Charlotte, NC: Red Line Regional Rail

[Arlington]

Potential Red Line restart moment: In a deal to build toll lanes on I-77, the state promised the toll operator that it wouldn't add any more free lanes to I-77 in the next 50 YEARS. From a public interest standpoint, this should never have happened, but, hey, it means that rail will be the more-attractive way for the state to add capacity for the next 50 years. Ha!


The contract penalty to Mobility Partners makes adding lanes to I-77 x-Millions less attractive (and lots, politically, less attractive as a pure "waste" of money) and makes the Red Line more attractive (at least paying a penalty to NS in the form of rail upgrades gets you rail upgrades) and it also means, potentially, there's a chunk of highway money that gets freed up (the money not spent widening I-77.

[Bob Roberts]

This project has been dead for more than a decade after NS said they were completely unwilling to host passenger rail on these tracks (the mostly dormant route was viewed by NS as helpful negotiation leverage for the NCRR lease). Miraculously, NS has had a change of heart (even before their activist investor issues) and have let CATS know they are now open to negotiations about CATS using these tracks. Four public meetings about the Red Line are scheduled over the next couple of weeks.

Unfortunately #1: CATS has completely tapped out its 1/2 cent transit sales tax, so a new funding source will need to be identified. The state has been blocking the county from voting on an increased sales tax for transit, but the Red Line will be much more popular in Raleigh than other Charlotte transit projects.

Unfortunately #2: The Gateway Station public-private partnership has completely stalled (an office developer was going to build the station in return for adjacent land for office space). This is the planned terminus of the route.

Unfortunately #3: CSX decided they did not want to proceed with their grade separation project to deconflict this line (and the NS main) from their slow tracks downtown. Funds for this were allocated in the 2009 ARRA grants, but NCDOT reallocated those funds elsewhere after the CSX decision.

Unfortunately #4: The Charlotte-Winston route did not get funding from the recent FRA route development grant program, that would have helped to attract some state and federal funds.

Unfortunately #5: CATS has a planned BRT project serving these same communities using the I-77 managed toll lanes. The BRT service will certainly be a faster way to travel from N Meck than rail. Having said this, people really want rail and feel like it was promised to them when the transit tax was implemented 20+ years ago.

Despite all of the downsides, momentum has gathered for this project over the past few months. This could really help break up the political logjam stalling transit expansion in Charlotte.

[paywalled] https://www.bizjournals.com/charlotte/n ... tings.html