Charlotte's Light Rail: Lynx Blue Line

[AuLukey]

Ok, so is it just me or would it have been a lot smarter for the city to gone ahead and laid LRT tracks on North Tryon where they rebuilding the 29/49/City Blvd intersection and the 85 connector? (Much like what they did in Elizabeth.) If they went ahead and added the tracks to this construction and included land acquisition for the light rail in with this project, the price on the NE blue line could have been brought down at least a little making it more likely to be passed.

[tozmervo]

My understanding from the BLE meetings last month was that those upgrades (among others) would likely be rolled into one large project ala the South Corridor Infrastructure project.

[uptownliving]

Good News for the Federal Funding for the Blue Line Extention.. The current Omnibus FY09 Funding Bill contains $20M for the Blue Line which is twice what the City Requsted for FY09. This still has to be approved by the House and Senate, etc. but good that it is still in the bill as this level of funding. Looks like they are trying to milk the Feds for all they can get for this line.

[cha]

I don't know if this has been posted, but PBS did a short program on Charlotte and its light rail/mass transit, and the current stimulus money. You can check out the awesomeness that is this video at the Charlotte Center City Partner's website.

http://www.charlottecentercity.org/nav.cfm...b=0&id=2361

It also discusses the transportation politics of states, in particular north carolina, and how the money is sometimes allocated purely on the basis of politics and not where the money truly could be best used.

A good view!

[Andyc545]

I don't know if this has been posted, but PBS did a short program on Charlotte and its light rail/mass transit, and the current stimulus money. You can check out the awesomeness that is this video at the Charlotte Center City Partner's website.

http://www.charlottecentercity.org/nav.cfm...b=0&id=2361

It also discusses the transportation politics of states, in particular north carolina, and how the money is sometimes allocated purely on the basis of politics and not where the money truly could be best used.

A good view!

Wow I think a different variation of this link for the movie has been made on almost every active topic now in the Charlotte based forum! Haha! It's a wonderful video fwiw.

[grodney]

So, the "route change" notices are in all the lynx trains now: On Monday we will switch to 10-minute intervals on weekdays rushes. I really hope this means the end of single-car units. Friday afternoons can get a little like the Japanese video above.

[atlrvr]

It wasn't posted on here, but the NE extension of the LRT line is getting $20M in federal funds in the $400B omnibus spending bill. The funds are courtesy of a $20M earmark by Sue Myrick, even though she ended up voting against the bill. The bill passed, so the money stays.

[southslider]

This outside funding for designing BLE hopefully translates into fewer operational cuts the next time around, since County sales tax receipts keep falling.

[southslider]

In the old paradigm, you'd think a Harris-Tryon grade-separation would precede the Blue Line Extension, which would precede Southeast High Speed Rail. But now, it looks like it may end up being completely the reverse. A new era in transportation priorities, perhaps?

Only problem now is coordinating SEHSR and BLE within the same NCRR right-of-way. And the latest news is that the SEHSR may be switching from the NoDa side to the Tryon side. While perhaps an opportunity to again have the 36th Street station on the more befitting NoDa side, it certainly throws a curve ball into design, given the historic status of Johnston and Mecklenburg Mills.

And in other surprising news, the SEHSR may now relocate the AC&W out of the heart of NoDa onto a new alignment that connects more quickly over to the NCRR after going under Sugar Creek Road near The Plaza. If so, maybe the former AC&W right-of-way between Anderson and Highland Mill could become a greenway and/or new street for NoDa.

Edited March 2, 2009 by southslider

[New Name]

^WOOOOOAH... I'm speechless. Maybe Santa got to my wishlist a little late this year, but at least he got it!

Where is this talk coming from?

[Andyc545]

How would this effect/postpone the time frame for the NE Extension? Wouldn't it now be set back to Stage 1 (Planning) and have to go through all that it has again, likely pushing a date of completion back another 2 years?

[southslider]

Supposedly, 15% design is being wrapped up. So I guess they will try to address this new "curve ball" in the next stage of preliminary engineering, which is 30% design. Alignments can change post alternatives analysis, but you do then have to amend your environmental documents before getting FTA approval to go into final design.

Edited March 3, 2009 by southslider

[orulz]

Supposedly, 15% design is being wrapped up.

Are you referring to 15% design on BLE or on SEHSR?

[southslider]

Are you referring to 15% design on BLE or on SEHSR?

BLE, and they being CATS. If SEHSR, I wouldn't have said FTA, but I apologize for any confusion.

