CATS flip-flops on uptown bus station

The Charlotte Area Transit System now prefers a street-level bus station — not the underground option it pushed for in 2022

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Transit system abandons the idea to build an underground bus station, which it had pushed as the best option for passengers; now says street-level is ‘clearly the preference’

The Charlotte Area Transit System pushed for an underground bus station uptown in 2022 and 2023, as part of a deal with a private developer. Now, CATS says it prefers the station be at ground level. (Rendering from City of Charlotte)

by Steve Harrison
WFAE

For the last two years, the Charlotte Area Transit System has pushed to move the main bus station across the street from the Spectrum Center to a new location on the same spot: underground.

With the station moved below ground, the city planned to partner with a private developer to build a new mixed-use tower on the site. The city hoped the new tower — and a lack of a visible bus station and bus riders — would create a new, family-friendly entertainment district in and around the arena. The tower was also supposed to house a new practice facility for the Charlotte Hornets.

The idea was controversial, however.

Some transit advocates, like the group Sustain Charlotte, questioned whether it was a good idea to spend tens of millions of dollars to place bus passengers underground. They were concerned the underground transit center would be depressing, with no natural light, and would be a place where safety problems would fester because the station was out of sight. And until CATS transitions to electric buses, concerns about ventilation and diesel fumes are higher underground.

Former CATS chief executive Ron Tober said the underground bus station was a bad idea. Transit Time wrote several stories questioning the plan.

Now, Brent Cagle, the interim CATS chief executive, is saying much the same thing.

In an interview last week, Cagle said a street-level, or “at-grade,” bus station is best.

“When we think about a below-grade Charlotte Transit Center, it can work. Is it the preference? Absolutely not,” said Cagle, who took over CATS at the end of 2022 after the early planning work on the underground station had begun.

He continued: “Our preference would always be for the CTC to be at-grade. It’s easier to operate. It’s easier to get buses in and out if they don’t have to come up and down ramps. It’s cheaper to operate the facility. Clearly, our preference is at-grade.”

Actually, it wasn’t always clear.

The reason: CATS spent much of the last two years telling elected officials and the public that an at-grade, or street-level, bus station wouldn’t work.

CATS denigrated rebuilding bus station at street level

Moving the bus station underground was first proposed by the city’s economic development director, Tracy Dodson, and former CATS chief executive John Lewis, who left at the end of 2022.

In early 2023, CATS chief planning officer Jason Lawrence told City Council members that the transit system was studying three options for the bus station.

The first option would be to rebuild it at-grade. The second would be to build it on the second and third floors of the new tower, an option CATS called the “terrace.” The third option was “concourse,” or below-ground.

Lawrence eliminated the at-grade option as not being practical. Here is a slide he showed City Council members:

Note the lower left statement that the “at grade option does not meet passenger expectations.”

Compare that to what Cagle said in January 2025 that “clearly our preference is at-grade.”

How can CATS in a short amount of time — 24 months — do a complete reversal? We will get to that momentarily.

There are other problems with the slide, such as CATS claiming that the below-ground option offered “some improvement” for people connecting from “bus to rail.” Considering that for a bus passenger today to connect from the CTC to the Gold Line streetcar, all they have to do is walk in a straight line about 25 yards! That's much faster than taking an escalator or elevator up one or two floors.

The slide also claimed there would be “no improvement” in terms of having a climate-controlled facility with a street-level option. What CATS neglected to say is that the current main bus station already has climate-controlled waiting rooms.

I asked Cagle about this last week. My question: If building an at-grade bus station is “clearly” the preference, why did CATS officials like Lawrence say repeatedly that it was not a feasible option?

Cagle said it was about money. As originally envisioned, the city would team up with private developers for a structure above the bus station that would include a hotel, retail, food hall, parking and a Charlotte Hornets training center.

“The original bus facility — below grade and underground — was valued at $90 million. CATS would have had a cash outlay of roughly $12 million. That’s a smoking deal. That’s a very good deal.”

He added: “But what changed is that the deal isn’t feasible. The costs have gone up, the (tax-increment financing) isn’t going to happen.”

But that answer doesn’t really explain why CATS denigrated the idea of a street-level bus station for months. The transit system never said that money was a factor and portrayed the underground bus station as the best choice for transit.

The plan for the Charlotte Transportation Center site was to move the bus station below ground and build office space, parking, a food hall, a hotel and a Hornets practice center above it. (Rendering from City of Charlotte)

What’s changed

In the last few months, the landscape inside the Government Center has changed.

The biggest champion for the underground bus station was Dodson, the economic development director. She worked with the developer, White Point Partners, to push for the new tower. To sell the project to City Council members, she repeatedly said the new tower was a “transit-first” project.

That deal seems to have fallen apart. The Charlotte Hornets abandoned the idea of building the practice facility inside the tower and instead is building it on a city-owned gravel lot near the arena.

And Dodson is leaving the city for a top job at the Charlotte Regional Business Alliance, where she’ll head economic development efforts from a private-sector perch.

The drive to build the original tower — and move the bus station underground — divided city officials, according to e-mails from the city attorney’s office reported by WFAE.

Attorneys for the city complained that Dodson was misleading the City Council on how good the Hornets deal was. One attorney wrote the city was “taking dictation from the Hornets.” Dodson has said she didn’t mislead the council and that the attorney’s office was overstepping its role as legal advisors, WFAE reported earlier this month.

It's unclear if CATS felt the same pressure to move forward with the plan for the bus station and the tower.

With Dodson out of the picture, it’s now apparently safe for CATS to stop pretending that moving the bus station underground makes operational, not just fiscal, sense.

In the meantime, Cagle said CATS plans to renovate the existing 30-year-old bus station, including improving waiting rooms and bathrooms.

(It should be noted that Lewis, the former CATS chief executive, said the 30-year-old bus station was near the end of its useful life and no longer viable. Cagle apparently sees that differently.)

But the push to redevelop the area around the arena hasn’t gone away: Cagle said CATS is studying whether it makes sense to move the bus station somewhere else uptown.

Steve Harrison is a reporter with WFAE, Charlotte’s NPR news source. Reach him at sharrison@wfae.com.

Related Transit Time articles:

• “Why move Charlotte’s bus station underground?” (June 9, 2022)

• “More questions on CATS’ push for underground bus station” (Nov. 10, 2022)

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