Residents pepper CATS with questions

Gold Line? Silver Line? Red Line? CATS provides answers

You’re reading Transit Time, a weekly newsletter for Charlotte people who leave the house. Cars, buses, light rail, bikes, scooters … if you use it to get around the city, we write about it. Transit Time is produced in partnership between The Charlotte Ledger and WFAE.

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At public meetings, CATS provides details of its transit proposals

The Charlotte Area Transit System held two public meetings this week: one in Matthews (above) and another virtually. Officials explained plans for a big transit expansion.

At a pair of community meetings this week, top officials from the Charlotte Area Transit System made themselves available to answer questions from the public about the big transit plan that local leaders hope will move forward this year.

At a virtual meeting Monday and at an in-person gathering in Matthews on Tuesday, CATS officials elaborated on their four possibilities for building new transit lines and expanding bus service — and explained their views on recurring hot-button topics connected to CATS proposals, such as:

• Why do you appear so fixated on extending the underperforming Gold Line?

• What’s the plan to connect the future Silver Line to the airport’s terminal?

• Have you considered using existing rail lines instead of building new ones?

In today’s edition of Transit Time, we’re sharing those questions and the responses of CATS officials to advance your understanding.

Background: Local political and business leaders have proposed a $25 billion plan to expand transit and roads, paid for largely with an increase in Mecklenburg’s sales tax, from 7.25% to 8.25%. For that plan to happen, the state legislature would need to authorize a referendum, and voters would have to approve — neither of which is certain. They’re hoping it can be placed on the ballot in November.

CATS has narrowed a proposed transit expansion to four options. (Courtesy of Charlotte Area Transit System)

On transit lines, CATS has narrowed the possibilities to four options. It is conducting a survey to gauge residents’ preferences and will hold four more meetings in the next two weeks.

➡️ Take the survey

➡️ Learn about upcoming meetings

Here are some of the most interesting questions from residents and CATS’ responses at meetings this week — with a bit of background and context from us:

Gold Line streetcar: How often would it run? Can it go faster? And why are you insistent on extending it?

Q. What will the service frequency be for the Gold Line once it is extended?

(CATS said last year that the existing Gold Line streetcars would run every 20 minutes. They had been every 30 minutes, which some residents have found to be too infrequent.)

CATS Gold Line project manager James Fatula:

That’s definitely something we’re currently looking at improving. I can tell you we’re working on an update to the 30% design of the Gold Line extensions right now and our planning and design include a 15-minute frequency.

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Q. Is there a way to give the Gold Line a dedicated lane or intersection priority at least within uptown to increase its speed and reliability for commuters?

(One complaint about the existing Gold Line is that it is too slow. When it first opened, we clocked it covering its four-mile route in 37 minutes — or 7 minutes slower than a marathon runner we enlisted to race it.)

CATS Gold Line project manager James Fatula:

That’s something that we’ve been taking a look at, is where we can potentially give the streetcar priority. I don’t think uptown is one of the areas. There are a lot of factors that go into signal timing.

But it’s definitely something that we’re looking into for the extension and really putting a heavy focus on how we can increase the runtime and reliability for folks.

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Q. I'm not aware of any requirements either in legislation or principle that mandate the streetcar plan. Is there a justification for why the Gold Line extensions are non-negotiable?

(All four of CATS’ transit scenarios include adding 6 miles to the Gold Line: west to the Rosa Parks Community Transit Center and east to the former Eastland Mall.)

CATS chief development officer Kelly Goforth:

The way that we approached the development of the scenarios is with some key principles. One of those key principles in working with the [Metropolitan Transit Commission] was to serve all corridors, so we looked at the development of the scenarios with that in mind.

So we looked at whether we could change the terminus or shorten the lines or change the mode and develop a financially constrained scenario. So that’s the approach that we took. We did not eliminate any of the corridors as part of that process.

An increased sales tax would help pay for a series of transit line extensions throughout Mecklenburg County — though the details are still being worked out. (Courtesy of Charlotte Area Transit System)

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Silver Line: Could bus rapid transit later become light rail? Will it stop at the airport? Can you use existing freight lines instead?

Q. If bus rapid transit is chosen, can it convert to light rail?

(Three of CATS’ four potential transit scenarios include building bus rapid transit instead of light rail, which would save money.)

Andy Mock, CATS Silver Line senior project manager:

From a Silver Line and a Blue Line Extension perspective, it is a permanent decision. The bridge structures and the infrastructure requirements are so very different between what a bus rapid transit vehicle would be and what a light rail vehicle would be. A light rail vehicle is quite heavy and has very rigid requirements. With bus rapid transit, the vehicle is much smaller.

If you were to build the bridge structures to accommodate both light rail or bus rapid transit, it would be just about as expensive, so there wouldn’t be as much cost savings.

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Q. The Sprinter bus goes to the airport. Will there be light rail that goes straight to the airport?

(“Straight to the airport” is in the eye of the beholder — CATS’ plans call for a future Silver Line stop on Wilkinson Boulevard, about 1 mile from the airport terminal. The airport would then run some sort of connection to the terminal. CATS officials have previously said placing a stop closer to the terminal would be difficult because of the airport’s layout and security concerns and that a Wilkinson stop would be better for economic development. Two of CATS’ four scenarios envision light rail to the airport, and the other two envision bus rapid transit to the airport.)

