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Old 09-13-2016, 05:53 PM
NDL NDL started this thread
 
Location: The CLT area
4,507 posts, read 5,593,540 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Feltdesigner View Post
I'm upset when I end up late for work due to an accident on 74 or 85. The key words in that article for me was "worse than usual congestion"

if you scrapped the Gold Line to Plaza Midwood and used busses they would still run late if there is worse than usual congestion.

Until we have flying cars there is no such thing as a reliable form of mass transit in Uptown.
Dedicated travel lanes for the Streetcar would be a good idea, unless - and I am only speculating - that the timing of traffic lights will be set to accommodate the free flow of the streetcar?
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Old 09-13-2016, 05:58 PM
NDL NDL started this thread
 
Location: The CLT area
4,507 posts, read 5,593,540 times
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Originally Posted by WaldoKitty View Post
The Charlotte streetcar was built for political reasons. It was a dead project until Anthony Foxx took office who made it a political promise while ignoring that it did not have funding or transit agency support. So now we have an amusement park ride that runs for a few blocks, doesn't address any transit issue, in fact it makes it worse, and it costs multiple 10s of millions of dollars. This money is coming from pork barrel handouts and the city is forced to use property taxes to cover the rest.

If the city is serious about addressing transit, they will bite the bullet, scrap this plan, and order CATS to design a proper East/West light rail line that runs from the county line in the East through West Charlotte with a spur to the airport. Make the proposed Gateway center it's "Union Station". Submit the plan to the FTA for a FFGA and fight for that funding.
That's my concern. In NY, the State (allowed) outrageous fees to be charged for frequently used services, to subsidize services that were unprofitable.

At what point does the streetcar become a money pit, especially if they extend it as they want to?
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Old 09-13-2016, 06:42 PM
 
Location: The place where the road & the sky collide
23,809 posts, read 34,496,872 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by NDL View Post
That's my concern. In NY, the State (allowed) outrageous fees to be charged for frequently used services, to subsidize services that were unprofitable.

At what point does the streetcar become a money pit, especially if they extend it as they want to?
In older transit threads I have consistently said that the streetcar concept should be abandoned in favor of light rail to the east & west. I've also said that trolleys /streetcars could be used to connect the light rail spokes as they could be kept out of the worst congestion, & would promote more density as buildings further out are replaced later in the century.
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Old 09-13-2016, 07:46 PM
 
15,355 posts, read 12,576,412 times
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Originally Posted by NDL View Post
Dedicated travel lanes for the Streetcar would be a good idea, unless - and I am only speculating - that the timing of traffic lights will be set to accommodate the free flow of the streetcar?


The SilverLine should be dedicated but IMO streetcars serve a different purpose.
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Old 09-14-2016, 06:56 AM
 
11,411 posts, read 7,746,868 times
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Originally Posted by WaldoKitty View Post
As I said in other topics, the Charlotte streetcar was not built to solve transit issues. Every transit study performed on that route/plan said not to build it. Huge waste of money, no benefit. This is why the MTC dropped it, it's not supported by the transit tax, and the Feds won't issue a FFGA for the route.

The Charlotte streetcar was built for political reasons. It was a dead project until Anthony Foxx took office who made it a political promise while ignoring that it did not have funding or transit agency support. So now we have an amusement park ride that runs for a few blocks, doesn't address any transit issue, in fact it makes it worse, and it costs multiple 10s of millions of dollars. This money is coming from pork barrel handouts and the city is forced to use property taxes to cover the rest.

If the city is serious about addressing transit, they will bite the bullet, scrap this plan, and order CATS to design a proper East/West light rail line that runs from the county line in the East through West Charlotte with a spur to the airport. Make the proposed Gateway center it's "Union Station". Submit the plan to the FTA for a FFGA and fight for that funding.

+1. It's hard to find a worse "transit" idea or a bigger waste of tax payer funds than the streetcar.
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