Light rail has been with us a week. How is it performing so far?
Its opening weekend went better than its most fervent supporters hoped, with packed trains during a two-day free trial. That was followed by smaller crowds on a cold, rainy Monday, and more crowded trains Tuesday, which included a sold-out Hannah Montana concert uptown that night.
Ridership on the Lynx Blue Line was just under 6,700 trips Monday and roughly 8,000 Tuesday. That averages to about 7,300 for the two days. CATS estimates that ridership will average 9,100 weekday trips in the first year, but CATS chief executive Ron Tober said he believes ridership will creep toward that goal.
"We're very pleased with the ridership," Tober said. "It's greater in the first week than I anticipated."
There have been a number of surprises about Charlotte's light-rail debut.
• Tober said midday trains have been more full than he expected. CATS runs single-car trains during the day, and almost all seats are taken, with some passengers standing. It appears there are as many people going into uptown as are leaving.
• Some park-and-ride lots at the line's southern end have attracted a sizeable number of cars. But lots closer to uptown are mostly empty.
• Trains are mostly running on schedule, though there have been some glitches. One of the biggest problems continues to be with the printers in the ticket vending machines. Passengers have grown frustrated by broken machines or lines at kiosks that are working.
Midday trains with sizeable crowds suggests the train line is doing well appealing to people who are using the train for pleasure trips or errands. Tober said he spent 90 minutes at the Charlotte Transportation Center/Arena station one afternoon last week and was pleased to see crowds on the platform.
"I would see a full car of people drop off, and then the platform would fill up again, with 60 or 70 people," Tober said.
Retiree Bill Gerhart caught an 11 a.m. train Friday at the Archdale station for a trip uptown to Reid's Fine Foods. He isn't a bus rider, but said he has enjoyed the train and will take it again.
"If I have to go anywhere downtown, I don't want to have my car," he said.
But CATS hasn't done as well in attracting new commuters, which are essential to making the line successful.
The biggest park-and-ride lot is at the southern-most station, I-485/South Boulevard. That garage was about one-quarter full Monday, but since then has had considerably more cars. Tober said he counted 468 vehicles one morning last week -- about 40 percent of the station's 1,120 spaces.
The next station on the line -- Sharon Road West -- has been popular with commuters with almost all of its 188 spaces full.
But other stations aren't nearly as crowded. The 432-space Archdale station had just 25 cars by late morning Friday. The 465-space Tyvola lot and the 382-space Woodlawn lot also have been less than one-fourth full.
It's important to note that CATS added more parking spaces as it was designing the line after rail lines in other cities reported they would need more spaces.
"We didn't expect these lots to be full yet," said Olaf Kinard, marketing director for CATS.
One challenge for CATS is that the Lynx Blue Line is operating where there wasn't an express bus line for commuters. CATS still operates express buses from Rock Hill, but it hadn't operated one along South Boulevard. There wasn't an established market for commuters for the Lynx Blue Line to capture.
Still, some express bus riders are driving out of their way for several minutes to catch the train. One Lynx passenger has ditched the Rea Road Express for the train. Another rail passenger, Jason Waldrop, usually takes the Arboretum Express but took the train Friday.
"It took me 10 minutes to get to the station and 25 minutes to get to my office," said Waldrop, who works at Wachovia. "It took me an hour on the bus."
Test of the tickets
Tober said contractors have been working round the clock to fix the printers in the ticket vending machines.
The problems with the kiosks have caused some passengers to board the train without buying a ticket. Inspectors issued warnings to passengers without tickets last week, but Kinard said problems with the ticket machines won't deter inspectors from writing tickets this week.
If a passenger says they couldn't buy a ticket because of a broken machines, inspectors can call the rail operations center to determine if the machine is down.
"They can call in," Kinard said. "And there are at least two machines at each station."
CATS is also working to improve the automated announcements at stations that tell passengers when a train is arriving. Those are triggered by a global positioning system, which needs to be tweaked, Kinard said.
He also said motorists have broken two gate crossing arms, though there haven't been any accidents.
CATS counted each passenger Monday and Tuesday, but has since been counting only about 35 percent of trains. It plans to use infrared people counters in all of its trains for more accurate counts, Kinard said.
CATS plans to release ridership numbers monthly, as it does for its bus system.
It originally reported Monday that ridership would be between 4,500 and 5,000 trips for the day. CATS released that information before all passenger counts had been turned in.
