Charlotte.com: Transit Issues

Trolley joining Lynx on light-rail tracks

Thu, 17 Apr 2008 07:40 EDT

Charlotte's trolley, which some credit with laying the groundwork for light rail, will resume service again Sunday after a two-year hiatus.

Three replica trolleys will run from uptown to the historic South End, using the same tracks as the Lynx Blue Line.

The trolleys are a tourist draw, a link to the city's past when streetcars were a key way to get around. But the trolley service will also have some practical benefit: In the middle of the day, the trolleys will mean more frequent service from uptown to the South End.

The nonprofit Charlotte Trolley began using a restored streetcar on a small rail spur in the South End in the late 1990s. The city later expanded the service through uptown to 9th Street, and the Charlotte Area Transit System began operating the trolley. Service stopped in 2006 for light-rail construction.

Ron Tober, Charlotte Trolley's executive director, headed CATS before he stepped down at the end of last year. He said the trolley helped convince Mecklenburg voters in 1998 to approve the half-cent sales tax for mass transit. That tax funds most of CATS' budget.

Tober said Sunday's 1 p.m. celebration at the Atherton Mill Trolley Barn will be a "soft opening."

The trolley will operate at first on weekends before running on weekdays in mid-May. The Charlotte Area Transit System, which operates light rail and will run the trolley, wants to ensure that the introduction of the trolley doesn't disrupt the Lynx, which has so far been on schedule.

"We're doing dry runs right now," said CATS chief operating officer Jim Zingale. "We're hoping to finalize how long that trip will take."

A one-way trolley fare will be $1.30 -- the same as a Lynx ticket and bus fare. At trolley stations that aren't served by the Lynx and don't have ticket machines -- Atherton Mill, Tremont, Morehead and 9th Street -- passengers can buy a ticket on board.

The operating budget for the Lynx is about $11.5 million. The trolley budget is about $200,000.

If the Lynx is extended to the University City area next decade, Charlotte would have a 21-mile rail line, and there might not be time or space to run the trolleys, Tober said. He said that if CATS builds a streetcar as planned, the trolley replicas could operate on those tracks.

CATS originally planned to use the historic No. 85 trolley car, which was refurbished with private donations and then improved again with taxpayer dollars. But the federal government said the 80-year-old trolley car couldn't withstand a collision with the Lynx trains, relegating the No. 85 to a ceremonial role.

The No. 85 car was built in Charlotte in 1927 and used until 1938, when it was retired as part of a "Goodbye to Trolleys" celebration.

The No. 85 will be a part of Sunday's celebration, making a round trip from Atherton Mill to uptown and back.

It may then reside in the new trolley museum, which is being built near the Bland Street light-rail station.

Key vote set on Lynx's next step

Sat, 26 Jan 2008 16:03 EST

Charlotte City Council is scheduled to vote Monday on spending up to $30 million in transit sales tax money for a detailed engineering study on extending light rail to the University City area -- a decision that's not without risk.

Though the federal government has given the 11-mile extension its initial blessing, there is no guarantee it will ultimately pay for half of the estimated $750 million construction cost.

That possibility was reinforced Thursday when the Federal Transit Administration stunned Washington D.C.'s Metro by saying it won't spend $900 million to extend a train to Dulles International Airport, unless drastic changes are made. The Dulles project has been in the works for much of this decade, and was farther along than Charlotte's extension.

Charlotte Area Transit System chief executive Keith Parker said Friday the Charlotte project is "quite different" than the costly Dulles extension.

"(The federal government) has been telling Metro all along that this project has issues," Parker said.

Transit projects seeking federal money must go through an arduous process that often takes years. The first step is being approved for engineering work. The final step is when the FTA and a local transit authority enter into a contract to build the project at a certain price.

In Charlotte, the Lynx Blue Line met all criteria, and the federal government paid for half of the construction costs. A proposed commuter-rail line to the Lake Norman Area wasn't approved for preliminary engineering work, and CATS is hoping towns and the county pay for some of the funding gap.

In early November, the federal government approved the northeast extension of the Lynx line for engineering. Without the FTA initial approval, the project likely would have died.

The University City extension met more stringent criteria than the South Boulevard light-rail line, and scored in the "medium" range. The Dulles extension in Washington D.C., which also had been approved for engineering work, was rated "medium-low," according to a letter FTA chief James Simpson sent to Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine Thursday.

Parker said he plans to communicate with FTA closely during the two years it's anticipated to conduct the engineering study.

"Let's say that one year from now we have done 10 percent of preliminary engineering and things are looking dismal, I will come back and say, `Let's not go forward.' "

Parker told members of the Metropolitan Transit Commission Wednesday night that he's confident the project can be built with federal help.

One factor in Charlotte's favor is that higher than projected ridership for the Lynx Blue Line will boost the expected performance of the University City extension. The Lynx was projected to average 9,100 weekday riders in its first year; the train averaged more than 12,000 weekday riders in December, its first full month of operation.

CATS estimates ridership through a random sampling of trains. It will use automatic people counters in its cars in a few months.

Engineering work on the northeast extension is important because the line will be much more difficult to build than the 9.6-mile rail line along South Boulevard.

Not only is it longer, it will have twice as many grade crossings and more than 5 miles of the line must be built in the median of North Tryon Street.

Parker said CATS hopes to pay the engineering work through earmarks from Congress. CATS is waiting on approval of nearly $5 million from Congress later this year.

Graphic | CATS Bus service could dwindle

Sat, 18 Aug 2007 23:26 EDT

Graphic | Proposed Rapid Transit Corridors

Sat, 18 Aug 2007 23:31 EDT