate that heavy rail, not just light rail could work in Charlotte's future, especially among high traffic corridors rather than growth corridors like South Boulevard and North Tryon.  CATS seems relatively inept, however, in even running what they've got. Yeah they can fix a gate in 20 mins, but why can't they run trains every 10 all day? Yeah they can put up a bus bridge at the drop of a hat, but why do I have to wait 45 mins for a bus on the weekend? I think CATS is capable of running a full scale, rail heavy transit system in the coming decade, but whether they can run it with common sense, and make it palatable to the off peak commuter, the weekend warrior, the barfly, etc, that is the ultimate question. 

[tozmervo]

I think there's a significant misunderstanding about what CATS can do versus what they want to do. There are 46 individual light rail vehicles. Many of them are now 12 years old with over 600,000 miles of service. At any given time, several are out of service for routine maintenance, and some may be out for unplanned maintenance.  Then they have to have a reserve that can go into service if one on the line has a malfunction, someone gets sick in it, or it is otherwise incapacitated. Once you back all of that out and then double up vehicles into two-car trains, you have maxed out CATS capacity for light rail vehicles. If you see a single car train at rush hour, the simple answer is because CATS - for whatever reason - had to take a vehicle out of service that put them under-capacity. 

CATS would be delighted to run double car trains at smaller headways all day long, but the money simply isn't available to a) buy more of these $5 million vehicles and b) pay for the extra conductors & maintenance staffing. 

Case in point, they are currently making  a $33 million ask of MTC to help advance the "Envision my Ride" goals to reduce bus headways across the system. Take note of how many additional busses all of these strategies require.

I'm far from arguing that CATS can be held harmless for everything (the BLE travel time is a particular sticking point), but it drives me crazy when complaints about headways, etc, should really be directed at our government representatives that give CATS the budget it has to work with. They can't spend money they don't have. 

 

[kermit]

1 hour ago, tozmervo said:

I'm far from arguing that CATS can be held harmless for everything (the BLE travel time is a particular sticking point), but it drives me crazy when complaints about headways, etc, should really be directed at our government representatives that give CATS the budget it has to work with. They can't spend money they don't have. 

Yea, I mostly agree on the budget and equipment stuff. But, as you mention, BLE speeds are a huge part of the problem. It looks to me (I am just an observer, its very possible I am misinterpreting) like the below-design speeds on the BLE made CATS’ original equipment order insufficient to deliver the planned frequencies  (originally 10 minutes off peak and 7 minutes peak, I believe).  I think those frequencies were budgeted for when the line opened. If so its these extended running times that required CATS to run  awful frequencies. I blame the situation on failures somewhere in the BLE construction and acceptance process -- the BLE opening delay was a big PR hit and they just didn't want to take another one.  At this point it looks to me like CATS is trying to revise history to make it appear they are doing what they said they would do, but they are just trying to bury their mistakes. To be fair, CATS has been working on signals on the BLE lately, so perhaps they are trying to bring speeds up to what was designed.

TLDR: I believe 7 and 10 minute frequencies were budgeted for by the MTC, but bad execution on BLE construction and design  means CATS can’t make it happen.

Edited September 18, 2019 by kermit

[grodney]

I was just checking the Light Rail schedule and noticed they FINALLY changed it from "INBOUND" and "OUTBOUND" to something else.

So now under "Direction" it lists UNCC and 485.....but doesn't indicate if it's "from" or "to"!!!  Hahahahahahaaha.  Good try though??

 

[Desert Power]

2 hours ago, grodney said:

I was just checking the Light Rail schedule and noticed they FINALLY changed it from "INBOUND" and "OUTBOUND" to something else.

So now under "Direction" it lists UNCC and 485.....but doesn't indicate if it's "from" or "to"!!!  Hahahahahahaaha.  Good try though??

 

Just North or South 

[southslider]

Head signs list where you're headed. 

 

[davidclt]

3 hours ago, grodney said:

I was just checking the Light Rail schedule and noticed they FINALLY changed it from "INBOUND" and "OUTBOUND" to something else.

So now under "Direction" it lists UNCC and 485.....but doesn't indicate if it's "from" or "to"!!!  Hahahahahahaaha.  Good try though??

 

Yet they still can't update the maps in their cars. (This was taken last Wednesday)

[kermit]

Having another very late lunch at Blaze and I gotta admit, the Blue Line is an impressive thing when it’s working well. Trains going past every 8 minutes like clockwork. Every Southbound is full, disruptions to East blvd traffic are minimal. All this while a bunch of streets uptown are closed.