Andy Mock, CATS Silver Line senior project manager:

The Silver Line West’s locally preferred alternative kind of follows the Wilkinson corridor out to the airport and then has a stop, which would connect to a people-mover near the airport on the northern side of Wilkinson Boulevard.

That’s in coordination with the airport. As they’ve done their long-term master planning, that is the location of the airport stop as adopted by the [Metropolitan Transit Commission].

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Q. Charlotte’s airport recently said their master plan allows for a people-mover, but it is not committed in the plan and could allow a direct rail connection. Has CATS consulted about that possibility?

Andy Mock, CATS Silver Line senior project manager:

We’ve been working with the airport for decades. So we’re aware of the people-mover, and it’s our understanding that if and when this Silver Line would be implemented to the airport area that the people-mover would be a part of the airport’s plan to make that connection.

So we’re aware of the general ideas for some locations for where they intend that people-mover to be and also the connection to the Silver Line West in a general way. We do not have specific details for how those connections would occur at the moment. If and when the Silver Line West moves forward, we would want to engage with much more detailed coordination and communication with the airport about how and when those accommodations could be made.

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Q. Has CATS evaluated commuter rail options for Matthews or in other communities, similar to Red Line service?

(This is an apparent reference to an idea floated recently by a group of urbanists to use existing freight rail lines owned by CSX and Norfolk Southern that run from Matthews to uptown to the airport, close to the existing path of the proposed Silver Line. You can read about that idea here, from a Transit Time article in January.)

Andy Mock, CATS Silver Line senior project manager:

We’ve heard that request from several folks from the community. We have not evaluated that any deeper than providing some thoughts.

I think that if that’s something that the community wants us to look at, I think that would have to be a future conversation about what that service would look like, and can we actually physically do that service?

I think that would be a complete unknown for us at this point. So it would be a brand new kind of idea and evaluation that we have not looked at in the past.

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Blue Line: Would it run more frequently?

Q. After new funding, will the Blue Line run at 8-minute frequencies again?

(The Blue Line runs every 15 minutes during peak times.)

Andy Mock, CATS Silver Line senior project manager:

We would look to improve the frequency of the Blue Line. I think that the first step will be in that kind of 10-minute range versus the 8-minute, but that will largely be dependent upon the amount of vehicles and operators we have available.

We will look to improve frequency on the Blue Line with new funding.

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Red Line: When would it actually open?

Q. What is the time of completion for the Red Line opening for actual service, not just design?

CATS Red Line project manager Brian Nadolny:

If the sales tax is passed this year, we’ll go into 30% design, and then we’ll be entering the federal process, so there are a lot of factors that take place.

But it looks like it would be somewhere between eight to 10 years for that to be implemented.

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Miscellaneous topics: What would be built first? Will you crack down on fare jumpers? What’s up with the Charlotte Transportation Center?

Q. For all the scenarios, in what order would they be constructed?

Andy Mock, CATS Silver Line senior project manager:

We don’t 100% know the implementation strategy for all of them. I think we can say pretty confidently that because of the legislative requirements that the Red Line would be the first major capital project out of the gate, along with the Better Bus.

The operating will be fully open within five years, and capital or the bus stops would be within 10.

We know that the Red Line is the first required capital project after that. After that, I think we get into further analysis required to really understand what makes sense from an implementation perspective.

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Q. How is CATS going to ensure that all passengers pay their fare to enter the system?

Andy Mock, CATS Silver Line senior project manager:

We do have fare monitoring on the system, especially on the Blue Line. We do have fare officers or police.

This continues to be an area of focus for us to try to improve the fare enforcement overall. We do have the fares collected onboard buses, so that’s a very clear requirement.

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Q. Any news on the Charlotte Transportation Center redevelopment? When will renovation start at the CTC?

(The city of Charlotte originally proposed moving uptown’s bus station underground as part of a public-private redevelopment of the site, but those plans fell through, and CATS now says it is planning to renovate the site.)

CATS chief development officer Kelly Goforth:

We have been working on an evaluation of the conditions at the CTC for the past several months. We know that improvements are needed both for our customers as well as our employees.

So we anticipate that we’ll have some recommendations coming to the Metropolitan Transit Commission over the next couple of months so that we can begin some of those immediate improvements that are needed.

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You can watch the full CATS virtual meeting from Monday, including its transit presentation and Q&A period:

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Tickets now available for Regional Transportation Summit on April 24; hear from state and local leaders

The upcoming Regional Transportation Summit will bring together key leaders and experts to discuss the future of mobility and infrastructure in the Charlotte region.

Organized by the nonprofit South Charlotte Partners, the event will take place on Thursday, April 24, from 8 a.m. to noon at TPC Piper Glen. Topics will include major transportation initiatives, infrastructure development and mobility strategies affecting the region’s growth.

Speakers are expected to include Charlotte Mayor Vi Lyles, City Councilman Ed Driggs and representatives from the N.C. Department of Transportation, Charlotte Douglas International Airport and the commercial real estate development industry.

The event is open to the public. Tickets are $100 and include breakfast. Early registration is encouraged due to high demand, and sponsorship opportunities are available.

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