kermit

Yes. The Graham st tracks were the original plan. But in the two decades the Red Line was dormant: 1) NS stopped maintaining the tracks south of Atando 2) NS pulled up the tracks at the CSX diamond and through ADM (NS still owns this ROW, but reconstruction won't be a small effort) 3) CSX decided against taking the awarded $250 million federal grant that would have funded grade separating CSX and NS (the absence of this separation will significantly limit the number of Red Line trains that can be run since CSX freights will still need to cross the diamond) 4) The state decided not to install the necessary crossovers that would allow trains coming off the Graham st tracks to access the existing Gateway Station platform. Even worse, I believe the city pulled the plug on an additional Gateway Station platform that was planned specifically for Red Line trains (my knowledge of this platform is pretty fuzzy) Running the Red Line on the Atando spur would skip Camp Northend, but using Atando would be much cheaper and faster way to get service running on the Red Line. I would bet that Atando is used for a few years before the lower Graham section gets renegotiated and rebuilt. For the image below: top circle is where tracks currently end. Middle circle shows removed at grade crossing of both Music Factory blvd and CSX Bottom circle shows removed connection to NS main and Gateway Station All of these things are fixable, but these replacements will be quite difficult given the number of landowners involved and two active railways.

The feasibility report for Raleigh-Wilmington passenger rail has been released: https://static1.squarespace.com/static/649c7228e2109c2801c8f2f3/t/6622fb82122a1e1538343ded/1713568652062/SENC+Passenger+Rail+Feasibility+Study+DRAFT+20240417.pdf The chosen routing is via Goldsboro rather than Fayetteville (no surprise). Tracks are planned to be built to class 4 (80mph passenger trains). Travel time is estimated to be 2:35. Ridership estimated at 80,000 per year at three round trips per day (Piedmont carries about 290,000) EDIT: I am confused about how ridership is discussed in the report, not sure what numbers are appropriate to report yet. Cost is estimated at $810 million. The press is making all kinds of noises about this in comparison to historic estimates but honestly this strikes me as a bargain and I would think federal funds will be available for this. There is some talk of the benefits of reopening a second freight route to Wilmington (the Fayetteville route would not) and the Department of Defense would be very happy about redundant rail access to Sunny Point. I doubt CSX would be willing to sell their portion of these tracks, but if they did it would be possible to have the port served by more than one freight carrier, this would make a huge difference to shipping traffic and help to pay for much of the track maintenance costs EDIT: jthomas scoped me by seconds. Damn.

No tenants? No problem! They might have the ability to generate positive cash flow from parking alone: (This does piss me off, I gotta walk past that new curb cut pretty frequently (along w most other Blue Line riders in the hood). This is a nonzero increase in my odds of becoming a victim of car violence. IMO NIMBYism is 100% about the noxiousness of cars)

Charlotte Mag has a good, if somewhat bitter, recounting of NoDa from the 1990s. Worth a read but it won't make you feel any better about the current state of the neighborhood. https://www.charlottemagazine.com/the-noda-that-was-the-loss-of-an-arts-district/ I had lunch at Brook's today, I'll really miss it when its gone. I arrived in Charlotte in 2000 and was looking for a house. I had narrowed my choices down to NoDa or 'lesser Dilworth' (pre-McMansion McDonald ave). The houses were essentially the same price at the time (roughly $130 per square foot). Ultimately I choose Dilworth since there were sidewalks (!?) and the housing stock was significantly better (most of the mill houses in NoDa were appealingly renovated at the time). I regretted my choice for a few years (NoDa was substantially cooler -- Pat's still existed then), but as I drove through the NoDa bar district after lunch today I felt like I made the right choice (granted I am 25 years older now). EDIT: CLT_Development does make the point on twitter that NoDa is considerably more walkable today than it was in the 1990s-- this is indeed a very positive change.

not trying to be dismissive of the DEI stuff at all but it is clear that the politicization of the UNC system has already done significant damage to our reputation. The most recent example I have is I was involved in 3 faculty searches this year. We interviewed a total of 10 candidates on campus, only one of our first choices accepted our offers. 4 others turned us down. Most cited the political climate of NC and the UNC System as the reason why. I have been involved in lots of faculty searches over the past 20+ years at UNCC and this volume of rejection is unprecedented. The strongest economic development engine the state has ever had is just limping along. The tide has clearly turned.

The Gastonia Atlantic League Baseball team is still nameless, they say they will audition possible team names in each of the first seven homestands. The first name (May 14-19) will be: Makes me think of MoonPies, Sundrop and Fish Camps. Its a 3 out of 10 for me, but I don't hate it. I am impressed they were able to find new ownership and get things going for this season.

Despite all the signs that public money is rapidly drying up, Jerry Reisendorf appears to be actively ‘Oaklandizing’ the White Sox. A few more months of this (along w Las Vegas voters saying no to stadium money) and both Charlotte and Raleigh could have MLB at the cost of a few thousand bucks and a fistful of Bojangles coupons.