Nice job CATS, now how about more of this.

EDIT: Turns out the beauty is only visible from a distance. As I walked through the station on my way home I saw a UNCC-bound train roll in just as the "Next train to UNCC in five minutes" announcement came across the PA

 

Edited September 30, 2019 by kermit

[CLT>]

On 9/23/2019 at 2:32 PM, grodney said:

I was just checking the Light Rail schedule and noticed they FINALLY changed it from "INBOUND" and "OUTBOUND" to something else.

So now under "Direction" it lists UNCC and 485.....but doesn't indicate if it's "from" or "to"!!!  Hahahahahahaaha.  Good try though??

 

Still inbound or outbound on the app. Every time I've asked if they've planned on changing it they just always explain that outbound is to 485 and inbound is to Uptown....

[kermit]

Phil Dubois likes the train. (Crappy photo but the loafers give him away)

 

Edited October 3, 2019 by kermit

[kermit]

I hate to say this out loud but it feels like operations over the past two weeks have been pretty consistent (says a guy who rides from East/West to UNCC).

There is still a little work going on at crossing gates on N Tryon, but trains seem to be showing up when they should and with relatively few slow zones.

Sure would like better mid day frequencies and getting rid of the stupid 10 second door delay rule but I am pleased to see the Blue Line moving in the right direction.

#NotReallyEnoughDataToDetectATrend

[videtur quam contuor]

Does DuBois take the campus shuttle from the rail station?

[kermit]

21 minutes ago, tarhoosier said:

Does DuBois take the campus shuttle from the rail station?

Dunno, I had to stop at the Waffle House first.

Phil decided not to join me at the counter.

[davidclt]

1 hour ago, kermit said:

pleased to see the Blue Line moving in the right direction.

Which direction is that? Inbound or outbound?

Morning headways still feel like they're notably longer than 7-8 minutes but that observation is anecdotal. I'm wondering if the upcoming track work coming up October 19-20th will get things running on an even more timely basis and possibly more smoothly?  (This is per the CATSRideTransit Twitter account which is otherwise useless)

[SgtCampsalot]

So the 25th St Bridge, a Blue Line NECI project, seems to be underway... Finally!

This mechanic's old 18-wheelers that were parked here are gone now. Utility trucks have been out on both sides of the creek doing stuff, here's one parked...

And some temporary(?) poles seem to have gone up in Alta Warp & Weft's back lawn... Wonder how they feel about that (I didn't ask) 

Edited October 4, 2019 by SgtCampsalot

[Desert Power]

FINALLY!

[InSouthPark]

2 hours ago, SgtCampsalot said:

So the 25th St Bridge, a Blue Line NECI project, seems to be underway... Finally!

https://charlottenc.gov/Projects/Pages/25thStreetConnection.aspx

09/09/2019

Utility relocation is complete and this project is now in the bid phase. During this phase, the City uses a competitive bidding process to procure the services of contractors needed to build the project. By state law, the lowest responsible bidder is awarded the construction contract. 

Construction is expected to start by the end of 2019 and will be complete in early 2021.

 

[videtur quam contuor]

I pulled down 25th on Sunday looking for progress and there was none. Those orange portable markers are since then, this week.

[davidclt]

Train rebooting coming northbound out of 3rd St. /Convention Center. I wonder if these are the ongoing "mechanical difficulties"?  I'm trying to figure out why this is so hard for CATS? 

[nakers2]

Rode the train late last night for no other reason than cruise around. Parked my car at 36th street (considered taking a bus to uptown but I wanted to stop and grab a snack at 7/11 on the Plaza first) and rode to East/West to show my brother some of the construction around there. Late night during the week, the 20 min headways seem sufficient. However during the day, even during off hours, I should be able to hop on the platform and not even need to check the timetable. There were also a reasonable number of riders, and we had a random check come thru. 

Not sure if it's because it's late and there are few trains running, but the ETA announcements were all over the place. It went from telling us 7 mins, to 5, to 3, and there wasn't even a 1 min announcement within about a 4-5 min time-span. The ride was also speedy and smooth, even past 7th, I also noticed bus 3 at 36th street was waiting both when we left and came back, presumably coordinating, or at least waiting on the train to drop off their passengers and potential transfers.