Charlotte's Light Rail: Lynx Blue Line

[TheOneRJ]

45 minutes ago, JacksonH said:

Nope, it's factually true.  See how easy that is?

Just keep saying it! Maybe you’ll convince... hope, because you won’t be convincing anyone else. 

[Desert Power]

4 hours ago, Cadi40 said:

It's to allow the ballasts enough time to reset, Trains won't exceed speeds of 35 MPH all next week sadly.

Do they frequently exceed that on the extension?  Never seems like it 

[southslider]

^only south of Tremont 

 

[Matthew.Brendan]

I gave up on commuting via the train due to the slow speeds and just ride my Vespa in now. Takes literally half the time, door to door. 

[UPNoDa]

It's a real shame actually.

We shouldn't blame CATS for dissapointing us, we should blame ourselves for expecting too much from CATS.

 

There, I said it.

[JacksonH]

18 hours ago, TheOneRJ said:

Just keep saying it! Maybe you’ll convince... hope, because you won’t be convincing anyone else. 

Keep saying what?  I'm replying to your statement that what I said was not "factually" true without providing any facts.   Please.  I can point to numerous studies that rank Arlington near or at the top in livability, but this is a Charlotte forum so I'm not expecting to get a whole lot of support or unbiased opinions here.  Elsewhere I most certainly will.    As I said, I like Charlotte.  I lived there.  I also lived in Arlington, and I love visiting there.  So the Arlington bashing is completely absurd to me. 

[Desert Power]

3 hours ago, Matthew.Brendan said:

I gave up on commuting via the train due to the slow speeds and just ride my Vespa in now. Takes literally half the time, door to door. 

How were you taking it from Shamrock?  Driving to the Sugar Creek deck?

[videtur quam contuor]

cross posting

I was driving Clanton Road between S Tryon and South Blvd this morning as a fleet of gooseneck trailer trucks were arriving at the rear entrance to CATS from Pelton Street. Two had arrived earlier and had track repair machinery already loaded. Oversize load flags flying.

[Matthew.Brendan]

8 minutes ago, Desert Power said:

How were you taking it from Shamrock?  Driving to the Sugar Creek deck?

Yes, either walk, bicycle or drive from my house to the Sugar Creek station. Between waiting for the train and the ridiculously slow ride, it was the better part of 30 mins total trip time. Door to door via the Vespa is 15 mins. The train is still a great option that I am thrilled to have, but is no longer my first choice. 

[elrodvt]

You probably won't be squished like a bug by a range Rover on the LRT though. 

[kermit]

My morning train blasted through the Orr road grade crossing without slowing down (as it should), and I thought to myself “sweet! They fixed the gate timing over the weekend and trains can finally run full speed on the extension.”

on my train this afternoon I thought to myself “g0ddamnit!”  

#Fixit

 

Edited August 27, 2018 by kermit

[UPNoDa]

Elon has made some priority adjustments as of late by allowing pedestrians and cyclists over personal vehicles on the LA Hyperloop.  

 

 

Too bad his vision wasn't around in 2008 when CATS was considering the BLE to UNC Main. What took CATS 10 years to build could have been bored and fully functional in 3 years at roughly half the cost and no "fussy" at-grade crossing s to deal with.

That said, we could certainly use his Boring services for both Red and Silver lines but could they work underground? I don't see why not.

[elrodvt]

Vaporware. 

[Trickbot]

My favorite part of the light rail. The curve leaving UNCC main station. I like how it is one of the only parts completely surrounded by nature on the entire line

Also the Hyperloop is a scam, there is literally no way you could keep a constant vacuum in a space that large unless only 1 group every couple of hours is using it. Elon is only having this plan to boost the value of his Boring Company

[kermit]

Old Concord lot is now consistently about 85% full. Sugar Creek and U City decks still appear to be mostly empty.

Ridership to UNCC has ticked up a bit, but still running at a disappointing pace compared to projections (for daytime commutes, reports elsewhere in this thread suggest that night time traffic is heavy).

I have been consistently impressed by the amount of riders at JW Clay station.

This is for John Lewis re N Tryon speed issues: rip out the gates that block the left turn lanes stopping turns over the tracks and replace them with a set of double gates (one on each side of road) parallel to the tracks that block traffic across tracks from all lanes. This should produce fewer ‘dumbass driver alerts’ and will not increase the number of moving parts in the system.

