Charlotte N.C. orders 1st light-rail trains

The Charlotte Observer ^ | Tuesday, March 23, 2004 | RICHARD RUBIN

[Willie Green]

For education and discussion only. Not for commercial use.

Council approves $52.5 million for 16 cars

The Charlotte City Council ordered its first batch of light-rail trains Monday night, authorizing $52.5 million for 16 cars.

Council members pitched their 10-1 vote as a decision that will limit future congestion and provide a much-needed alternative to automobiles.

"This is an investment for a generation," said GOP council member Pat Mumford, who chairs the council's transportation committee. "And we need to prepare today because it will never be a better time than today."

The light-rail cars will be built by Siemens Transportation Systems. Service along the South Corridor is expected to start in October 2006.

That corridor, the first of five, will go from uptown to Interstate 485, along a rail line running parallel to South Boulevard.

The council also approved a $2.25 million contract with Parsons Transportation Group to provide technical support.

Several critics speaking to the council opposed the overall five-corridor transit plan, which is slated to cost $6 billion in capital and operating expenses.

Mike Castano, a former Republican City Council member, said Charlotte lacks the density or money to afford light rail.

"It's a big-time loser for riders and taxpayers," said Castano, speaking on behalf of a new group called Citizens For Affordable and Sensible Transit.

Republican member Don Lochman cast the only vote against the purchase. He criticized the council's lack of detailed, sustained attention to the transit program as well as the lack of clarity about the benefits.

"I just hope I can draw in some small way some attention to this massive project, in hopes we can re-evaluate where we are," he said.

But Mayor Pat McCrory and other council members emphasized the plan's benefits, including improving land use and minimizing future growth in traffic.

Democrat Malcolm Graham said the city and state cannot just keep widening roads. "We cannot build our way out of our traffic congestion...," he said.

Staff Writer Dianne Whitacre contributed.

[Constitution Day]

FYI

[balrog666]

Several critics speaking to the council opposed the overall five-corridor transit plan, which is slated to cost $6 billion in capital and operating expenses.

Let's see, that's about a $40 subsidy per ride.

[newgeezer]

This might have a chance of success, if gasoline hits $4/gallon.

[Guvmint_Cheese]

Well, hopefully, they'll have better success that we're having in Houston with that thing. Unfortunately, voters approved an additional 64 miles of rail in town back in November.

If Houston ISD actually taught math in school, people might be able to add up the figures to see that they don't add up!

[sergeantdave]

Light rail transit, loved by socialist mayors, winos and bums. I give it 48 hours after it opens before seats are ripped by knives, x-rated graffitti is scrawled on the wall and the cars smell like stale urine.

[aomagrat]

Someone post the graphic that shows money being flushed down the toilet.

[TaxRelief]

How much wining and dining went into the contract decision.

[Xenalyte]

In related news, Houston laughs at Charlotte; heard to say "Suckers!"

[TaxRelief]

Ping

[Petronski]

Lyle Lanley: Well, sir, there's nothing on earth
Like a genuine,
Bona fide,
Electrified,
Six-car
Monorail!
What'd I say?

Ned Flanders: Monorail!

Lyle Lanley: What's it called?

Patty+Selma: Monorail!

Lyle Lanley: That's right! Monorail!

[crowd chants `Monorail' softly and rhythmically]

Miss Hoover: I hear those things are awfully loud...

Lyle Lanley: It glides as softly as a cloud.

Apu: Is there a chance the track could bend?

Lyle Lanley: Not on your life, my Hindu friend.

Barney: What about us brain-dead slobs?

Lyle Lanley: You'll be given cushy jobs.

Abe: Were you sent here by the devil?

Lyle Lanley: No, good sir, I'm on the level.

Wiggum: The ring came off my pudding can.

Lyle Lanley: Take my pen knife, my good man.

I swear it's Springfield's only choice...
Throw up your hands and raise your voice!

All: Monorail!

Lyle Lanley: What's it called?

All: Monorail!

Lyle Lanley: Once again...

All: Monorail!

Marge: But Main Street's still all cracked and broken...

Bart: Sorry, Mom, the mob has spoken!

All: Monorail!
Monorail!
Monorail!

[big finish]

Monorail!

Homer: Mono... D'oh!

[aomagrat]

[Tax-chick]

I'm outside the city limits, and over the county line! I'll feel better, sitting at the stoplights on US74, when I think that at least I'm not paying for the trains! Still, I hate to see this happening to the rest of you.

[Huber]

Yeah, we have a little RINO problem around these parts...

[southernnorthcarolina]

This is just sad.

As a Charlotte native, and still a resident of its exurbs, I had harbored the notion that we might be a bit smarter than the other wanna-be big cities who are convinced that having a train puts them in the big leagues. Guess not.

Eighteenth-century technology, taking people from where they ain't to where they don't wanna go, at hideous taxpayer expense. Commuter rail may "work" -- or be a necessity -- in the great cities such as New York, London, or Tokyo, where population density and the price of parking has gotten out of hand due to high land costs. But Charlotte? Give me a break.

We have our traffic problems, of course. But mostly, the traffic tie-ups are along the Outer Belt, or near SouthPark, or in the University area, or I-77 near Lake Norman -- anywhere, in other words, other than downtown, where the in-and-out rush hour traffic works like a charm. Yet it's the in-and-out of downtown traffic that the trains are aimed at. The real tie-ups are suburb-to-suburb trips. Try getting from Matthews to Tyvola Road at 8 AM, or from Fort Mill to Mint Hill at 5 PM. And trains to and from downtown would help exactly how?

Remember that $6 billion price tag. It will double before the first rail line is operational. And the drain on our tax funds (not just Charlotte's of course; taxpayers from San Diego to Bangor are helping with this boondoggle) will never, never, never end. Meanwhile, I'll wait to see exactly how many "discretionary" riders (that is, riders who have a choice of taking their own cars) this system attracts, even given its massive subsidy. Let's see now... you're working downtown, and the boss needs for you to deliver a proposal across town. Oh, sorry, you took the train, and don't have a car available. Well, there goes your promotion. Or you need to pick up your daughter from soccer practice on the way home. Hmmm, she may be out of luck. Or, more prosaically, you need to pick up a dozen eggs and a loaf of bread, and pick up your dry cleaning, and stop off for a drink (by now, a necessity) on the way home. Can you do this while commuting by rail? Possibly, but not easily, and not without making your trip longer than it would be in your car.

Mass transit is nothing more than another mechanism of wealth transfer from the haves to the have-nots, via a taxpayer-funded infrastructure which drains most of the money being transferred.

[VOA]

Someone post the graphic that shows money being flushed down the toilet.

I'm not sure if the toilet is involved...but I really love the graphic someone
posts for the mag-lev proposals...showing dollars bills being vaporized to
provide the material to levitate the mag-lev!

[johnb838]

Yeah, here in Houston I often wonder what would have happened if they would have taken the money for the train and used it to get enough buses on the streets to provide true big city bus service... then I might have been able to use it. As it stands, no way can I use the train, and I can't take the bus because I almost ALWAYS have appointments and obligations that I can't use mass transit for.

[Tax-chick]

You said it all, SNC! Imagine ... they could spend the money getting us some four-lane roads and left-turn signals out here in the 'burbs! Or (more fairly) providing better bus service in the Charlotte-Mecklenburg system.

[JohnnyZ]

Service along the South Corridor is expected to start in October 2006.

I can't wait!

Really, I can't wait. I'm thinking about moving . . .