Charlotte Area Transit System

CATS
File:Catslogo2.gif
Overview
Locale	Charlotte/Metrolina, North Carolina
Transit type	Bus and Light Rail (as LYNX)
Number of lines	30 local, 15 express
Daily ridership	20,875,635 a year (2004)
Operation
Operator(s)	Government of Charlotte-Mecklenburg (Charmeck)

The Charlotte Area Transit System, commonly referred to as CATS, is the public transit system in Charlotte, North Carolina, USA. It operates bus service around the Metrolina area and a historical trolley in Uptown Charlotte, and operates a light rail system, called LYNX which opened on November 24th, 2007.

Ronald J. Tober is the current head of CATS. In August of 2007, Ron Tober announced his retirement by the end of the year. On August 19th, 2007 the Charlotte Observer revealed that mass transit on Charlotte's existing bus-only system has increased ridership by 66% since 1998, but its operating budget had increased by 170% after adjusting for inflation.

Bus/trolley service

CATS bus service serves Mecklenburg County, North Carolina, with service in Charlotte, Davidson, Huntersville, Cornelius, Matthews, Pineville, and Mint Hill.

Express buses in the CATS system serve Union County, Lincoln County, Concord, Gastonia, and Mooresville, North Carolina, and Rock Hill, South Carolina.

Within uptown Charlotte, there is a heritage trolley, the Charlotte Trolley. The 2-mile trolley route runs on a railroad right-of-way, which will later be used by the new light rail line. The trolley uses a vintage car, the only remaining original electric trolley car in operation in Charlotte, and is operated between the non-profit organization, Charlotte Trolley Inc., and the City of Charlotte.

CATS also operates the Special Transportation Service (STS) which provides transportation to people with disabilities certified as eligible based on the Americans with Disabilities Act guidelines. STS provides service during the same times and in the same locations as the fixed route bus service.

CATS operates 200 buses in the fleet. The transit system is the largest in operation between Atlanta, Georgia (MARTA) and Washington, D.C. (Metro).

Route Designations

• 1-39 - local routes in various areas of the city
• 40-89 - express routes (often designated with an X) from downtown to various park and ride lots
• 90-99 - North Mecklenburg circulator routes
• 200-299 - community circulator routes

Rail transit - LYNX

Main article: LYNX Rapid Transit Services

On November 24th, 2007, the first light rail line—a 9.6-mile (15.5-km) line known as the Lynx Blue Line— opened. It runs between Uptown Charlotte and stop short of Pineville, using a railroad right-of-way paralleling South Boulevard in its entirety. The line has 15 stations, it shares trackage with the Charlotte Trolley from the Atherton Mill station to the 7th Street station.

Subsequently expected to open is a light rail line to the northeast. It will open in phases, with the first phase to reach 36th Street in 2013 and the second phase to reach I-485, at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, in 2018. The corridor will be 14 miles (22.4 km) long, with 14 stations.

On February 22, 2006, the Charlotte Area Transit System announced that its rapid rail lines will be called the "Lynx." (Lynx system map). The name fits in with the city’s cat theme (NFL team is Carolina Panthers; NBA team is Charlotte Bobcats, as well "Lynx" was mainly chosen because the light rail is about "connectivity."

The rapid rail cars will be black, silver and blue. Gold will appear around the "Lynx" logo to tie in the history of the Charlotte region being home to the first major U.S. Gold Rush.

A commuter rail line is also planned. It will go from Uptown to the northern suburbs of Huntersville, Cornelius, Davidson, and Mooresville.

Modern streetcars are also planned, with a circulator route around uptown as well as routes radiating out of downtown.

Bus rapid transit

Bus rapid transit is also being examined by CATS for corridors. It was originally slated to be on the Southeast Corridor to Matthews and the West Corridor to the Charlotte/Douglas International Airport; however, the SE Corridor is expected to be a light rail line and the West Corridor to the airport could either be a BRT or streetcar line.

