Charlotte Center City Streetcar Network

[alb1no panther]

9 minutes ago, birky said:

I am...not crazy about a spur of the streetcar on Cedar.  It just doesn't make sense to me; it's a quiet residential street.

I may be mistaken, but a street car coming to Cedar would mean we are building out a line to the airport, and that's not happening any time soon.  I don't think there's any concern about a street car there for a long while if ever.

[Third Strike]

1 minute ago, alb1no panther said:

I may be mistaken, but a street car coming to Cedar would mean we are building out a line to the airport, and that's not happening any time soon.  I don't think there's any concern about a street car there for a long while if ever.

If the Seversville streetcar line happens sometime in the next few years, I could see a push for a short spur to connect the line with the Gold Line. For the line out to the airport, I would prefer Graham instead, since it would pass by the sports stadiums and the Lincoln Harris development.

[kermit]

46 minutes ago, birky said:

it's a quiet residential street.

It might not stay that way. We are talking about transit projects that will be a quarter century in the future. By that time its possible / likely that the Panthers practice facility and Cedar Yards will look completely different than they do now.

[archiham04]

...they might build a crystal clear lake there.

[CoffeeSamurai]

On May 30, 2016 at 3:55 PM, ajfunder said:

Just gonna point out that the streetcar has had only one vehicle operating for the last 10 days. Apparently car 92 and 93 are down and it has been extremely frustrating as a frequent streetcar rider. Headways even at peak times have been close to 20-30 minutes and I have opted to walk/bike instead of waiting.

The lack of communication about delays is frustrating. Can you share where you find this information so I can look for myself going forward?

Once I called and asked what was going on and I actually spoke to someone! She informed that the trolley was operating normally and that I should be patient. I concluded there has to be a disconnect between their communications and operations. How else do you not know a car is down?

Anyway, the lack of communication is going to hurt ridership from the office commuters like my wife and I. I need to be able to, within reason, get to the office reliably. Communications help us plan around delays (Uber, B-cycle), instead of waiting 30 minutes to learn a car is down. 

It's something I want to bring up at their next Gold Line community forum. Is this a realistic expectation or do all cities face the same issue?

Edited June 9, 2016 by CoffeeSamurai
English.

[southslider]

^Even more reasons why CATS desperately needs to launch a real-time app. No need to call, if you have the information in the palm of your hand.

[ajfunder]

On June 9, 2016 at 0:12 AM, CoffeeSamurai said:

The lack of communication about delays is frustrating. Can you share where you find this information so I can look for myself going forward?

Once I called and asked what was going on and I actually spoke to someone! She informed that the trolley was operating normally and that I should be patient. I concluded there has to be a disconnect between their communications and operations. How else do you not know a car is down?

Anyway, the lack of communication is going to hurt ridership from the office commuters like my wife and I. I need to be able to, within reason, get to the office reliably. Communications help us plan around delays (Uber, B-cycle), instead of waiting 30 minutes to learn a car is down. 

It's something I want to bring up at their next Gold Line community forum. Is this a realistic expectation or do all cities face the same issue?

I either ride the streetcar or bike in along the route 5 days a week so I just knew from being a frequent rider. I can happily tell you that they are back to two streetcars and normal service. 

CATS's Twitter page posts service disruptions as well as the CityLYNX Gold line Twitter page. https://mobile.twitter.com/citylynxupdates

Edited June 11, 2016 by ajfunder

[kermit]

I finally got to ride the Atlanta streetcar on Friday afternoon. Its really not as awful as the press makes it out to be. 

The three vehicles I was in had an average of 15 people each. The vehicles were -fast-. The Siemans vehicles felt faster than cars when they were moving and acceleration was impressive. The streetcar has also done an OK job of activating the street around the Woodruff Park area, shelters look good and I didn't see any traffic interference problems during Friday rush hour.

there were a few correctable problems. The primary one is that the vehicles have a crazy long dwell time at stations (and not just the primary stations like Centennial Park), vehicles sat for at least a minute at stations. Exacerbating the dwell time problem was the lack of signal timing for the streetcar. Waiting at lights (particularly where the streetcar would make a left turn) took forever. All this sitting made the streetcar's overall speed frustrating.

