Charlotte's Light Rail: Lynx Blue Line

[Durhamite]

On 5/14/2023 at 3:25 PM, RANYC said:

Nah, not nice to CATS.  My post was in response to "Charlotte's leadership is busy trying to hand hundreds of millions to billionaires so we can have more sports here. They cannot be bothered by obvious safety issues with their only mass transit line."  I am not saying the derailment is a complete non-issue, I'm saying that we should be able to find a way to do an economic deal to recruit the Western & Southern Open while also handling incident risks that are present in the ordinary course with any public transit operation.  My post was about proportionality by seeing CATS ineptitude in a bit of context, not sweeping it under a rug.  As for crapping on NY, SF, Portland, well, I can't recall when I've done that but I'll have to take a look at my post history when I actually care.

Lots of nitpicking on CATs which is on par for most public transit systems, I mean, if you point out that these issues aren’t exclusive to CATs, it doesn’t seems to resonate - everyone is looking for scapegoats when indeed theses things are common issues or factors due to unforeseen circumstances such as a WW pandemic, and anti-transit legislation budget hawks. 
 

Any frequent public transit user is well aware, abrupt service disruptions can happen at anytime, especially these days with understaffing and underfunding.   You could probably post a 1000 of these type of tweets everyday, just randomly pick a transit system. 

[utcltjay]

After living in San Francisco, I can promise you CATS is way better run and managed than the disastrous SF Muni. If I made it to work on time once a week, I was winning. 

[RANYC]

14 minutes ago, utcltjay said:

After living in San Francisco, I can promise you CATS is way better run and managed than the disastrous SF Muni. If I made it to work on time once a week, I was winning. 

I think we need more of this perspective on here.  Having said that, the only way to achieve climate goals and to make rapid growth sustainable in this city is to have reliable, repeatable, confidence-inspiring, comfortable, actually-safe and perceived-safe transit that strongly appeals to choice riders while accommodating other riders.

[15895]

2 hours ago, utcltjay said:

After living in San Francisco, I can promise you CATS is way better run and managed than the disastrous SF Muni. If I made it to work on time once a week, I was winning. 

I’d hope it’s better run and managed when Charlotte is just a light rail line & streetcar line with ~15,000 people/day.

 

Edited May 30, 2023 by AirNostrumMAD

[CLT Development]

1 hour ago, AirNostrumMAD said:

I’d hope it’s better run and managed when Charlotte is just a light rail line & streetcar line with ~15,000 people/day.

 

Just the Blue Line alone is 35,000, come on now.

[15895]

2 hours ago, CLT Development said:

Just the Blue Line alone is 35,000, come on now.

Has Blue Line ever been 35,000 day?  The Pre-Pandemic average was around 27,500. I don’t know where y’all get y’all’s information sometimes. 

https://charlotte.axios.com/162599/with-58-million-riders-and-3-5-billion-in-development-the-blue-line-is-one-of-charlottes-biggest-success-stories/

And all the previous reporting from CATS (they stopped presenting ridership numbers in 2023. Or they present in a way that’s harder for me to find) don’t show 35,000…

You don’t have to take my word from it, straight from CATs from last summer and last October:

Ridership has not more than doubled on the Blue line since October. 
 

If you’re not going to provide me a fraction of the level/frequency of service, the same breadth of service, the *least* you can do is provide better service… 

 

Edit: I think your 35,000 figure was for all of CATS?  That’s a small fraction (like less than 10%)  of MUNI & BART’s ridership alone, ignoring CalTrain etc.  Give me 1/2 of the service of MUNI & then I’ll be more appreciative that it’s better run than MUNI. 

Edited May 30, 2023 by AirNostrumMAD

[RANYC]

3 hours ago, AirNostrumMAD said:

I’d hope it’s better run and managed when Charlotte is just a light rail line & streetcar line with ~15,000 people/day.

 

From what source did you get 15,000 riders/day across Charlotte's Blue Line and Gold Line?

[15895]

1 hour ago, RANYC said:

From what source did you get 15,000 riders/day across Charlotte's Blue Line and Gold Line?

~35,000 (likely higher than that now as I think that’s late 2022) is for the entire cats system. Van Pools & all. 

