CHARLOTTE AREA TRANSIT SYSTEM

The second phase of the CityLynx Gold Line streetcar, which opened to passengers Monday, connects Beatties Ford Road in west Charlotte to the Elizabeth community in the east.

Streetcar service has returned to Historic West End.

The Charlotte Area Transit System, commonly known as CATS, launched the CityLynx Gold Line this morning, with passenger service running from the east side of town to the west. Service runs every 20 minutes from 5 a.m.-2 a.m. daily and is free for the remainder of 2021. A one-way trip will cost $2.20 beginning in 2022, which can be purchased onboard via farebox or by using CATS-Pass Mobile Ticketing app.

Streetcars last ran in west Charlotte neighborhoods in the 1930s when the Beatties Ford Road area was on the city’s urban edge.

“Our primary focus is to provide mobility options to the people in Charlotte,” CATS CEO John Lewis said. “As we bring new technologies to new communities there's always that pull and push of the impact that we have both positive and negative, to be honest, on communities.”

Implications for Historic West End
Lewis lives in Historic West End, where he has engaged with neighbors about what the Gold Line can do for the community.

“As a resident of the West End, I've had some incognito conversations with some of my neighbors about the positives and the perceived negatives of this, but I think the community, as we work together to increase affordable housing in the city, to provide opportunities for upward mobility, I think some of those issues will begin to work themselves out. There's no one easy answer to this. As the public transit agency, our responsibility is to provide mobility options, but we’re also keen to understand the impact that we have on the greater community.”

For some, it brings a renewed promise of economic opportunity for the area. For others, it signals the possibility of gentrification, pushing longtime residents out. Historic Washington Heights neighborhood association President Mattie Marshall said during July’s Charlotte Post Foundation virtual town hall about the Gold Line, hailed the streetcar as an economic engine. She served as a member of Charlotte City Council’s advisory committee which approved funding for a streetcar feasibility study in 2009.

“We must hold people accountable,” Marshall said.

Phase 2 cost $150 million, which was funded by the city and federal government. Charlotte’s portion came from unallocated and contingent capital accounts within the revenue sources, other than property taxes. The federal portion was included in former the 2016 budget for $75 million, as the Federal Transit Administration’s Small Starts evaluation rated the project “medium-high.”

Phase 2 runs from French Street in Historic West End to Sunnyside Avenue in Plaza Midwood, adding 2.5 miles and connecting the Northwest Corridor, Uptown and Elizabeth. It also includes the addition of 11 streetcar stops. The Gold Line will ultimately be 10 miles long with 37 stops, connecting to the Lynx Blue Line, Silver Line, Charlotte Gateway District and Multimodal Station.

Phase 1 opened in 2015, consisting of 1.5 miles. Phase 2 broke ground in 2017 but encountered hurdles before opening. Service was suspended for six months in 2019 because of preparations for the Republican National Convention, which ultimately was shifted to Florida.

Phase 2 also included realigning Frazier Avenue in Historic West End, water, gas and stormwater utility upgrades, as well as reconstructing Hawthorne Lane Bridge, which resulted in an eight-month delay due to the contractor ordering the wrong size girders.

Five Siemens S70 streetcars make up the Gold Line, which accounted for $40 million of the total budget. They operate off-wire, without an overhead catenary system from CTC to North Pine Street in Uptown. Maximum capacity is 56 seats and 199 standing passengers. Lewis said CATS’s benchmark for ridership will be 4,100 daily, but due to the pandemic, they are looking at hitting that number within two years.

A concrete time frame for Phase 3 has not been established. Lewis said Phase 3, the remaining 6 miles, will come down to funding.

“We are refreshing the 30% design that we had completed on that corridor in the past, but Phase 3 will become a funding question, as everything else is,” Lewis said. “We are having this conversation with community and our elected officials are dealing with the issue of funding that will be answered once we figure out how to pay for it.”
 

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