Lynx Blue Line (South Corridor)

[reverbandwhiskey]

Personally I loved Tara's anti-light rail article this week that cites a study funded by automobile manufacturers and oil companies that said that we need to spend more money on........ MORE ROADS!!!!

shocker.

[graydog]

Tara dented her cred and broke my heart with that smut. Piss poor writing IMO. Anyone who's been to ATL or LA knows what more roads gets you.

[Charlotte_native]

Tara dented her cred and broke my heart with that smut. Piss poor writing IMO. Anyone who's been to ATL or LA knows what more roads gets you.

I was in Atlanta this weekend, well south of Atlanta. We drove into ATL at 3pm on Saturday, traffic was stopped and backed up for 2 miles at the convergence of 675 and some other outer highway -- each were 3 - 5 lanes. There was no wreck or other reason for this other than heavy traffic. The poeple I was with said there is never a good time to drive into town, it is always like that, and I saw that again at 8 in the morning yesterday heading home. They pave and pave and NEVER keep up with the traffic and never will -- and it isn't that it is Atlanta, this is true anywhere.

I quit reading Tara's articles long ago. There is never anything positive in them. The Rhino Times could use her skills. If you believe anything they write EVERYTHING this city is doing is wrong, bad, corrupt, morally insensitive, and a rip off.

[dubone]

The Rhino Times "is more than an observer", it has lots of fiction, too.

[hinsp0]

I'm sure that everyone caught the Observer article about the new portion of 485 (I think it was in Sunday's paper). If my memory serves me correctly, I believe that the article said that the newest portion of 485, which will open soon, was $8 million overbudget with the original budget being close to $25 million.

Seems like, roads or rails, we can't build anything within budget...

[Charlotte_native]

Seems like, roads or rails, we can't build anything within budget...

We can't. Government projects are almost never within the budget they were supposed to be. Not saying that is "right" but just the facts. Unfortunately a road over budget doesn't get blasted like rail over budget does.

[ChiefJoJo]

Construction inflation has hit everyone in the business of building structures/roads/etc to the tune of about 15% per year for the last 3 years. Some of it is due to gas prices, but also demand for conrete and steel has been very high in China due to their HUGE economic/infrustruture expansion. That's part of the reason budgets on these projects have gone up.

[uptownliving]

The online video archive of last Monday's City Council Meeting has now been uploaded. At this meeting the City Manager, City Attorney, and CATS CEO explain how the South LRT line got to where it is today with regards to the problems. It is a very interesting presentation and runs about an hour.

Go to page linked below and select the September 25, 2006 Video link.

When the video pops up use the pull down menu to jump to the Manager's Report.

http://www.charmeck.org/Departments/City+C...etings/Home.htm

[monsoon]

It appears another anti light rail site has popped up. http://www.charlottelightrail.com/

They show a photo of what the LRT should look like because government has forced people to live where they don't want to live.

Huh?

In anycase, this domain is owned by Larry Bumgarner which rings a bell but I don't remember his history.

[atlrvr]

I believe he is a district court judge....but I'm not sure.

Edit. After reviewing the site, I must say, I'm not sure what the point was....odd.

[Charlotte_native]

These folks are a waste of time -- and obviously they have just that to waste.

I wonder what vision of the city they have? A picture in time like we were 20 years ago?

[peaceloveunderstanding]

It appears another anti light rail site has popped up. http://www.charlottelightrail.com/

They show a photo of what the LRT should look like because government has forced people to live where they don't want to live.

Huh?

In anycase, this domain is owned by Larry Bumgarner which rings a bell but I don't remember his history.

thanks for the link, I forgot people still put music on websites.

haha

I couldn't figure out what the author was trying to say, but I sense he was trying to put LRT in a negative light. I think he was attempting to write satire.

Apparently Larry has a few sites of this nature:

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=L...G=Google+Search

[Charlotte_native]

Apparently Larry has a few sites of this nature:

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=L...G=Google+Search

He looks like he would be a lot of fun to hang out with. I always love these "no tax" folk - lots of flags everywhere, but no desire to pay for the government those flags represent! Polaris shows he lives in Mint Hill in a McMansion, so why all the complaining about Charlotte taxes? He ain't payin' em.

[uptownliving]

The new revised South LRT Budget is $462,748,293...which is an 8% increase ($38M) over the previous budget. The FTA has signed off on this new number.

The new breakdown is this:

Feds (43%) $199,350,540

NCDOT(23%) $106,710,890

Local (34%) $156,686,863

The biggest reason for this latest increase is $16.6M in contingency for the remainder of the project. That is 50% of the added project cost and was forced to be put in by the FTA. The other 50% are pending change orders due to the design problems caused by Parsons.

Since this new estimted budget is over 5% of what was approved it will have to go before Congress for a 30-Day review, where the congress will be able to make comments on it. Congress does not have to approve this new budget it is simply a comment period. In other words don't confuse review with approve.

The expected completion date is still November 26, 2007.