Edited August 29, 2018 by kermit

[KJHburg]

^^ Until they can come up with a system of free parking at the UC deck it will remain empty.  The CK Rider the Cabarrus county transit all connects at the JW Clay station and there is free parking at their stops in Concord and even at the movie theaters at Pavilion Blvd in Charlotte.    Old Concord which is where I park when I  use the system is the closest free parking lot to the University area and all of Cabarrus County.   They need to be able to discourage student parking at the 2 parking garages closer to UNCC and allow commuters to park for free as they do at every other station with parking.  

[grodney]

Has anybody used the CATS first-mile/last-mile LYFT thingy?  I'd like to get from Parkwood to NoDa and/or Birdsong, both of which appear possible based on the map here: http://charlottenc.gov/cats/rail/Pages/first-mile.aspx#Parkwood

But I don't understand the process.  I have a valid LYNX pass, so I think I can do this: 

• Enter the Lyft Station Code into the app. Riders with a current valid CATS/LYNX pass can enter the Station Code displayed at either participating station into your Lyft app for use within the geo-fenced areas. This option provides 2 Lyft trips per month while supplies last.

What/where is the "Station Code displayed at either participating station"?  Is this like an escape room where I have to find the secret code somewhere at the station and then anagram it and then enter it into the LYFT app while the sun bounces off the NO TIRE BASURA sign?  And is there some obvious "ENTER DOUBLE-SECRET CODE HERE" box somewhere on the LYFT app?

Help!

http://charlottenc.gov/cats/rail/Pages/first-mile.aspx

 

Edited September 6, 2018 by grodney

[CLTProductions]

1 hour ago, grodney said:

Has anybody used the CATS first-mile/last-mile LYFT thingy?  I'd like to get from Parkwood to NoDa and/or Birdsong, both of which appear possible based on the map here: http://charlottenc.gov/cats/rail/Pages/first-mile.aspx#Parkwood

But I don't understand the process.  I have a valid LYNX pass, so I think I can do this: 

• Enter the Lyft Station Code into the app. Riders with a current valid CATS/LYNX pass can enter the Station Code displayed at either participating station into your Lyft app for use within the geo-fenced areas. This option provides 2 Lyft trips per month while supplies last.

What/where is the "Station Code displayed at either participating station"?  Is this like an escape room where I have to find the secret code somewhere at the station and then anagram it and then enter it into the LYFT app while the sun bounces off the NO TIRE BASURA sign?  And is there some obvious "ENTER DOUBLE-SECRET CODE HERE" box somewhere on the LYFT app?

Help!

http://charlottenc.gov/cats/rail/Pages/first-mile.aspx

 

It seems like more trouble than it’s worth. lol it’s not a bad walk or just use a bike or scooter if they’re at the stop 

[nmundo]

1 hour ago, grodney said:

Has anybody used the CATS first-mile/last-mile LYFT thingy?  I'd like to get from Parkwood to NoDa and/or Birdsong, both of which appear possible based on the map here: http://charlottenc.gov/cats/rail/Pages/first-mile.aspx#Parkwood

But I don't understand the process.  I have a valid LYNX pass, so I think I can do this: 

• Enter the Lyft Station Code into the app. Riders with a current valid CATS/LYNX pass can enter the Station Code displayed at either participating station into your Lyft app for use within the geo-fenced areas. This option provides 2 Lyft trips per month while supplies last.

What/where is the "Station Code displayed at either participating station"?  Is this like an escape room where I have to find the secret code somewhere at the station and then anagram it and then enter it into the LYFT app while the sun bounces off the NO TIRE BASURA sign?  And is there some obvious "ENTER DOUBLE-SECRET CODE HERE" box somewhere on the LYFT app?

