Clear lines of control and clarity sought for CATS

PHOTO | TROY HULL

Charlotte Mayor Vi Lyles said she wants an updated governing structure for Charlotte Area Transit System, which is split between the Metropolitan Transit Commission and Charlotte City Council.

Mayor Vi Lyles wants better oversight of the Charlotte Area Transit System after agency leaders failed to disclose a 2022 light rail derailment.

Lyles, who is also chair of the Metropolitan Transit Commission, said Tuesday in a statement that CATS has outgrown its current governing structure, which in part led to the agency leaving MTC and Charlotte City Council unaware of a train leaving the tracks while John Lewis was CEO. Interim CEO Brent Cagle, who replaced Lewis in November, disclosed the derailment earlier this month.

“Addressing these issues requires a thoughtful approach that seeks to identify and solve the root causes rather than just the symptoms of the problems,” Lyles said. “Over the last six months, we have made significant progress in improving CATS and ensuring that it operates at its best. However, there is still more work to be done, and we remain committed to continuing this important work in the coming weeks, months and years.”

CATS, which is funded by Charlotte taxpayers, was created in 2000 after voters approved a 1998 sales tax referendum to finance transit initiatives. Acknowledging that “Charlotte and our region were very different” compared to today, Lyles said “it is time to examine our current interlocal agreement” between the city, Mecklenburg County and six towns that make up the transit commission.

“[T]here is overlap and a lack of clarity,” Lyles said. “We’ve grown beyond our current county-wide effort, and perhaps it’s time to look at a regional authority with more direct responsibility.”

Under Lewis, the Lynx Blue Line light rail expanded past UNC Charlotte and the Gold Line’s debut into the Beatties Ford Road corridor, but CATS was criticized for poor customer service before he resigned as ridership plummeted across all transit platforms. CATS from 23.9 million passengers in 2014 to 15.6 million five years later according to the Federal Transit Administration. The COVID-19 pandemic drove ridership lower, falling to 5.9 million bus commuters in 2022, a 75% slide that’s worst among the nation’s largest cities.

Bus driver resignations increased after their colleague Ethan Rivera, 41, was shot and killed in a February 2022 road-rage incident, sparking safety concerns among employees and riders. Riders complained that routes were often late or didn’t arrive at all.

And then there was the May 2022 Blue Line derailment between the Scaleybark and Woodlawn stations that remained unreported for months. No injuries were reported, and CATS mandated that trains reduce their top speed from 55 miles per hour to 35 mph.

The failure to disclose the train derailment is inexcusable,” said Mecklenburg County Commissioner Leigh Altman, who preceded Lyles as MTC chair. “Over the last 10 months, CATS has presented to City Council, the MTC, and the citizen-led Transit Services Advisory Committee on multiple occasions, but CATS remained silent about this. Of all CATS’ recent problems, this is the most egregious because it goes to fundamental competence, safety, and transparency.”

Lyles said she has met with City Manager Marcus Jones and Cagle, who have been tasked to make improvements on governance and transparency. Changes in CATS leadership team – including the chief financial officer and operations chief – “have brought clarity to the need for change,” she said.

“The city manager and his team, along with Mr. Cagle, face a critical challenge: to elevate CATS to meet the community’s expectations for safety, reliability and service,” Lyles said. “While there will be difficult conversations and tough decisions, we are committed to moving forward.”

A management partners review found challenges to create clear lines of governance and reporting for CATS as a city department serving a regional role. Serving two policy bodies that share agency oversight, budgeting and operations, the review found, leads “to confusion about decision making authority” and “needs real change.”
“These events taken together suggest there is insufficient oversight over the entire CATS system of which the derailment is just most serious example,” said Altman, who planned to make a motion for the MTC to hire a third-party consultant to investigate the incident and lack of transparency.

“Thus, for the safety of our residents and the viability of our transit system, these chronic organizational problems must receive appropriate attention. It is necessary but not sufficient to fix the trains – competently and as quickly as possible. We must also understand organizationally how it is even possible a systemic failure of this scope could occur in the first place. Without understanding how mismanagement at this level was possible, we will not have taken the necessary steps to protect the public from future failures.”

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