[North Carolina Intercity Rail Transit]

Of note to me in particular is Charlotte to Kings Mountain getting grant money (up to $500k) for initial development: https://railroads.dot.gov/elibrary/fy22-23-FSP-National-rail-program-project-fact-sheets

Really a transformational announcement all around.

[Traffic Congestion and Highway Construction]

36 minutes ago, KJHburg said:

I was strictly talking highways here.  Dallas already has the  2nd largest light rail system in the USA  with 93 miles and is building another line now the Silver Line.

Dallas does have a long light rail system, but it has to, since the urban area is so large. DART has similar ridership per mile (~1100 pre-COVID) to Charlotte, San Jose, SLC, and Pittsburgh. It's a thoroughly inadequate system for the fourth largest urban area in the United States, and DFW as a whole still has such a high portion of solo drivers (72.3%) and low public transportation usage (3.1%, notably below the national average).

I'd almost put NC number one for highways. Maybe just because it's the state I'm the most comfortable with, but as far as maintenance, NC is pretty top notch with pavement quality. Texas, despite the good weather, frequently has some appalling pavement quality and has some bizarre, easily noticeable choke points in the highway infrastructure that take ages to resolve.

Haven't driven much outside of NC and SC recently, but would put SC at the bottom. It's getting better, but as far as Columbia goes, it's awful. Again there's a $2B investment to fix it (the 20, 26, 126 mess) but Pavement quality, traffic, and design all are lacking far behind NC, and Columbia would benefit substantially from the same money being thrown at improving the urban fabric. Greenville is substantially better than Columbia/Charleston, but the rural highways can't compete with NC.

[Traffic Congestion and Highway Construction]

21 hours ago, KJHburg said:

Top of the list would be Texas as their urban highways and interchanges are best in class but their rural roads and highways are good too.

Hey, recently migrated Texan chiming in here.

I disagree with this perspective completely.. Texas isn't anywhere near the level of infrastructure investment it needs to be even for cars in a state of 30 million plus people. While the freeways are okay, most of the pavement quality in the state absolutely sucks.

DFW alone has some of the worst highway design I've ever seen. Take for example the 121/35W/30/287 interchange right near downtown Fort Worth:

Coming in from DFW on 121 west and getting on 30 west (a seemingly logical travel choice to go west and continue west) toward downtown requires a merge of 3 lanes in extremely heavy traffic over the course of a half of a mile. It's absolutely impossible to do consistently.

Example 2 is the 287/820/20 interchange in SE Fort Worth:

This one, coming from east to west, fits 4 (from IH20 E) + 2 (from US287) + 2 (from IH820 S) for 8 lanes of total traffic into IH20  between the 287 branches. This interchange never flows smoothly, and even after the 1.7 Billion plus project to improve it, will likely only temporarily improve traffic flow, and then become subject to induced demand due to the increased capacity and then be bogged down by one Nissan Altima who is too busy looking at a cell phone to read a road sign.

Texas is the epitome of what happens when everyone has to drive. You can invest the cumulative 10-15 Billion (not to mention maintenance and resurfacing costs) over the past 20 years, but the end result is a transportation system that is extremely cost prohibitive for so many in the state. There's a reason DFW has the most expensive car insurance premiums in the country, and when you give people no better alternatives, what results is a system that is inaccessible to even the people who would prefer to drive, since you have so many people who are either too nervous, too incapacitated, or just plain too lazy to look at the people around them while they drive.

We're not even mentioning the 121/114/635 (DFW connector) mess near Grapevine which resulted in no tangible traffic improvements or the LBJ/635 TexPress lanes that they spent so much money on and now, since the project was structured as a P3, can't accurately maximize revenue and tolls at ~$6/mi during rush-hour, and thus no one uses them.

What's crazy is the cost of many of these big Texas-style interchanges would easily pay for (using $100M per mile) 15-20 miles of light rail a pop, which has substantially more capacity than any freeway system ever will.

Texas combines literally the worst aspects of Atlanta or NoVA traffic in an urban area, and all the concrete makes it inhospitable during the summers/winters.

[CATS Long Term Transit Plan - Silver, Red Lines]

Found this here on page 11, taken from a study about crossings and grade separation: https://connect.ncdot.gov/resources/Rail-Division-Resources/Documents/O-Line_TSS.pdf

Quote

"The right-of-way has many encroachments today and some abutting properties are recorded to the centerline of the track. Mecklenburg County land records show a 100- foot right-of-way throughout the County. However, abutting property lines and street/highway rights-of-way frequently overlap the railroad right-of-way (this is usually the case when the railroad is on an easement, no matter how wide). The 100-foot right- of-way continues into southern Iredell County and Mooresville. In downtown Mooresville, both Broad Street and Main Street that flank the track, are located within the railroad right-of-way. In Mecklenburg County, significant portions of NC 115 are located within the railroad right-of-way."