Help!

http://charlottenc.gov/cats/rail/Pages/first-mile.aspx

 

I got it automatically by buying my monthly pass through the CATS app but I think I've seen the code on a Lyft ad by the entrance to the station to JW Clay. I assume it's the same at Parkwood, just look for the big pink poster haha

[grodney]

Well it turns out first-mile/last-mile was pretty painless.  The secret code is posted at the north end of Parkwood Station (pssssst, it's "18PKW").  Enter that in the "Promo" screen on the Lyft app, and then when you choose your ride it automatically deducts $4 from the fare.  Parkwood to NoDa (and back) was $6.50 each direction, so $2.50 net.  Would have walked it (probably from 25th) in less-sweltering weather, but this was fine.  There were 3 Lime bikes and 0 scooters when I arrived at Parkwood.

It felt really dumb driving right past 25th St Station to and from.  But the stranger thing was that neither of my drivers had ever been to NoDa Brewing before (and were thus thrown by the location of the door).  I would think if you'd been driving in that area for any time at all you would have hit NoDa.......but that's probably just my brewery-centric world talking.

Oh, and I also walked from Parkwood to Birdsong and back.  That walk is really easy, especially now that there's a crosswalk from the Station across Parkwood.

Edited September 7, 2018 by grodney

[kermit]

Parked in the U City deck today. (which is still 80+% empty). They are definitely not charging to park there.

Gezz they bungled that.

And speaking of bungled, I'll put my quarterly beotching about the CATS app here. While the schedule info it provides is vaguely reliable it has a bad habit of omitting trains entirely. There is a regular outbound 9:40 am train at U City that does not appear on their schedule information. The 9:45 train that follows it is really a 9:48(ish).  I am pretty sure this is not the only ghost train.

Edited September 11, 2018 by kermit

[navigator319]

So their is a major issue with our ridership numbers.  As most probably know CATS launched the mobile app where you can buy tickets online 8 months ago.  

The problem is this....

You buy the tickets and they never expire.  The catch is you just never 'activate' them in the app.  So what does this mean?  Well it means just buy a ticket and only activate it if there is someone on the train checking.  If not, well guess what you just got a free ride and you keep the tickets you bought.

I am only human and yes I have done this a few times, please save the righteousness, thing is though I did not think was a big thing numbers wise until this past Saturday.  I took train from uptown to NoDa and what do you know a group of folks through conversation doing the same thing!  Well then. Few hours later time to go from NoDa to East/West for some Jennies.  Well turns out a bf/gf couple sitting next to us on that trip also doing that.  On my three trips Saturday no one was checking our trains.

So takeaways... Time for CATS to find a better way to 1. measure ridership  2. capture more revenue. 3. update the eff'ing app

 

 

 

[CLT2014]

Ridership is measured by sensors at the entry door so it counts all riders, not just paid riders. 

[15895]

8 minutes ago, navigator319 said:

So their is a major issue with our ridership numbers.  As most probably know CATS launched the mobile app where you can buy tickets online 8 months ago.  

The problem is this....

You buy the tickets and they never expire.  The catch is you just never 'activate' them in the app.  So what does this mean?  Well it means just buy a ticket and only activate it if there is someone on the train checking.  If not, well guess what you just got a free ride and you keep the tickets you bought.

I am only human and yes I have done this a few times, please save the righteousness, thing is though I did not think was a big thing numbers wise until this past Saturday.  I took train from uptown to NoDa and what do you know a group of folks through conversation doing the same thing!  Well then. Few hours later time to go from NoDa to East/West for some Jennies.  Well turns out a bf/gf couple sitting next to us on that trip also doing that.  On my three trips Saturday no one was checking our trains.

So takeaways... Time for CATS to find a better way to 1. measure ridership  2. capture more revenue. 3. update the eff'ing app

 

 

 

Bf/gf couple? Damn breeders!

[nmundo]

5 hours ago, kermit said:

Parked in the U City deck today. (which is still 80+% empty). They are definitely not charging to park there.

Gezz they bungled that.

And speaking of bungled, I'll put my quarterly beotching about the CATS app here. While the schedule info it provides is vaguely reliable it has a bad habit of omitting trains entirely. There is a regular 9:40 am train at U City that does not appear on their schedule information. The 9:45 train that follows it is really a 9:48(ish).  I am pretty sure it is not the only ghost train.

CATS app is complete trash (as are most first party transit apps, idk why they waste money building them), I tell everyone to use Apple/Google Maps or if they're riding more than once a month Transit which is by far the best transit app I've used, shows Trains/Busses/Scooters/Bikes (including Bcycle).