Don’t y’all keep up with Ridership? It was previously reported every single month in the MTC Meetings? 15,000 is based on me having followed it monthly and even pre-pandemic I followed when I lived in Charlotte so I just know it was never 35,000… 

But for exact sources: see below (the 2019 article mentions ridership was expected to be 33,500 when the BLE opened but it never “materialized”. ) & y’all think It’s now 35,000? As if that wouldn’t be HUGE news? 

1 hour ago, AirNostrumMAD said:

Has Blue Line ever been 35,000 day?  The Pre-Pandemic average was around 27,500. I don’t know where y’all get y’all’s information sometimes. 

https://charlotte.axios.com/162599/with-58-million-riders-and-3-5-billion-in-development-the-blue-line-is-one-of-charlottes-biggest-success-stories/

And all the previous reporting from CATS (they stopped presenting ridership numbers in 2023. Or they present in a way that’s harder for me to find) don’t show 35,000…

You don’t have to take my word from it, straight from CATs from last summer and last October:

Ridership has not more than doubled on the Blue line since October. 
 

If you’re not going to provide me a fraction of the level/frequency of service, the same breadth of service, the *least* you can do is provide better service… 

 

Edit: I think your 35,000 figure was for all of CATS?  That’s a small fraction (like less than 10%)  of MUNI & BART’s ridership alone, ignoring CalTrain etc.  Give me 1/2 of the service of MUNI & then I’ll be more appreciative that it’s better run than MUNI. 

Edited May 30, 2023 by AirNostrumMAD

[15895]

Found March 2023 numbers that confirms my guesstimate of 15,000 daily weekday ridership for light rail. Which happened to be spot on. 

Figured it must be quite the shock to some given y’all thought light rail alone was 35,000/day. More than it was projected to carry pre-pandemic, lol.

March 2023 Report:
https://www.charlottenc.gov/files/sharedassets/cats/mtc-meeting-summaries-amp-agendas/final-mtc-agenda-packet-for-wednesday-april-26-2023.pdf

All Reports:

https://www.charlottenc.gov/CATS/Boards-and-Committees/Metropolitan-Transit-Commission-MTC#panel-1-5

Breakdown by Routes and Mode from the Report:

 

 

[Rufus]

Interesting compared to the numbers that CATS mentions and are sourced on Wikipedia. But it's also not surprising to see Saturday numbers higher. 

[CLT2014]

50 minutes ago, Rufus said:

Interesting compared to the numbers that CATS mentions and are sourced on Wikipedia. But it's also not surprising to see Saturday numbers higher. 

CATS uses a creative definition of "peak days of 35,000" in news article quotes that is really only a handful of special events that happen a few times a year like Panthers games, concerts, et.. where people that own cars and live in the suburbs park and ride to come to an event.

Normal daily ridership is indeed the stats above... Which also feels accurate for our car loving sprawling city.

[Guest]

Google Maps has finally been updated with the correct colors for the LYNX Blue and Gold lines

[Reverie39]

On 7/31/2023 at 2:09 PM, MothBeast said:

Google Maps has finally been updated with the correct colors for the LYNX Blue and Gold lines

Just noticed this! 

I have NO IDEA if this is a coincidence or not, but both the original (black color) inclusion of the lines and the recent color change happened shortly after I submitted a notice to them under "Edit the map" > "Your opinions about Maps" > "Report an issue".  To top it off, in my last one I also pointed out that NYC commuter lines (NJ transit and Long Island Rail Road) were not visible, and those too were added very quickly (even faster than the Lynx color update). I wonder if this is actually a good way to get through to them? If anyone else has something that can be improved, try that next time and see if it works.

[Guest]

5 hours ago, Reverie39 said:

Just noticed this! 

I have NO IDEA if this is a coincidence or not, but both the original (black color) inclusion of the lines and the recent color change happened shortly after I submitted a notice to them under "Edit the map" > "Your opinions about Maps" > "Report an issue".  To top it off, in my last one I also pointed out that NYC commuter lines (NJ transit and Long Island Rail Road) were not visible, and those too were added very quickly (even faster than the Lynx color update). I wonder if this is actually a good way to get through to them? If anyone else has something that can be improved, try that next time and see if it works.

I feel dumb now. I kept trying to get it done through CATS, of course I should have just gone through Google directly. Maybe it’s like when a bunch of people try opening a jar, because I know other people that were asking Google about it through email and it wasn’t getting done. Thanks for getting the lid off!