[monsoon]

Charlotte has a page on Urbanrail.net This site is known for highlighting rail systems around the world.

http://www.urbanrail.net/am/america.htm

[Neo]

I can't believe no one has mentioned this yet, but CATS is getting $20.5B from the $410B federal spending bill that just passed for engineering and design of the NE extension. While this is a leftover from the Bush era, I see no reason why Obama wouldn't have signed off on this had it been included under his complete reign. It is great to see the NE continue to receive funding as it shows continued interest in the project.

[gman430]

I can't believe no one has mentioned this yet, but CATS is getting $20.5B from the $410B federal spending bill that just passed for engineering and design of the NE extension. While this is a leftover from the Bush era, I see no reason why Obama wouldn't have signed off on this had it been included under his complete reign. It is great to see the NE continue to receive funding as it shows continued interest in the project.

20.5 billion? I'm hoping you meant 20.5 million instead. I can't believe a rail line in Charlotte would cost 20.5 billion to build. That is absurd.

Edited March 11, 2009 by citylife

[gman430]

I just checked into it and there is no way it could be $20.5 billion. The bill contains 7,991 earmarks totaling $5.5 billion, according to the Republican staff of the House Appropriations Committee. The watchdog group Taxpayers for Common Sense puts the total at $7.7 billion. The total amount doesn't even come close to $20.5 billion.

Edited March 11, 2009 by citylife

[monsoon]

There is actually a huge controversy over this money. The CATS $20.5M was placed into the bill as an earmark by Watts and Myrick. (Myrick said she was voting against it, however. She was making a protest on earmarks in general.) This is one of the 8000 earmarks that were placed into that spending bill last November. They have been fighting over this over the last few weeks and Obama's position has been this is old business that was decided before his administration, so he would go ahead and sign it. There have been some attempts to strip the earmarks out, but in the end, both parties had the earmarks and so they stayed in. Obama was not going to fight an old spending bill.

It wasn't any reflection on his support or lack thereof for CATS or any other earmark in the bill.

He did say today, there won't be another bill like this.

[New Name]

So is this 20.5M inline with the scheduled funding process? Or is this 20.5M extra (that will then speed up the process, expand the design options, or change the timeline?)

[monsoon]

CATS said that it would take $30M or so or in funding to do the necessary engineering work required to submit an application to the federal New Starts process to determine if the line would be approved for construction or not. This $20.5M earmark goes towards that sum of money. It is not extra money to speed things up or make additions.

Generally this kind of thing has been funded by earmarks. Keep in mind, and to put it into perspective, the Raleigh Durham TTA Commuter Rail project consumed $120M in federal earmarks until it was canceled as not being cost effective. Part of the money however was used to develop a new set of cars that were used on another project up north supported by one of the more powerful senators.

[Neo]

20.5 billion? I'm hoping you meant 20.5 million instead. I can't believe a rail line in Charlotte would cost 20.5 billion to build. That is absurd.

Sorry, I meant $20.5M

He did say today, there won't be another bill like this.

While it was an earmark, no one can positively say that Obama would be against funding for this type of thing considering is is on the 'green' train of sorts and is certainly up for expanding rail transit in this country, something that was missing from the previous administration.

[uptownliving]

CATS said that it would take $30M or so or in funding to do the necessary engineering work required to submit an application to the federal New Starts process to determine if the line would be approved for construction or not. This $20.5M earmark goes towards that sum of money. It is not extra money to speed things up or make additions.

As I posted earlier in this thread....this $20M appropriation is twice what CATS had requested for FY2009.... so yes this will help fill in some budget gaps and while it probably wont speed anything up...it will prevent some delays.

[monsoon]

....

While it was an earmark, no one can positively say that Obama would be against funding for this type of thing considering is is on the 'green' train of sorts and is certainly up for expanding rail transit in this country, something that was missing from the previous administration.

I didn't mean to say he was against transit or CATS or for it for that matter. The point I was attempting to make was this money got approved with all of the other thousands of earmarks for just about everything under the sun. There is something wrong with the process where Myrick puts the CATS earmark on the plate only to vote against it. It is clear that from this point on, this type of funding is going to disappear so additional plans for earmarks will have to be adjusted.

.......this $20M appropriation is twice what CATS had requested for FY2009.... ...

Indeed. It's an example why Obama says the current earmark process is not something that he wants to see in future bills.

[southslider]

If truly twice what CAT requested, then how does the "extra $10 million" translate into the budget? Is this $10 million fewer cuts as sales tax receipts dwindle? Or does this help CATS come closer to meeting the promised one-third County sales-tax match (per 2030 System Plan) for implementing North CR (aka Purple Line)?