http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2010/11/18/1846072/cats-will-scale-back-plans-to.html
Still might happen, with a lot fewer stops. Dubois must be wetting himself with excitement.
We can only hope. The rail line would do wonders for our school; I think even more than what is expected. It would help with parking, help with tying in the city, and yes as silly as it sounds, I’m sure it would help attract kids to our school as well. Kids would love being able to party downtown, then hop on the train back to campus…
clt agrees and daps.
I think light rail would be great for the University too but there is a lot of talk in Washington about cutting spending. I wonder since a good percentage of the light rail’s budget comes from Federal dollars if Charlotte city leaders will get as much money as they anticipate for transit. A day is coming when the Federal government is going to have to limit debt as ways to generate revenue to pay for everything. Everyone is going to have to make sacrifices and i’m afraid Charlotte may not get to fulfill its grand transit plan.
The bit I found interesting, that I hadn’t heard about, and provides impetus for them to keep building the line to the university (and soon) is this part:
Flowers said CATS could lose its federal funds and may have to repay $40 million if progress slows too much on the Blue Line. The agency must present the federal government with a plan for the line's construction by next summer.
I also saw a presentation from the university’s architect who said that the Blue Line Extension would never have been approved/get built if it didn’t go through campus due to Federal funding requirements.
There’s too many important people in Charlotte who want this line to get built. Bank of America bought the parcel in the NW corner of Tryon / Mallard Creek Church Road to build an office complex / additional offices for them with the expectation that the light rail would be within walking distance in the near future – there was some sort of tax break (or some other money-saving reason) for them to build close to the future light rail line.
[quote=“emf, post:5, topic:24357”]The bit I found interesting, that I hadn’t heard about, and provides impetus for them to keep building the line to the university (and soon) is this part:
Flowers said CATS could lose its federal funds and may have to repay $40 million if progress slows too much on the Blue Line. The agency must present the federal government with a plan for the line's construction by next summer.
I also saw a presentation from the university’s architect who said that the Blue Line Extension would never have been approved/get built if it didn’t go through campus due to Federal funding requirements.
There’s too many important people in Charlotte who want this line to get built. Bank of America bought the parcel in the NW corner of Tryon / Mallard Creek Church Road to build an office complex / additional offices for them with the expectation that the light rail would be within walking distance in the near future – there was some sort of tax break (or some other money-saving reason) for them to build close to the future light rail line.[/quote]
Actually, the light rail line, in order to divert onto campus, won’t be near the BoA site at Tryon and MCC Rd. It will divert off 29 near McAlister Deli, run beside Cameron Blvd to the station across from Squires, then divert north thru woods, cross MCC Rd between the greenway and the quary entrance and go back onto 29 near the Starlight 14 movie theater.
I know, BofA was expecting like a half mile walk to the MCC Rd. station.
I wish they’d get Cabarrus County involved, get additional funding to get it extended to the Speedway. Maybe they could drive a golden spike halfway at the football stadium? 
BizJournal weighs in:
http://www.bizjournals.com/charlotte/print-edition/2010/11/19/a-shift-in-fortunes-for-transit.html
waste of money
[quote=“MeanJoeGreen, post:9, topic:24357”]waste of money[/quote]You can make that argument for a lot of roads too. Every road isn’t worth its cost. Every road isn’t used to haul freight. Every road isn’t traveled by everyone. There are thousands of miles of roads in NC alone that handle less than a thousand cars per day yet we all pay for it.
I want the light rail to the U for purely selfish reasons. I think it will help the U. The rest of the stuff in there I have little real opinion on. I do love the wonderful example of how our FedGov and its mandates and payouts work though. Classic!
I think that the light rail is incredibly important for the development of this university. It would be huge.
http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2010/12/05/1890559/the-lynx-blue-line-revisited.html
Posted Sunday, Dec. 05, 2010
Between 36th Street and Old Concord Road it looks like it’s sitting right on the rail road. Will it use the existing track there?
gotta play devil’s advocate… what’s the negatives?
more crime?
Seems good for the school… but how good for the University City as a whole?
[quote=“Hooner49, post:14, topic:24357”]Between 36th Street and Old Concord Road it looks like it’s sitting right on the rail road. Will it use the existing track there?[/quote]no. Different kind of track.
This is huge for the University, so IMO, stop taking CHP to task for it. Yes, it will cost a fortune, but there are three ways it will tie the University to the rest of town that make this thing indespensible for the university:
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Connecting nontradition students to downtown (jobs) and elsewhere
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Connecting students with internship jobs, etc downtown without the need for a car and therefore very expensive parking that is a hassle to find
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Connecting students with downtown night life. I know the school would rather not promote this, but it’s a big factor. I wish I could have ridden the choo choo to the clubs and not have to worry about a DD.
More wishful thinking, I wish the school would also seize upon park and ride opportrunities for panthers and bobcats games and the like, and maybe we could get some reciprocal business from those same fans.
[quote=“NinerAdvocate, post:17, topic:24357”]This is huge for the University, so IMO, stop taking CHP to task for it. Yes, it will cost a fortune, but there are three ways it will tie the University to the rest of town that make this thing indespensible for the university:
-
Connecting nontradition students to downtown (jobs) and elsewhere
-
Connecting students with internship jobs, etc downtown without the need for a car and therefore very expensive parking that is a hassle to find
-
Connecting students with downtown night life. I know the school would rather not promote this, but it’s a big factor. I wish I could have ridden the choo choo to the clubs and not have to worry about a DD.
More wishful thinking, I wish the school would also seize upon park and ride opportrunities for panthers and bobcats games and the like, and maybe we could get some reciprocal business from those same fans.[/quote]
LOGIC.
It has no place at this university or on this message board. Please retract all previous statements.
Maybe I have missed it, but alot of speculation on where stops should and shouldnt be are being made as to how to gather the largest “ridership” impact, but I have not seen any numbers. I know its not exact but maybe a survey/questionaire (probably spelled wrong) would be a good idea. After all they are speculating about the people living in these certain areas, that amount of money I would atleast show some trends of people going downtown or the trend of people downtown to U-Area. I am just curious as to how they are suggesting which stop makes a bigger impact, besides the 485 stop, that’s money, just the others are interesting.
It’s absurd to build the northeast line and not go all the way to I485. This will hurt ridership and is short-sighted. Although, considering how things are normally done in this region, I should not be surprised at short-sightedness in large scale decision making or the general South Charlotte bias that rules the county/city government.