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Charlotte's Light Rail: Lynx Blue Line

dubone

By dubone
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RVA2CLT Whistle-Stop

RVA2CLT

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I bet Ole Patty McCheese is feeling pressure from Raleigh's transit proponents crying:

"Why does Charlotte get all the state money for transit?! They already have LTR and receiving more stated funds to lengthen it, at the same time they have their own funds to build a street-car line from scratch! When do we, the capital city, get state money to even begin our LTR?!"

 

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GoldenEagle128
GoldenEagle128

Just some before and after photos of the view of uptown and the blue line from 11th street. Definitely a big difference!

kermit
kermit
tozmervo
tozmervo

Posted Images

Norm2 Burg

Norm2

Posted
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The construction summary timeline is here:

 

http://charmeck.org/city/charlotte/cats/planning/BLE/projectfacts/Documents/2012%200723%20-%20BL45%20Construction%20Summary.pdf

 

It looks like utility relocation is happening now. The first ROW construction looks to begin in November (around UNCC)

So according to that chart, construction should be finished by the beginning of 2017. Four years seems like it is very far away!

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kermit Metropolitan Area

kermit

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So according to that chart, construction should be finished by the beginning of 2017. Four years seems like it is very far away!

Four years is more than twice as long as it took to build the transcontinental railroads -- and those were built during the Civil War!

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DEnd Whistle-Stop

DEnd

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Four years is more than twice as long as it took to build the transcontinental railroads -- and those were built during the Civil War!

 

 

Those were also built for national security reasons (one of the reasons the North won was due to its superior use of the railways in transporting troops and equipment). Those also had much cheaper labor, and a lot less stringent engineering requirements. They also didn't have roads and other infrastructure, which has to basically be kept operational, to deal with.

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grodney Town

grodney

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Hey, (sorta) fun story:  

 

A couple Fridays ago I boarded the 3pm outbound home from work.  It was crowded, so I wedged my laptop (in a backpack case) between the high seats and the glass divider thingy.  I do this sometimes to: 1) Make more room and avoid bashing people with it, and 2) Take a load off since I ride to 485.  Yes, I have always understood that I'm taking a risk by doing this.

 

As people got on/off, I got separated from it a bit.  Not a huge deal -- I always check at every stop to make sure it's still there.  Well I'm engrossed in my phone as we get to Arrowwood.  A bunch of people get off, I look over, and of course it's gone.  

 

I dashed off the train, spotted the culprit skulking away, and gave out my best "HEY!" which isn't too shabby for such a scrawny guy as me.  He actually stopped and turned around and mumbled something like "oh is this yours?" as I came up on him.  After I grabbed it back and we had a mini-staredown, he finally said "What?".  All I could muster was a I'm-so-disappointed-in-you-as-a-part-of-society head-shake as I turned around and went back to the train.  The doors were closed, but I think the operator was watching the whole thing as she hadn't moved yet, so I opened the doors and end of story.

 

I guess the moral is:  Watch your valuables -- there's a bunch of savages out there.  Even on our fair train in our fair city in the middle of Friday afternoon.

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orulz City

orulz

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I bet Ole Patty McCheese is feeling pressure from Raleigh's transit proponents crying:

"Why does Charlotte get all the state money for transit?! They already have LTR and receiving more stated funds to lengthen it, at the same time they have their own funds to build a street-car line from scratch! When do we, the capital city, get state money to even begin our LTR?!"

 

I disagree.

 

We here in Raleigh know exactly why our transit is not moving forward: the Wake County Commission has not allowed a referendum on a transit sales tax. The issues holding us back right now are 100% local.

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LKN704 Burg

LKN704

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On the construction chart, near the bottom, there is a row that says "System Fare Collection (Project Wide)". CATS isn't installing fare gates, are they? Thinking about it, the date on the chart seems to be in line with the dates on the 3-car capacity expansion, so maybe we will see them put in place system wide.

Edited by LKN704
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kermit Metropolitan Area

kermit

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Out of curisoity does anyone know what rules CATS uses for dispatching the extra equipment sets it stores at 9th street for Bobcats games?

(in other words does it send one set South 5 minutes after the end of the game and the next 10 minutes later or what? What about the regularly scheduled unit?)

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grodney Town

grodney

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Does anyone know the story on ridership numbers?  The below quote is from Wikipedia.  Has ridership really dropped this much?  Or did APTA change their methodology for counting?

 

"By the end of the first quarter of 2008, weekday ridership had increased to 18,600.  Daily ridership continued to climb through the fall of 2008 due to increasing gasoline prices, peaking at 22,300 in the third quarter.  For 2009, Lynx saw a decrease in daily ridership from 19,700 to 19,500 passengers per day. As of the third quarter of 2012, the American Public Transportation Association (APTA) has Lynx daily ridership at 15,900."

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kermit Metropolitan Area

kermit

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^ I don't know about the ridership numbers (although ridership feels like it has increased, not decreased, to me). I do know that the wiki page for the lynx has always been a political battleground where pro and con folks have been aggressive about selectivly presenting information.

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kermit Metropolitan Area

kermit

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^ while I do have some confidence in theAPTA data (but not as much confidence in the ability of wikipedia contributors to interpret them) I wanted to get a feel for what 15,192 riders per weekday looks like:

Checking the Lynx schedule reveals that there are 180 trains per weekday (90 in each direction)

15,192 riders / 180 trains = 84.4 riders per train (not per vehicle -- most rush hour trains have two vehicles)

This number feels small to me. IIRC the cars have a capacity of 250 each. When you consider that some riders get on in places like Arrowwood and hop off at places like Woodlawn 84 riders per train feels like an underestimate.

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grodney Town

grodney

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I don't remember it ever breaking 19k. I think it did get into the 18k area when gas was insane back in 2008.

 

That's why I'm asking if they changed their methodology?

 

The same APTA reports from 2008 clearly show it over 22K during the gas thing and in the 19Ks in 2009.  While they show only 15.9K now.  

 

 

 
 
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grodney Town

grodney

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Okay, I went through the PDFs from APTA, and here's what I found.

 

Year     Q1      Q2      Q3      Q4
2008    18.6    20.3    22.3    21.7
2009    19.7    20.2    20.0    19.5
2010    19.2    21.6    20.2    14.1
2011    14.3    15.4    15.1    14.6
2012    15.0    15.5    15.9
 

Looks like something changed in Q4 2010.   That's makes the Wikipedia wording (intentional or not) look pretty dumb.

Edited by grodney
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grodney Town

grodney

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My best guess: Prior to Q4 2010, they were taking TOTAL trips (ALL days) and dividing by # of WEEKDAYS and reporting that as the weekday number.  But starting in Q4 2010, they are taking the TOTAL trips and multiplying by 5/7, then dividing by the # of weekdays, and reporting that as the weekday number.

 

I hope that's not right.  But the numbers are about 5/7 of what they were.  Both those methods would be wrong, wouldn't they?

Edited by grodney
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