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Every system in the country is reducing service. Does this mean Congress will abolish transit grants? No.

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except if they see transit as being able to bring more passengers to the airport without cutting existing demand. If demand for air service continues to rise (yes I know it has fallen the last year) then the airport might find it a win-win to assist transit

High Speed Rail funding by Congress should speed along the Intermodal facility in downtown Raleigh. It ought to be an eligible 100% federaly funded project expense -- the first leg should be Petersburg to Raleigh.

There is also a $1.5 billion competitive transportation grant program in the Stimulus package that the State may seek $80m out of to fund the CRISP project. It might also be eligible for HSR funds. Charlotte Gateway Station may also be eligible for funding. http://www.ncdot.org/download/about/financ...micStimulus.pdf "P-5002 10 Mecklenburg Statewide CRISP-Charlotte Rail Improvement and Safety Project. Grade separate NS from CSXT and provide crossing for CATS O-Line project, close 9 at-grade crossings, enhance freight, intermodal, commuter and intercity passenger access." I understand there may have been an engineering meeting yesterday in Charlotte with NS, NCDOT and CATS to talk about the CRISP project. This would improve rail access to the ports for CSX, and is also necessary for the North Line commuter rail. It is also part of bringing AMTRAK to uptown CLT. It meets several criteria in the $1.5b grant program Here are details on the $1.5b http://www.house.gov/billtext/hr1_legtext_cr.pdf p 226 discretionary grants to be awarded to State and local governments or transit agencies on a competitive basis for projects that will have a significant impact on the Nation, a metropolitan area, or a region: Provided further, That projects eligible for funding provided under this heading shall include, but not be limited to, highway or bridge projects eligible under title 23, United States Code, including interstate rehabilitation, improvements to the rural collector road system, the reconstruction of overpasses and interchanges, bridge replacements, seismic retrofit projects for bridges, and road realignments; public transportation projects eligible under chapter 53 of title 49, United States Code, including investments in projects participating in the New Starts or Small Starts programs that will expedite the completion of those projects and their entry into revenue service; passenger and freight rail transportation projects; and port infrastructure investments, including projects that connect ports to other modes of transportation and improve the efficiency of freight movement"

In addition to House Bill 148, the identical bill was filed in the Senate as Senate Bill 151. The list of sponsors will not be final until about noon Thursday as members have until then to sign on, but as of 6 pm Wednesday there were 22 (of 120) House sponsors and 18 (of 50) Senate sponsors. The Senate sponsors include all four co-chairs of the Finance Committee, which handles tax legislation, and six of the seven Triangle area Senators. Bruce Siceloff has a blog post at the N&O on the bills which you can add comments to.

I saw some of the tracks on Salisbury and Morgan Streets during a repaving project in the mid 80s. They were in bad shape.

Interestingly, there is now thought of moving High Speed Rail to the NS line from where the NS and CSX cross near Fairview down to what would be the downtown HSR passenger station. http://www.sehsr.org/railandhywdesign.html VA/NC Line to Raleigh (70 miles) The initial railroad horizontal and vertical designs are complete in this section. Preliminary highway designs proceeded from north to south, and were essentially complete in mid-2008. However, the study team began looking at an alternate rail entry into downtown Raleigh in mid-2008, using the Norfolk Southern corridor west of Capital Boulevard. Additional rail and roadway designs are required in this section, with completion expected in early 2009. Last updated December 2008.

Actually, the first push on restoring passenger rail transit came from Congressman Alex McMillan,who served from 1985-1993. I found a CharO editorial and news story from the early 1980s where McMillan was pushing to restore transit on the old Piedmont & Northern line from downtow Charlotte to Belmont and Gastonia. I think the CharO editorialized in favor of it a few times. The community was more interested in intra county plans than running the first segment to Gaston County.

The city and state's list of ready to go economic stimulus items both include the Sugar Creek bridge. Wonder if this project gets underway soon how much prep they can do for the NE line there at the same time. The detailed drawings for the NE line show separate NCRR and Lynx bridges over Sugar Creek Rd.

by this logic the 5% drop in vehicle miles traveled statewide should make it more difficult to get support for building any new roads. Certainly no need to finish I-485!

