ajfunder

Thought some here would enjoy. Charlotte Railroading, captured over the last two days.

Caught three separate people hopping the fence and crossing the tracks with cases of beer tonight. Two walking down to Sycamore and one walking back to Tripple C

New Piedmont Schedule with the additional frequency. Effective June 4th.

In regard to the tunnel subject, I really don't foresee a north-south tunnel ever really being necessary unless multiple lines get routed on the current alignment, and even then I don't think it would be needed. Denver street runs at grade the H, D, F, and L light rail lines on the center city loop just fine. The solution there was to just think of the light rail as another vehicle intersection and to schedule the trains accordingly. In contrast, Charlotte's alignment is far superior with the multiple grade separations and protected crossings. It really doesn't get much better for light rail then the alignment through uptown. Also, in regards to longer stations, I would say if needed, cut 7th and 9th and place a new one in the park. Would require closing 8th but I don't think that would be a huge loss.

Freight traffic is much lower on the the NCRR North(east) of Greensboro and thus does not warrant double track at this time. The Charlotte to Greensboro segment is part of the NS Crescent corridor which branches off (due North) from the NCRR at Greensboro. The Piedmont improvement corridor between Greensboro and Raleigh included longer passing sidings, maybe a few additional ones, and higher speed switches so trains don't have to slow as much.

Southbound trains are entering yard limits here and thus through trains must slow down due to safety reasons. Inbound (Charlotte Yard) must also slow down because the yard lead and associated switches require even slower speeds to navigate. Also, there is AT&O junction where the O Line comes in to the mainline which occasionally slows mainline traffic.

Not at all, as long as the corridor is preserved for freight operations to some extent. What is happening at CSX is a disaster IMO unfolding before our eyes, but the railroad itself may benefit from a shortline/city partnership.

NS would never do something this shortsighted and dumb though (at least with present management), especially with the amount of traffic they move through Charlotte. CSX's current management is a dumpster fire and they are using slash and burn tactics to artificially inflate stock prices. Eventually, the whole thing is going to come tumbling down (after the current management group has made a quick buck of course).

A few sources of mine says the city is aiming to start bridge expansion and other station prep work in the next 4-6 months.

New NCDOT passenger rail facility. The building looks to be complete and track Work is coming along.

I live in Colorado now and one of our local rail lines was just shut down for a single week. In that week the railroad replaced most of the ties, a lot of rail, and installed PTC on 64 miles of track through extremely remote mountain territory. Then there is Balfour Beatty struggling to replace ties on 9 miles (18 with the 2nd track) of track. They really are dragging there feet.

While I would like to see a few more tracks, three is going to be more than enough for the foreseeable future. Gateway, unlike Denver will not be a stub end design meaning trains can pass through the station. This opens the door for staging at the Amtrak facility at Summit and trains don't actually need to dwell at the station for long prior to departure.

I think it has gotten bigger, that might be why you have noticed them. They are from NS tie replacement projects.

Removal of the switch leading to the Atherton Mill spur.

So they were tearing up track at Trade and Caldwell Today as part of the repair blitz this weekend. I've always been suspect of some of the gold line track work, but there is no reason why steel reinforced, concrete slab track should have to be replaced after only two years of service if it had been constructed properly.

I have a very good source that says the BCycle system should double within the next year.

Could they also make it compatible with Microsoft Surface because it presently is not supported for some weird reason.

Decided to take some railroad Charlotte shots last night. Here are a few exposure photos. A CSX Freight blurs the skyline view from ADM. Amtrak 79 "The Carolinian" Arrives from New York underneath the new Blue Line Flyover.

WSOC claimed that they could only replace 30 ties a day. I am fairly familiar with railroad construction techniques and I know for a fact more ties than that can be replaced in a day. I have seen the freight railroads replace a few hundred in a mere few hours with all the mechanized equipment available today. Also they are really taking their times relocating the NCRR tracks. The new tracks are in place but not connected yet.

No, the brick pavers were just installed. They are here to stay. The ultimate vision for the Rail Trail is to be a shared path giving equal access to cyclists and pedestrians. Would I like to see some separation, yes, is it in the plans, no. But in South End the city and CCCP are studying how to create alternate bike thoroughfares on streets which are more for commuting purposes rather than the mixed use nature of the trail.

I would argue that Park Road is undergoing massive change and that the Park Road line would do fairly well because there are already destinations as well as the developing bar district on Montford. The hospital is also a massive employer. Not all transportation must correlate to redevelopment, although it is certainlet a nice bonus.

I guess shopping center since it's only a little further. I have always thought that the Scott/Kenilworth one-way set up would be perfect for a streetcar alignment. That line would serve Stonewall, Midtown, CMC, East Blvd., and Park Road/Montfort. Pretty solid anchors.

^The purple streetcar line should terminate at Park Road IMO. Otherwise I love this idea.

Indeed it is complex, just ask Denver and there struggle to get the crossing gate PTC software on the A, B, and G commuter lines to function properly. It took them nearly a year and a half to remedy the issue. in regards to sharing, ATP would allow for overlapping but there are other factors that would have to be considered as well. The OCS system just had to be upgraded to allow for three car trains, and I would bet that higher frequencies would require even further upgrades in the overlapping segment. Also, higher frequencies would also mean more disruption at Uptown crossings.

The LYNX line (like most light rail lines in the US) does not require PTC under federal guidelines (and will not) because it already has an operator error technology in place called Automatic Train Protection (ATP). ATP has the same capabilities as PTC such as automatically stopping a train that is going over the speed limit or runs a red signal.