Granted it's dated to 2004, but the ROW easement likely still exists. Agree with Kermit here that if intercity rail to Winston-Salem is the eventual goal, why not use heavy rail for the whole thing, especially since NS has zero freight customers along the route.

 

Side note, I got a good kick out of this picture/mock-up:

 

[CATS Long Term Transit Plan - Silver, Red Lines]

Also did some digging, the contract is apparently going to HDR for the red line who also developed the Connect Beyond plan: https://www.connect-beyond.com/plan/

RFQ and Selection are here: https://www.charlottenc.gov/Growth-and-Development/Doing-Business/Contract-Opportunities/LYNX-Red-Line-Design-Update

[CATS Long Term Transit Plan - Silver, Red Lines]

It'll be interesting to see what comes of the redesign for sure. I'm also sure NS isn't going to play ball with electrification due to their >$2.5 Billion investment to make the whole Crescent corridor able to run double-stacks, especially if they still see the O-line as an alternative to the NCRR in the future.

Living in Fort Worth now (recently departed), the DMU approach is surprisingly better than a lot of people give it credit for. I'd love TEXRail to run 30 minutes all day (it's currently only peak periods) but the DMUs are quiet, comfortable, and really a great experience.

I think electrification only makes sense from an economic perspective if the stations are a lot denser than TEXRail for the acceleration purposes. In reality, most of the stations on the line have at least 3-5 miles of separation, so there's good opportunity to run at 60 mph. Trips to DFW (27 miles) take about 50 minutes or so. Really a big fan of the service in Fort Worth, and with Charlotte's proven success on TOD, am sure the service would be immensely successful if they ever get around to it, even with no electrification.

[CATS Long Term Transit Plan - Silver, Red Lines]

https://charlotte.axios.com/324407/cats-investigation-transit-train-derailment-mtc-charlotte/

Uh-oh.

[CATS Long Term Transit Plan - Silver, Red Lines]

3 hours ago, buildleft said:

But I fail to see how forming a regional authority would help. Political authority would shift towards transit-hesitant Republican governments in the surrounding counties, consensus on long-range planning would grow increasingly difficult, and large-scale, high-dollar capital investment projects would almost exclusively serve suburban and exurban interests. Regional bodies already in place like CRTPO and the MTC have already shown that authorities extending beyond city borders create a suburban mindset.

Alan Fisher has a great video on this on how this has created problems within SEPTA, specifically the (now cancelled) Norristown High Speed Line extension to King of Prussia, highlighting the fact that additional suburban influence can lead to some seriously flawed investment.

TL;DR: Philadelphia gets 2 seats on the SEPTA board and is granted veto power; Bucks, Montgomery, Chester, and Delaware counties get two seats each, and 5 members from State government (Governor, Senate and House Majority/Minority leaders) get seats, leading to Philadelphia proper only having ~13% of influence despite representing approximately ~80% of daily ridership (both subway lines are almost entirely in Philadelphia county). 

Something at the Mecklenburg level, at least for CATS, makes much more sense imo. Introducing areas that largely favor auto transport (Cabarrus, Gaston, Rowan, and god forbid either SC county) is going to lead to a governance structure that pulls investment from Mecklenburg and lead to development patterns that favor suburban commuters rather than improving interurban connectivity in Charlotte. I feel the density required to support high frequency, reliable transit doesn't really exist outside of Charlotte's urban core. 

I think the best approach is to have two separate, but coordinating transit agencies or departments (i.e. San Diego with NCTD and SDMTS) where one focuses specifically on Charlotte, and the other focuses exclusively on regional connectivity with commuter rail and express buses. It would allow for each organization to have funding sources and governance that best benefits all constituents within the Charlotte area. Funding for each could come from the appropriate populations and better represent the goals of each.

[North Carolina Intercity Rail Transit]

Top Airport Destinations from NC:

Charlotte ~ 6,000 Passengers/Day along SEHSR

• #4, Boston, 525,000 pax/year
• #5 - NYC, 466k
• #7 - ATL, 450k
• #9 - PHL, 432k
• #10 - EWR, 424k

Raleigh ~ 5,500 Passengers/Day

• #1 - ATL, 611k
• #2 - CLT, 413k
• #4 - LGA, 276k
• #6 - JFK, 268k
• #9 - BOS, 225k
• #10 - EWR, 221k

PTI ~ 1,600 Passengers/Day

• #1 - ATL, 252k
• #2 - CLT, 140k
• #3 - LGA, 89k
• #6 - EWR, 43k
• #7 - DCA, 36k
• #8 - PHL, 35k

For me, I'd much rather see high quality rail service (NE Regional) throughout the SEHSR corridor than a truly high-speed train. I feel the toughest issue is that no train in the United States averages faster than 70 mph (Acela), and at that speed, it's 12.5 Hours ATL-NYC.

