Originally the light rail was going to Fort Mill, the Speedway, and Mooresville. Extending into another state and 2 more counties moved Charlotte’s light rail to the top of the list.
Fort Mill and SC were dropped when Pineville discovered the light rail tracks would destroy the only cute part of the town. Too bad it couldn’t be directed through a 1/2 empty shopping center.
The outlying counties in NC, Cabarrus and Iredell, have rebuffed all efforts to pay their share of the cost of extending the light rail to those areas. Lowe’s wants the light rail extended to Mount Mourne, but the cost is too high.
I think someone else posted this earlier, the new train station will allow commuters to ride Amtrak from Salisbury and Kannapolis to downtown Charlotte.
There’s some barriers, such as schedule (earliest train currently arrives at like 09:30 in Charlotte) and price ($7.50 one way from Kannapolis). I do notice that it appears the track is being upgrading to be two tracks but currently it is not. That’s also a significant barrier to increased traffic along that corridor.
On the bright side, the City of Kannapolis recently tweeted to me that they’re in discussion with Amtrak about service changes. If I could get into the new Gateway station by a reasonable time, I’d make that my daily transportation option.
There is planning for one more round trip between Charlotte and Raleigh which would be 4 Piedmonts and then the one Carolinian that runs Charlotte-Raleigh-New York. When that happens it could make for some time changes that would allow the first train into Charlotte in time for 9 am jobs and maybe also be the case for Raleigh as well.
Another option would be to run a commuter train (under the jurisdiction of Amtrak most likely) from Kannapolis or Salisbury into Charlotte to arrive in time for 9 am jobs and then leave a bit after 5 pm.
I have heard no talk about the later but the former, from what I have read, is in the planning stages.
That was only the residents of Davidson…same people crying about all the development up there now. Must be a miserable existence when you reject progress.
I am not a train guy, but is the train you are talking about the Amtrak Carolinian that runs from Raleigh to Charlotte and back, twice a day? I would guess that it will not get here earlier because they are already starting very early in Raleigh. I think the second track is open isn’t it? We used to live in Harrisburg and when they were building that out they said there were 37 trains per day that came through. The second track was to help congestion once trains got into the metro area, but they join back up into one track at some point so I am not sure the second track really boosts overall capacity. @McLeansvilleAppFan could probably give you the real scoop on this, because he is a self-professed train nerd.
From the Kannapolis station it’s two tracks S until just prior to Rocky River Road. It briefly becomes two again but that’s just a merge track from what was once Phillip Morris. There appears to be right-of-way and work to expand to two tracks but I don’t follow it closely enough to be sure.
What I hope will come to pass is additional Amtrak local service beyond the existing service.
Some of the double track, from my understanding, is really just a long siding that allows freight trains to pull over and get out of the way of Amtrak. In some places it truly is double track where trains are moving on both tracks at full speed. Driving over a crossing where 2 tracks are does not really indicate if this is double track or a passing siding, unless one of the tracks is very much not kept up to the same standards so the ties are much more worn, more grass growing etc, and then it is a bit more obvious it is just a siding to park and wait for a bit.
McLeasnville has a long passing siding but it looks like double track to me.
Here are the current times when trains arrive and leave CLT
The Crescent runs to Greensboro and then Charlottesville, VA and does not visit Raleigh. Everything else goes to Raleigh at least.
For the 73 to arrive in time for 9 am jobs it would need to leave Raleigh around 5:40. which is a bit early in the morning but seats are plenty roomy for a nice nap. Google has the drive time as 3 hours between Raleigh and Charlotte so essentially the same start time.
If you were to do this as a commuter 5 days a week for work you could purchase a multi-ride ticket and save some. And using Amtrak loyalty plans you could eventually earn some free trips bringing the cost down. Looking at what a Greensboro-Raleigh or Greensboro-Charlotte ticket costs from memory and what they charge for 10 rides I am thinking it is around 50% off.
In big cities up north there are lots of trains that run from city cores to affluent smaller towns. I’m sure that there are statistics on this somewhere. It just seems dubious to me that criminals and miscreants would take a train from somewhere in Charlotte into Harrisburg. 1. It takes a long time to get from one to the other and you’re likely video tapes coming and going at a station. 2. It is really hard to make a quick getaway on a light rail or commuter train. This isn’t the London tube we’re talking about here that arrives every 5 minutes. 3. How do you transport your loot on the light rail. 4. People coming into a small town via rail to commit crimes probably stick out like a sore thumb and will be identified easily. 5. Professional criminals would just drive to Harrisburg and commit their crimes rather than take a train. 6. No professional criminals and hell raisers would find a more target rich environment in Charlotte.
No it doesn’t. It’s just irrational. Overreaction with overtones I won’t go into here.
BUT…here’s something real. Someone has been robbing people at a BofA ATM in Ballantyne in the past few weeks. Wonder what non-existent train he took into one of the wealthiest sections of Charlotte. See? Crime is, and can be, and will be, WHERE EVER THE HELL the criminal wants it to be.
Very well thought out. When the blue line opened this was brought up and I found some research about this topic. I am not sure if there is enough research for a meta study bit there is some.
What o found was one study showed no correlation between mass transit and crime. I may be misremembering some of this but it seems one study I found was from your very own University.
I just found this about the AT&O that runs up from Charlotte to Davidson and at one time to Statesville. Somewhere this line was mentioned in this thread. Some great history even if trains are not your thing. I thought some might enjoy it.