In short, despite lousy management,  I see good potential for the streetcar. Expanding the system to more useful destinations for residents and fixing some easily addressed problems would be a boon for Atlanta's walkability. Honestly I enjoyed downtown Atlanta more than ever before thanks to the mobility and activity provided by the streetcar. I do fear that their starter segment is too focused on tourists and too superficially flawed to make expansion of the system easy.  I am also thankful that we have avoided most of these problems with the Gold Line, but I do see the merit of modern vehicles now.

Edited June 12, 2016 by kermit

[kermit]

So what exactly is the problem and why has it been dragging on for so long?

 

[ajfunder]

Car 92 hasn't been seen in weeks. They were operating 91 & 93 when I rode into Taste today but when I went to CTC for the return trip, 93 was sitting in the pocket track with Fire and Medic pulled up next to it and I think they were tending to one of the operators. From that point on only 91 was operating. Today's issue might have been staffing related but I don't know for certain, it could have also been mechanical. 

 

The fact that 92 hasn't been seen in three weeks and 93 was missing for two weeks tells me there must be some major mechanical issue that is being addressed.

Edited June 13, 2016 by ajfunder

[ajfunder]

Streetcar down to one car again this afternoon. Yesterday the doors on one end of 93 weren't working. This has happened fairly frequently recently.

[CoffeeSamurai]

On June 15, 2016 at 5:55 PM, ajfunder said:

Streetcar down to one car again this afternoon. Yesterday the doors on one end of 93 weren't working. This has happened fairly frequently recently.

Yesterday as well. No heads up though, unless it was continued downtime from Wednesday.

[kermit]

The fact that the GoIdline has been down to one vehicle for three (?) weeks now has left me seriously concernd about CATS' maintenance abilities. 

[tozmervo]

With these things, I would suspect they have parts that are difficult to replace anymore and they either have to rebuild the part or wait weeks to get replacements. 

[kermit]

I thought the Gamaco cars were still being manufactured in Iowa?

(so I assumed that parts should be readily available)

Edited June 17, 2016 by kermit

[Spartan]

On 5/26/2016 at 2:48 PM, cltbwimob said:

I think they should use the replica cars in addition to Car 85 and that Trolley they procured from Charleston that needs refurbishing.  In my fantasy land, Victory/ST would take over Savona Mill and provide private funding to the Lakewood trolley line.  They could help restore the line from Savona to Cedar Yards where it could then be tied into CGS via Cedar Street.  Imagine how cool it would be to have a beautiful, historic, century-old mill serving as their home with a dedicated beer trolley to uptown.  It would probably be the only such trolley in the world and It would be epic.

I really like this idea. I think streetcar service to Lakewood would be a huge economic windfall to that area. There aren't that many opportunities for stops due to infrequent cross streets, so you'd end up with pretty fast service.

CATS is eventually going to re-plan the west corridor. Streetcar to the airport never made sense, and the Silver Line needs a west-bound companion project to link center city to the airport and to the River District. When that planing process happens, it would also make sense to shift the streetcar line from Wilkinson to the P&N line to Lakewood (or even further out if needed).

[southslider]

Yep, Phase 2 will likely be the last mixed-traffic rails built in Charlotte.

[kermit]

28 minutes ago, southslider said:

Yep, Phase 2 will likely be the last mixed-traffic rails built in Charlotte.

1: yea!

2: what events triggered this paradigm shift?

3: does the shift merely signal the futility of future transit development? (e.g. we can't afford any more transit with the current tax so we might as well propose stuff that is financially out of reach)

[southslider]

Circulators have diminishing value the farther one has to travel.  And the momentum for West/Airport is to be an extension of Silver Line or light rail from Matthews. Overall, a new system plan has been promised.

[Spartan]

It's just logical. Trade Street works with mixed traffic because it has relatively low traffic volumes. When you get on Central or further out on Beatties Ford (mainly north of Brookshire) it won't be possible to effectively run streetcar without dedicated operating space.

[CLT704]

Is there any chance CATS and the MTC could expedite the acquisition of modern streetcar vehicles? I don't know but could it help prevent delays from broken down cars? 

[southslider]

^No. The existing stations would need their platforms to be increased in height. This modification requires temporarily suspending Gold Line service, and therefore, is planned near the end of Phase 2 construction.

[tozmervo]

I thought the platforms were already at the required height for modern streetcar servicing? 

[southslider]

^Not for most modern trams

[CLT704]

Couldn't CATS bring reconstruction of stations forward to allow earlier introduction of modern streetcars?