Edited August 2, 2023 by Guest

[davidclt]

Lately, I've noticed (more often than not) that the southbound Blue Line trains have been "rebooting" at CTC (long dwell time, headlight and indicator lights go off). 

[kermit]

1 minute ago, davidclt said:

Lately, I've noticed (more often than not) that the southbound Blue Line trains have been "rebooting" at CTC (long dwell time, headlight and indicator lights go off). 

Since I am often on the Blue Line this isn’t a fair sample but I have never encountered this issue on other systems operating Siemans equipment (and I have made lots of trips on other systems and I have been on a bunch of rebooting Blue Line trains). So, it might follow from my skewed sample, that there are people who know how to fix this problem, and all CATS needs to do is hire them.

I am sure operating a transit system isn’t easy, but I am equally sure its not rocket science.

[videtur quam contuor]

Rocket science, ours and other nations', has had too many dramatic and occasionally tragic failures for my taste in metaphors. 

[TCLT]

Finally some movement on the Publix Station. CATS is holding public meetings about it on Tuesday and Wednesday. Announcement is from a couple weeks ago, but I didn't see it posted.

Announcement: CATS Hosts Public Meetings for LYNX Blue Line Station in South End - Charlotte Area Transit System (charlottenc.gov)

Station Info: South End Station - Charlotte Area Transit System (charlottenc.gov)

Edited August 28, 2023 by TCLT
added station info page

[dylansukkert]

Trains into Uptown in the mornings are getting CROWDED! 

[davidclt]

On 8/23/2023 at 12:08 PM, davidclt said:

Lately, I've noticed (more often than not) that the southbound Blue Line trains have been "rebooting" at CTC (long dwell time, headlight and indicator lights go off). 

Train rebooting at noon today... 

[Reverie39]

This is very random but I just wanted to post a small appreciation for the Blue Line having full dedicated right of way (I think that's the correct term) throughout its entire length. I happened to be looking at Houston on GMaps just now... it was sad enough to see only a few rail transit lines in this massive city (only one being of any serious length), and then even more disappointing to find that the longer line basically shares the road with cars for extended chunks. A lot of American cities have light rail, but it is such a broad term and it's easy to forget that Charlotte's Blue Line is actually quite unique among them as far as I know. Soooo many seem to essentially become streetcars, especially in their respective downtowns.

[Windsurfer]

On 8/30/2023 at 10:12 PM, Reverie39 said:

This is very random but I just wanted to post a small appreciation for the Blue Line having full dedicated right of way (I think that's the correct term) throughout its entire length. I happened to be looking at Houston on GMaps just now... it was sad enough to see only a few rail transit lines in this massive city (only one being of any serious length), and then even more disappointing to find that the longer line basically shares the road with cars for extended chunks. A lot of American cities have light rail, but it is such a broad term and it's easy to forget that Charlotte's Blue Line is actually quite unique among them as far as I know. Soooo many seem to essentially become streetcars, especially in their respective downtowns.

Amen!  I just wish it were elevated more in order to allow for neighborhoods to be able to exist without being bisected.

[KJHburg]

After bar fight or fight outside of bar pickup truck is seen driving down the LYNX tracks at Bland.

https://www.wcnc.com/article/news/local/truck-light-rail-tracks-fight-south-end-video-charlotte-nc/275-05bfdfdd-b10e-4b0c-992c-e138fab1fb57

Hope he or she gets a hefty fine and when is the bar being tore down??  Cousins I think owns it now the building anyway but I think they are starting the first phase across the street. 

Edited September 4, 2023 by KJHburg
wrong link sorry!

[kermit]

15 minutes ago, KJHburg said:

After bar fight or fight outside of bar pickup truck is seen driving down the LYNX tracks at Bland.

https://www.realtor.com/realestateandhomes-detail/M5703774056

Hope he or she gets a hefty fine and when is the bar being tore down??  Cousins I think owns it now the building anyway but I think they are starting the first phase across the street. 

^ not sure that is the link you intended

[KJHburg]

2 minutes ago, kermit said:

^ not sure that is the link you intended

correct link sorry

https://www.wcnc.com/article/news/local/truck-light-rail-tracks-fight-south-end-video-charlotte-nc/275-05bfdfdd-b10e-4b0c-992c-e138fab1fb57