Axios sorta reports that the Blue Line will be run at 12 peak period frequencies sometime in the completely unspecified future: https://www.axios.com/local/charlotte/2024/04/15/blue-line-light-rail-frequency-when-headways-minutes Digression: I remain deeply confused that collections of words, without any details, insight or sourcing at all are considered to be journalism these days. Shrug, maybe I am just old. Anyway, more trains is good, but we are still a long way from 7-10 minute trains we were running pre-pandemic. If we want ridership to be back at those levels, we gotta run that many trains.

Here is an indication that even Las Vegas voters are going to say no to public money for the A's stadium. (sample size of the poll was only 500 people however) https://www.kron4.com/news/bay-area/poll-more-than-half-of-las-vegas-voters-oppose-public-funding-for-new-as-stadium/

Thanks so much for the clarification. This certainly makes the budget more logical. It also makes clear that my concerns are not really driven by the project itself, rather there were driven by how the press (in this case a Joe Bruno tweet) present the project. When discussing these projects we really should be clearer that substantial portions of these costs are going to maintaining car culture (in this case resurfacing all the lanes of the bridge), rather than 100% going towards bike infrastructure. I was also unaware that the pieces of the Cross Charlotte trail were already complete on both side of the bridge. I am completely on board with this project now.

At the risk of digressing, here is more detail than anyone needs on the Atando 'spur': (I don't believe it is technically a spur since it was originally the start of the Atlantic, Tennessee and Ohio (ATANDO) railway (it only got built as far as Satesville before bankruptcy) The 'spur' is the only currently active connector from the NS main line (the leased NCRR) to the NS O-Line which goes to Winston-Salem and on to Virginia and DC. This line is largely unused at the moment, but NS has refused to sell it (thus the problems w the Red Line), since they use it as negotiating leverage on their leased main line on the NCRR. Other than negotiating leverage, there is very little probability of the O-line ever being used for more freight than moves on it currently. The O-Line could potentially be used for Charlotte-Winston intercity rail as well (NCDOT applied for a route planning grant for it, but did not receive it. They said they would try again) NS has a loose policy of not permitting more at-grade crossings of their tracks. This is driven by insurance/risk management, and also by their desire to preserve these particular tracks as a (theoretically) possible replacement main line. The O-Line tracks originally connected to the NS main in uptown by traveling alongside Graham St, through the middle of Camp North End and then to the ADM facility at the edge of Uptown (see first diagram below). This trip involves crossing the CSX tracks at grade. NS stooped using these tracks 10+ years ago, to reduce conflicts with CSX and track traffic at the ADM facility. The ARRA track improvement grants from 2009 funded putting the CSX tracks into a ditch and running them under both the O-Line and the NS main. But CSX decided the separation was not necessary so the money was moved elsewhere, so the conflict between CSX and two NS lines remains. Because of the near-abandonment (NS still owns them) of the O-Line tracks from Atando into uptown, and the conflicts in Camp Northend, CSX and ADM running the Red Line down the Atando spur to take the roundabout route to Gateway Station has been discussed. This is not to say the choice is definite, but there is reason enough to assume the tracks may be used for many more trains than present. There is a set of passenger by-pass tracks through the NS yard that have been designed (and almost funded by the ARRA grants) that would make the Atando route to Gateway faster than it currently appears. Gateway station tracks were originally designed to have a platform on the far side (the I-77 side) of the NS tracks for Red Line trains. I am not sure it this platform is still in the planning stages, but if the Atando spur is not used to get Red Line trains into uptown, a new crossover would need to be built on the NS main for Red Line trains to reach the existing platform. This will be a big PITA, will irritate NS, and will also interfere with intercity trains. (see second diagram below) Should the Red Line run on the Atando spur, I suspect CATS would rebuild the bridge / culvert that Little Sugar Creek runs through under the tracks. There would be opportunity for an underpass for the trail (just like on the LSC Greenway in Midtown. It would certainly flood all the time, but would probably be a better option than a stupid spiral bridge) Gateway Station Closeup

There is a significant chance the Red Line will use those tracks

Something about driving and sustainability and cars being bad or somesuch. Keep this up and the cost of living in Charlotte and Atlanta will converge on NYC, and Chicago… Whip Inflation Now! Ebikes and transit for everyone!

OK, this would make the $5,000 per foot price for a bike track somewhat more reasonable. I do wonder if we are spending our bike infrastructure money wisely. Seems like its really just being used on spotty big-ticket items (eg uptown track, Belk ped bridge and this) and we are still left with a disjointed network (no cross-Charlotte). I do see how this particular segment is a critical and necessary piece of the puzzle though, so I am not sure what I think.

1) Hurray, I am very glad to see a MUCH needed bike project get built! 2) Help me understand how a half a mile of cycle track (which goes through ONE intersection) can cost $25 million per mile to build and take three years. I understand construction cost inflation is high. But really, $25million for a mile of cycle track on an existing roadway????? WTF? How is this not a two day project?