2002-2004 Financial and Ridership Data

• 2002

  Passenger trips: 16,587,199

• 2003

  Passenger trips: 18,888,550

• 2004

  Passenger trips: 20,875,635

• 2002-2004:

  Ridership increased 13.8%

• 1997-2005: Service Consumption Versus Costs: (costs adjusted for inflation at 3.5% per year)

  Ridership(unlinked trips): +52%

  Operational cost per passenger trip: +66%

  Operational cost per vehicle mile: +6%

  Operational cost per vehicle hour: +16%

Source: National Transit Database'

Controversy

For the Charlotte area, the 2030 Transit Corridor System Plan is now projected to cost $8.9 billion, out of a total of $12.7 billion for all transportation projects slated for the Charlotte region (MUMPO 2030 Long Range Plan and 2030 Transit Corridor System Plan) while providing a viable means of transportation for just 2-3% of the Charlotte region's travel needs, and 1% of all regional travel, according to Dr. David Hartgen, PhD, and professor of Transportation Policy Studies at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte.

In addition, Charlotte barely won approval for Federal funding for LYNX, just before the Federal government raised its projected ridership requirements to receive Federal funding for light rail. Since that time, ridership estimates for LYNX have been revised down, and cost estimates have been revised upwards. Costs will likely only to continue to rise as the overwhelming majority of cities that have bus-only, versus bus and rail systems, overwhelmingly have higher costs on all of the following measures: vehicle mile, vehicle revenue mile, vehicle hour, and ridership. Lastly, since federal funding for rail was approved, and a local half-cent sales tax for mass transit approved in 1998, ridership on CATS' bus system has increased 52%, but costs have skyrocketed 234%, or about 70% when adjusted for inflation. And bus fare subsidy was nearly doubled from 14% to 26.7% of its total operating budget.

The light rail system and the half-cent sales tax used to fund transit operations have been subject to controversy as local anti-rail forces have successfully placed a repeal of the tax on the November 2007 ballot recently. The half-cent tax measure, almost half of which funds light rail construction, comes up for possible repeal in the November 2007 general election. Those opposed to the sales tax and to local rail transit generally are not opposed to mass transit in general. Many assert a “bus-only” system will serve Charlotte-Mecklenburg, and the taxpayer, well. In addition, they assert that if the entire transit plan is implemented, it will serve a relatively small percentage of commuters, and even tinier percentage of all regional travel. Pro-rail advocates assert that this is an overly conservative short-term estimate that disregards significant long-term benefits.

Pro-rail forces argue that Charlotte needs high-capacity mass transit infrastructure to lessen the burden of traffic congestion on area residents by offering a viable alternative to driving, to improve quality of life by spurring high-quality and high-amenity mixed use development in existing communities and along new transit corridors that caters to pedestrians and bicyclists in addition to automobiles. Pro-rail forces believe rail will lessen the pressure on roads, schools, and other public services on the urban-rural fringe by steering more development inward and upward, rather than solely outward in conventional, low-density, automobile-dependent sprawl. Interestingly, most of Europe is taking the opposite approach. High density (compaction), as a result of most European cities being developed compactly, hundreds of years before the invention of the combustion engine, has resulted in higher urban pollution levels, more urban congestion, and tends to result in higher urban prices. Therefore, most large European cities are working to increase sprawl, and reduce their density. Also, most European cities, even with populations, and population densities well above that of Charlotte, tend to have "bus-only" transit systems. The exception in Europe are the mega-cities, such as Barcelona, London, Rome, etc, that have very high populations, and populations densities, 10-30 multiples or more to that of Charlotte-Mecklenburg.

Wendell Cox, a transportation policy consultant, states that the Charlotte area ranks as one of the least favorable candidates for light rail nationwide because of its low population density. Rail advocates counter that transportation investments shape surrounding land uses, and thus a high-capacity rail network in Charlotte would indeed increase density in the areas it serves. Local anti-rail folks question the legitimacy of levying a regressive tax (a sales tax), that affects lower income people more than higher income people, for the purposes of subsidizing urban development along narrow rail corridors. [1]

After much debate, Mecklenburg County voters rejected the repeal of the transportation tax by a margin of 70 percent to 30 percent on November 6, 2007. The campaign to save the tax garnered more than $650,000 - at least $200,000 of which came from Duke Energy, Wachovia, Bank of America, McDonald Transit Associates, Parsons Brinckerhoff, and Siemens (German company that builds the light rail cars) - all of which are companies that directly profit from CATS operations. The group working to repeal the transit tax raised less than $13,000, mostly from individuals.

External links

• Charlotte Light Rail
• CATS official site
• Charlotte Trolley
• 2003 Consolidated Income and Expenses
• 2004 Consolidated Income and Expenses