I suspect the exact location of this stop will depend on the UNC-C football stadium decision, as this is the corner of campus where a potential football stadium would be sited.

Saturday night (when they added extra service for the rush exiting the Panthers game) when the empty train inbound that passed us by at 11:39, the new interval message board said the next train inbound train would be in 19 minutes (which was probably the correct info for a normal Saturday night), which caused the inbound passengers to be upset at the announced wait, but as mentioned the next train came in six minutes (probably both the empy train and the train that picked us up were both added and not on the schedule)

I drove in from Raleigh Saturday, picked up near University City my son and his girlfriend who are UNC Charlotte students, and headed uptown. We parked in the Reid's parking deck on 7th Street (only $5 for the day), and walked over to Time Warner Cable Arena for the 1 pm Checkers game. After the game we went back to the car and picked up all the ponchos we brought for the rain, went to 7th Street Station and brought three roundtrips (gambling I guess that that the Panthers game would not go into O/T the signage clearly stated the R/Ts expired at midning, not at end of the days service at 1 am or so) (why?). We thought taking the light rail would be fun (they had never ridden), plus it meant if there was rain pre or post Panthers game we would have less time walking in the rain. We took the train to 3rd Street and had dinner, then walked to BoA stadium. After the game, we walked to the closest station, Stonewall, and walked up the outside stairs. Security asked for our tickets before we could get to the platform (the new fare zone rules), so we dug them out (what if we did not have them, How could we buy them if we could not get on the platform to get to the TVMs)(Maybe they would let you on the platform if you said you were going to buy a ticket?) Then we crossed the platform to take the inbound train back to 7th Street where my car was. There were about 50 people at the station waiting to go inbound, about 100 waiting to go outbound. At 11:39, an empty inbound train passed through the station without stopping. I asked the security why the 50 people were left standing in the station. He said the train was "out of service". I began to realize that, to save time, the train was not stopping to pick up inbound passengers so it could get to 7th Street to take outbound passengers. This seemed like pretty poor customer service to me. We waited about 6 more minutes and another train came that was taking inbound passengers. Now, most of the people at Stonewall were going to an uptown destination, which obviously could not be more than six blocks away, a few were planning to take the train in to stay on it and take it outbound without waiting in the crowd on the outbound platform. We were all paying customers (which means those going inbound to go out would in theory have to have an all day pass or be on the first leg of a round trip) Any thoughts on whether the "out of service" train should have been picking up passengers inbound? Oh, the best part of the Panthers game was exiting with 3 minutes left, on the ramps down from the 500 level one guy began shouting "Obama fix the Panthers"

I think there were a few parcels left to acquire.

It was emailed to me from two different people in spreadhseet format

I don't have any more information on this project. I assume this means the big shed downtown.

Here are the CLT area transit and rail stimulus projects approved by the State Board of Transportation on their economic stimulus wish list sent up. Note that a number of the rail projects would need to be done for the N and NE corridor transit projects. I note how in my opinion each RAIL piece might impact Charlotte's NE or N corridor. TRANSIT Charlotte Area TransitWest Corridor Enhanced Bus service/electronic signs $3,116,000 Charlotte Area TransitSustain downtown Charlotte Business shuttle $1,300,000 Charlotte Area TransitPurchase 60 buses off existing contract $30,000,000 Charlotte Area TransitRenovate existing Davidson Maintenance Facility & add new facility space for paratransit operations $25,000,000 Charlotte Area TransitAccelerate construction of Park & Ride facilities $10,000,000 Charlotte Area TransitModernize CATS' main Transit Hub in Charlotte's Center City $25,000,000 Charlotte Area TransitLYNX Blue Line Capacity Enhancements: purchase up to 12 LRVs; ticket vending machines; extend platform lengths; add shelters; information/advertising kiosks $110,000,000 Charlotte Area TransitCreate a sealed corridor in North Corridor from Charlotte to Mooresville (railroad grade crossing consolidation, signalization, quad gates and other enhancements) $30,000,000 RAIL Sugar Creek Road Grade Separation $34,000,000 (part of NE corridor project) CRISP-Charlotte Rail Improvement & Safety Project. Grade separate NS from CSXT and provide crossing for CATS O-Line project, close 9 at-grade crossings, enhance freight, intermodal, commuter and intercity passenger access. $80,000,000 (part of N line project, minor impact on NE line project as part of this relates to the NE line crossing the CXT) Charlotte Station leaving signal $1,000,000 Acquire ROW for future Charlotte Gateway Station $7,500,000 (part of N line project) Double-track 26.3 miles of NCRR between HPT and CLT $65,000,000 $65,000,000