I think if it's a one-or-another scenario, I'd (albeit selfishly) take the intercity rail over high-speed. Commuter rail can help serve the three individual metro areas along the route, and a high quality intercity line can make all the main stops and hopefully have higher average speeds.

I had some time in Austria recently, and think the service pattern on the Vienna-Salzburg corridor (Western Railway) is a great one to emulate:

Map: https://www.openrailwaymap.org/?style=maxspeed&lat=48.111099041065366&lon=14.615936279296875&zoom=9
Wiki: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Western_Railway_(Austria)

[Traffic Congestion and Highway Construction]

Any zipper merge in a high-traffic area is prone to disaster, not to mention tons of traffic scrambling to cross all of I-77 before the John Belk exit.

It baffles me that they didn't split the ramp into two lanes: one purely for the express lanes, and one for the general lanes. The zipper at the end only allows capacity for one lane of traffic anyway.

The other alternative imo would be to make the I-77 S to I-85 N ramp an exit-only lane, taking I-77 to two general purpose lanes, and then continuing both lanes from the on-ramp from I-85 S on to I-77 S. I feel like that wouldn't have required that much more space but I could be wrong.

[CATS Long Term Transit Plan - Silver, Red Lines]

On 1/10/2023 at 9:39 AM, kayman said:

https://www.wfae.org/politics/2023-01-09/n-c-house-speaker-tim-moore-blasts-charlottes-proposed-13-5-billion-transportation-plan

All I'm going to say is elections have consequences... Much of this could've been put to bed by the people voting for people with sense into the NCGA but nope. Instead, more of this nonsense and less of pragmatic will to make things happen.

 

Just stumbled upon this Axios article this morning: (https://charlotte.axios.com/318016/its-been-a-week-of-tragedy-and-setback-for-charlottes-transportation-hopes/)

In addition to Tim Moore, it's been a horrible week for pedestrians, cyclists, transit riders, and the like in the Charlotte area, largely due to car-dependency. It's extremely depressing to see that ignored and the decision makers that make our city more undesirable and harder to navigate.

This isn't meant to be a political take, but there's no reason a relatively 50-50 state political composition should be 71-49 in favor of one side. I also don't understand how hoping in a car and driving everywhere is appealing to people living in an urban area, including Tim Moore himself.

Charlotte has the potential to be a great, transit-focused city and avoid much of the development mistakes of Atlanta and the like. On the bright side, it seems everyone besides the NCGA are aligned in a transit-focused future; Axios mentions Sustain Charlotte, and the CRBA with two notable pro-transit takes. Is funding going to be purely from a sales tax referendum? Or are there more stakeholders that could be involved?

[Charlotte's Light Rail: Lynx Blue Line]

On 11/4/2022 at 1:30 PM, KJHburg said:

Extending the Blue Line to UNC Charlotte campus was one of the smartest decisions we made in transit.

and the University area has the best connected hotels to uptown via its multiple stations including the on campus Marriott hotel at JW Clay station.  

 

I totally agree. The relatively few times I’m on the blue line, the train seems extremely popular with UNCC students. 

Also think University has the geography to be a truly special mixed use development if someone could properly redevelop a lot of the box stores on JW Clay.

[CATS Long Term Transit Plan - Silver, Red Lines]

32 minutes ago, jthomas said:

I'll keep banging this drum - express regional service should be mainline rail. Buy out CSX from Monroe to Bostic, build dedicated passenger tracks alongside NS from Gateway to CLT (bonus: these could be used to extend the Piedmonts to the airport), and truncate Silver Line LRT to be focused on local urban service that doesn't duplicate existing rail rights of way. All of that could likely be done for less money than the cost of the current plan.

I think an electrified S-Bahn style service makes the most sense with a combination of CSX/a new dedicated ROW if the idea is to eventually serve the rest of Union/Gaston County. I just don't know if it impacts TOD opportunities and integration with Gold Line Phase III and Monroe Rd.

Denver's A-line is a good example, 23.6 miles, electrified, public-private partnership, with about 23,000 daily riders and a $2.1B price tag.

[CATS Long Term Transit Plan - Silver, Red Lines]

My assumption is they’d go through the process of making it a separated ROW if they were to run the Silver line through it. 

EDIT: Elizabeth traffic could be focused to 3rd/4th and 7th. Both roads (I believe) have plenty of capacity to deal with increased traffic.

Plenty of other LRT systems have street-running and have made it reliable enough. And - as i’m sure it’s been mentioned - the ability to run on streets is one of the big advantages of LRT over heavy-rail.

I really think interlining is one of the best options CATS has put forward yet.