The next step is that City Council will be presented with all the new change orders on October 23rd for approval.

Charlotte is not the only city having to go back to the FTA due to cost overruns...in fact almost every transit project currently under construction is having to go back to the FTA to amend the FFGA. One example is San Diego where they have a commuter rail line that they anticipate will be almost 40% over the FFGA.

[A2]

^^^Thanks for the updates UL. Sounds encouraging, at least to the extent that it can. I think in the end we all have to realize that rail is going to cost money. However, if we don't build it, we will be stuck in a sprawl worse than ATL. I just hope that the naysayers would wake up to that fact. If we are growing by an estimated 100K annually in the metro, how do they expect roads to handle the capacity?

A2

[monsoon]

....However, if we don't build it, we will be stuck in a sprawl worse than ATL. I just hope that the naysayers would wake up to that fact. If we are growing by an estimated 100K annually in the metro, how do they expect roads to handle the capacity?

A2

Ironically Atlanta's heavy rail subway has the highest capacity, and is the most used rail system in the South.

[A2]

Ironically Atlanta's heavy rail subway has the highest capacity, and is the most used rail system in the South.

True. I guess that will mean ATL will be a cake walk compared to the traffic we will face without any further rail options.

A2

[dubone]

This really is a lot of money. I am really disappointed in Tober for this.

I hope the momentum toward a repeal of the transit tax stops. It is scary to think that this city would be so backward, but I could totally see it happening.

I'm just relieved that the eastside got their requested delay, to wait (theoretically) until after BRT fell out of favor with the feds. Otherwise, there might reasonably be a whole slew of pro-transit people for a repeal.

[uptownliving]

Personally I am disappointed in Mayor McCrory and Chairman Parks Helms. Back in June when Tober first realized that the South Line was not going to be able to make the budget he alerted McCrory, Helms, and City Manager Pam Syfert at the same time. It was McCrory and Helms that decided not to let the rest of their respective councils in on the budget slip.

In my view it is McCrory's and Helms' responsibility to handle the political side of this and that is where the failure has been lately.

[monsoon]

On the 6;30 am news this morning the ever dramatic Scott Wickersham on WSOC TV threw up his hands and rolled his eyes, and declared "The Sky Rocketing Light Rail Budget is even more Out Of Control". Though Scott did studder during this little oscar performance (maybe he finds it hard to raise his hands and speak at the sametime), it does keep putting across the message to uninformed people that this is a bad project. BTW, I don't really expect any better from this station but they do have the #1 ratings in this area.

[dubone]

For whatever reason, they have all decided that the politically correct editorial stance is to be completely opposed to this project. I believe it has likely swayed a lot of people to be against the project.

But frankly, even if this project had been on time and on budget, it would still receive criticism for something else. That is what happened with the other political hot button, the arena.

[Neo]

It appears another anti light rail site has popped up. http://www.charlottelightrail.com/

I'll counter his offer by purchasing http://www.transitfacts.com and forwarding it to UrbanPlanet.org. I can't stand sites like the one above as they are notorious for not presenting the facts and for not allowing the community to speak out.

If someone would like to make a fact sheet containing over-budgets, construction times, etc. for the Charlotte area I will stick it up on the Charlotte page and make it a permanent fixture. Both mass transit and the road systems have their issues but I for one think the Charlotte community (and the rest of the world) should know the facts about all types of transit in their cities instead of placing blame on just one type. Let us all edumacate the population with real transit facts.

[monsoon]

But frankly, even if this project had been on time and on budget, it would still receive criticism for something else. That is what happened with the other political hot button, the arena.

Totally different situation and has nothing to do with what is going on here. In that case, the citizens voted not to build the arena, and it got built anyway.

[MZT]

The vote for the transit tax was 58%. That's a pretty strong endorsement. At least it was. Who knows how a re-vote would go in this environment.

[monsoon]

The vote for the transit tax was 58%. That's a pretty strong endorsement. At least it was. Who knows how a re-vote would go in this environment.

I think it boils down to this. If the train is finished on time, and people use it in large numbers, then this will silence the critics of the train. This has happened in other cities that have built LRTs in the last few years.

If CATS screws it up again, comes back to the table a year from now to ask for even more money, then I think there will be a melt down, and there might be a good chance the tax is voted down. People won't be voting against transit, they will be voting against bad management at CATS and the city. The same thing just happened when the voters voted down the school bonds for the schools. They were not anti-school, but they were sick and tired of paying taxes and not getting results for it.

The timing of this is interesting. If the county commission is taken over by the GOP next month, they may get a repeal referendum on the ballot before the train runs next year. This is unlikely given the expected backlash that is coming against the GOP this fall (its national, but many times spills into the local races) but if it happens, then it really behooves CATS, the MTC, and the city to very publically remind the people why we need the LRT. The very best advertisement they have for this is rolling trains, so they need to push Tober to get this project running before the November 2007 election if that were to happen.

I don't think the citizens petition is going to succeed.