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Charlotte Gateway Station and Railroad Improvements


dubone

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  • 2 weeks later...

^ just guessing but I think timing of the 'real' station is entirely dependant on developer interest / the real estate cycle. Response to the city's rfp for the large development around the station will determine weather we get temporary or not. (again, just guessing).

IIRC the last rfp was killed off by uncertainty about space consumed by track relocations. That uncertanty should be resolved shortly.

This decision is a big deal for the city. It's one of the few 100+ year development decisions they will make and it will certainly shape the future development of uptown. Getting it right is more important than doing it quick.

Edited by kermit
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NCDOT says phase one of the Wilmore rail storage facility (sumitt ave) should be complete in August. Completion should allow the Carolinian to add a coach which will likely make it Amtrak's first profitable train outside of the corridor and Virginia. Has anyone been past to see the progress on the new tracks?  This project was stalled for so long I am a little dubious of NCDOT's claims.

https://www.ncdot.gov/projects/charlotteRailMaint/

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  • 3 weeks later...

Forgive me if this is not news, but I just noticed that the latest NCDOT STIP draft has funding for bunches of track work related to Gateway in 2018, plus about $10 million for an actual station and passenger service relocation slated for 2019. So maybe the temporary station plan is back on?

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  • 1 month later...

CBJ has a nice (but still paywalled) article on Gateway Station area plan development. There wasn't a ton of useful info,  final design for the tracks should be done in November, untility relocations begining in 'spring,' phase one is 'planned' to open in 2021 (but phase 1 does not (yet) include the actual station building). There was much discussion of development with 'up to' amounts of office (850,000 sqft), retail (14,000 sqft plus a bit more on the other side of the tracks), parking (900 space deck x2, + 400 spaces across the tracks), hotel (387,000 sqft) etc.  RFQ should be issued late this year with a developer selected 'by' summer of 2019. In short, all speculation. 

The most interesting part of the article was this rendering which I don't think we have seen before. Its a nice throwback to the really incredible loosing design (from L3P? Little) with the wavy roof from several years ago but significantly scaled down into a three story station building of 40,000 sqft.

https://www.bizjournals.com/charlotte/news/2017/08/25/whats-envisioned-for-private-development-around.html

 

main-block.jpg

and a massing showing the backside of the station plus what I believe is the hotel in the North Block section

 

north-block.jpg

Edited by kermit
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10 minutes ago, kermit said:

CBJ has a nice (but still paywalled) article on Gateway Station area plan development. There wasn't a ton of useful info (phase one with temporary station is 'planned' to open in 2021). There was much discussion of development with 'up to' amounts of office (850,000 sqft), retail (14,000 sqft plus a bit more on the other side of the tracks), parking (900 space deck x2, + 400 spaces across the tracks), hotel (387,000 sqft) etc.  RFQ should be issued late this year with a developer selected 'by' summer of 2019. In short, all speculation. 

The most interesting part of the article was this rendering which I don't think we have seen before. Its a nice throwback to the really incredible loosing design (from L3P?) with the wavy roof from several years ago but significantly scaled down into a three story station building of 40,000 sqft.

https://www.bizjournals.com/charlotte/news/2017/08/25/whats-envisioned-for-private-development-around.html

and a massing showing the backside of the station plus what I believe is the hotel in the North Block section

I believe the wavy roof scheme you are referring to was done by Little. 

I know it's a placeholder, but the wavy roof in this new rendering is... lackluster. It's designed like a space frame, but they still have brackets catching the edges of it. Just getting rid of those brackets would immediately make it a more appealing design. Anyway, I'm much more intrigued by the overall master planning. I like the rotunda aspect marking the station and the spaces it creates around the site. It makes it a notable location while letting the rest of the site fall into a grid-and-block pattern.

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Not sure if the full report has been posted yet:

http://charlottenc.gov/cats/transit-planning/charlotte-gateway-station/Documents/CGS MSAP - Final Report.pdf

It has a lot of additional detail/renderings.  I actually prefer the look of the combined train/bus station for the main block; it appears they abandoned that design due to it not being "iconic" enough..  Proposed timing:

  • 2018 - 2021: tracks and platform
  • 2019 - 2022: permanent station

Costs are expected to be $140M.

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5 minutes ago, Scribe said:

Interesting info - did anyone notice the "Future Third Track", many of the plans and elevations point to it.

Charlotte-Gateway_station-future-third-track-edit.thumb.PNG.8fb17f4655f44dec67d9122f697c11c4.PNG

 

I've been waiting for this update (this was supposed to post almost 6 months ago)...

Charlotte-Gateway_station-future-third-track.PNG

What caught my attention was that, future commuter rail would use a separate platform not connected to the main building.  But I didn't see it mentioned where this platform would be or what track it was use.  All reference I saw to the third track was for intercity expansion.

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^ Its not impossible that two Amtrak long distance routes (the Crescent and the Silver Meteor which could be rerouted through Charlotte) could (theoretically) have north and southbound trains at Gateway at the same time. If that happened to overlap w Piedmont service, things would get messy. Its also prudent to plan for additional trains to/from Atlanta at some point in the future.

The plan does discuss station phasing and they appear to have backed away from the temporary station plan. Instead phase '2b' involves building the permanent station building. Costs would be reduced via "shell only construction for plaza and mezzanine levels" Initial station costs under this plan are penciled in at $35.9 million. Canopy and platform add another $5 million  (pdf p 61)

EDIT: I didn't see the reference to the separate commuter track, what page was that?

EDIT 2: ahh, p 21

Quote
CATS continues to study the potential for commuter rail service that would operate from CGS. Even if commuter rail services were to be initiated in the future, commuter rail ridership is not reflected in the basis for calculating the desirable station building size, because commuter rail passengers would be served by a separate platform that is not accessed through the main station building waiting room. Typically, commuter rail passengers also arrive “just in time” for their train, and would not spend long periods of time waiting nor would require other services like baggage handling.

 

Edited by kermit
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@kermit  "

CATS continues to study the potential for commuter rail service that would operate from CGS. Even if commuter rail services were to be initiated in the future, commuter rail ridership is not reflected in the basis for calculating the desirable station building size, because commuter rail passengers would be served by a separate platform that is not accessed through the main station building waiting room. Typically, commuter rail passengers also arrive “just in time” for their train, and would not spend long periods of time waiting nor would require other services like baggage handling."
 
Page 17 5.3.1.1
Edited by Popsickle
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13 minutes ago, Scribe said:

But, one thing keeps popping up. What are your thoughts on 

  • Queen City Station
  • Charlotte Central Station

As a substitute for Charlotte Gateway Station?

As an intercity station 'Charlotte' has to be in the name,  so Queen City is a non-starter IMO.

Charlotte Central station is fine, assuming there are other Charlotte intercity or commuter stations -- so it would be fine if there were also an airport station (which is in the SEHSR plans) or a U City station (which is not in SEHSR plans, but Harrisburg has been discussed)

I have no problem with Gateway, I think it is a reasonable (if manufactured) neighborhood name and accurate description of the location.

Edited by kermit
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