To see the CLT area transit and rail stimulus projects approved by the State Board of Transportation on their economic stimulus wish list sent up, go to: http://www.urbanplanet.org/forums/Charlott...62#entry1035462 Many of them directly or indirectly relate to the NE corridor

There are actually two different railroads -- the North Carolina Railroad (NCRR) and the Aberdeen Carolina and Western (ACW). The NCRR tracks are leased to Norfolk Southern which is the operating company The ACW veers off to the Northeast at about 36th Street. The NS uses, in addition to the yard tracks, two or three thru tracks that serve freight and AMTRAK. If Southeast High Speed Rail ever arrives, this will necessitate two more tracks that do not mix with freight. The NCRR has a 200 foot ROW, the ACW has some of its own ROW but also shares some of the NCRR. This is why negotiations for the Northeast line will be complicated. Not to mention that the CSX crosses the NCRR ROW just north of 277. The plan for the Northeast extension is a bridge OVER the CSX.

The NC Tourism Division is now pitching the Blue line as a tourist attraction A snip from the promo piece: ".....Now, visitors to Charlotte are also discovering the convenience of light rail, which allows people to attend events, go shopping, or spend an evening out on the town without the hassle and expense of finding or paying for parking. In fact, with a light rail station just steps away from the Time-Warner Cable Arena, visitors and residents have been able to enjoy professional and collegiate sports, see big-name concerts (such as The Rolling Stones, U2, and Tim McGraw), or attend family events like the Doodlebops without having to drive Uptown at all. ..... Here are a few ideas for a day (or night) of exploring the Queen City by light rail. ....."

There is a flickr group for photos of the Lynx South line. Looks to be 500+ photos up already

June 26 Wake Transit forum http://wakeupwakecounty.com/cms/node/83 TRANSIT: Is Wake County Ready for it? A community forum on transit issues. Thursday, June 26, 7-9:30 pm NCSU McKimmon Center, Raleigh Hosted by the following Community Partners: WakeUP Wake County, Downtown Housing Improvement Corp., North Carolina Conservation Network, Raleigh-Wake Citizens Association, Sierra Club Capital Group, Society for Women Environmental Professionals, Women in Transportation Seminar - NC Triangle Chapter Forum highlights: Keynote speaker: Carol Coletta, CEO - CEO for Cities and host of NPR syndicated program, Smart Cities, and national urbanism expert "By choice or by chance. How can transit help us plan for a future of growth?" Discussion by community business leaders on how transit can provide economic opportunities for Wake County Overview of new proposal for regional transit in Wake and the Triangle NC Gubernatorial Candidates invited to present views on transit The purpose of the forum is to discuss the opportunities and potential of transit in Wake County and the Triangle. Please come learn, ask questions and participate in the community discussion! register here: http://wakeupwakecounty.com/cms/node/83/eventregistration

There was some discussion earlier this year about NS relocating the Glenwood Yard to the Clayton area along the NCRR ROW, but that Clayton yard proposal met with a lot of resistance from people in that area and seems to have been dropped. The current NS line from Boylan to the interlocking on Capital Blvd would be taken out of operation, and NS and the new short line operations to Wilson would use the CSX ROW to get to and fro.