Transit

TRANSIT THE WAY FORWARD FOR CHARLOTTE’S STREETCAR

The second phase of the city’s Gold Line, which connects east and west Charlotte, opened in August. Here’s what you should know

BY GREG LACOUR

ANYONE WHO’S LIVED IN CHARLOTTE for, say, ve years or less might not remember when arguments over funding for “the streetcar project” dominated Charlotte politics. The discussions started in 2002, as soon as city leaders oated the idea of a train that would link the east and west sides through uptown. But they reached peak temperature during the mayoral tenure of Anthony Foxx from 2009 until 2013, when he le to become U.S. Secretary of Transportation.

Foxx grew up on the west side, and he and his allies said the proposed Gold Line would accomplish two main goals: It’d be a boon for the city’s transit system and a critical tool for economic development in areas that city and business leaders had neglected for decades. Several City Council members doubted growth projections—they o en referred to the project as “the train to nowhere”—and worried that it would force them to raise the city’s property tax rate to pay for it. (It didn’t.) Nonetheless, the rst phase of the three-stage project, the mile and a half from the Transit Center to Novant Health Presbyterian Medical Center, opened in 2015. Three years later, Foxx took a job as chief policy o cer at Ly .

On Aug. 30, a er six years of aggravating construction that included the notorious Hawthorne Lane bridge, the second phase, the heart of the Gold Line, opened as well. The line isn’t nished yet; the city’s still looking for money to pay for the third phase, which would complete the planned 10-mile route. But for the rst time, a rail line does connect the east and west sides, from Sunnyside Avenue in Elizabeth through uptown to French Street, near Johnson C. Smith University in Biddleville. Here are some Gold Line facts, what it’s like to ride it, and excerpts of an interview with Foxx in September.

RIDING THE GOLD LINE

I pick a good day, or perhaps a bad one for public transit ridership: a bright, temperate Sunday a ernoon in late September. We depart from Sunnyside Avenue in Elizabeth at 12:40 p.m. with a modest crowd of about 15. Compared to the Blue Line, it’s a slower, more pleasant ride, with more to look at—the historic properties and Independence Park along Hawthorne; the commotion among the businesses on Elizabeth Avenue, Central Piedmont Community College, and Trade Street uptown; and the Mosaic Village near JCSU once you pass I-277.

A er a stop at the university, the line reaches its current western terminus, French Street and Beatties Ford, at 1:15. The crowd of 15 has dwindled to three. Some marketing work le to do, clearly, but everything with this project takes far longer than it’s supposed to. The train slides into its turnaround, takes ve minutes to reorient itself, picks me back up, and heads back east toward uptown.

GOLD LINE FACTS

PHASE 2 LENGTH: 4 miles in total, the 1.5 miles of Phase 1 and an additional 2.5 miles to the east and west.

NUMBER OF STOPS: 17 (11 added to the original six).

COST: $150 million, $75 million each from city capital funds and the Federal Transit Administration. (Phase 1, which opened in 2015, cost $37 million, $25 million from the federal government, the rest from the city.)

FARE: Free through 2021, then the standard Charlotte Area Transit System fare of $2.20 for a one-way ticket.

HOW LONG BETWEEN TRAINS? 15 to 20 minutes.

WAIT, THE CARS LOOK DIFFERENT. Correct. From 2015 until the extended line opened, CATS used vintage-style replica trolley cars for the Gold Line. Beginning in August, the agency switched to six Siemens S70 light rail vehicles, similar to those on the northsouth Blue Line from Interstate 485 to UNC Charlotte.

TOTAL PROJECT LENGTH: 10 miles, from the Rosa Parks Place Community Transit Center o Beatties Ford Road near the I-77/85 interchange to the Eastland CTC at Central Avenue and North Sharon Amity Road.

NUMBER OF STOPS: 35 (18 will be added to the original 17).

COST: Undetermined.

PROJECTED COMPLETION: Unknown.

WHY? The Gold Line is intended as an e cient, a ordable way for residents on the east and west sides, many of whom depend on public transit, to get from their homes to uptown and connect with the rest of the CATS system. It’s also expected to boost economic development in parts of town that government and business have neglected for decades. Finally, it’s a critical part of the 2030 Transit Corridor System Plan, an ambitious e ort to build a linked mass transit system throughout the Charlotte area, including Matthews and Lake Norman, by 2030.

INTERVIEW: ANTHONY FOXX

CHARLOTTE MAGAZINE: The morning Phase 2 opened, you tweeted, “Welcome, Charlotte streetcar. It’s a long story.” You caught a lot of heat for your Gold Line advocacy when you were mayor. What’s it like to see it realized?

ANTHONY FOXX: These things are always tough politically because you’re articulating a mode of transit that people can’t see, touch, and feel at the time. I remember that the light rail line was very controversial. This one was close to my heart because when I came into the role of mayor and looked at the city’s tax base, 75% was coming from the southeastern wedge, and the rest of the city was kind of sucking wind.

It was unusual to see the city promoting a transportation project in these areas. Some called it the “streetcar to nowhere.” I think there were socioeconomic and perhaps even racial undertones to some of that. So it was tough, because you’re talking to somebody who grew up in the city that made integration work. And it was hard to endure a lot of that.

CM: Is there concern on your part that the access the Gold Line will provide to the west and east sides might accelerate the displacement of people who live there?

AF: Absolutely, it’s a concern. I think the countervailing consideration was that these corridors had for decades been on the decline, and the people there, like my grandparents, deserve to have decent access to food, prescription medicine, dry cleaners, basic community services. But a lot of those services and retail activities just never found their way there. So there’s an important balance to be struck. I’m happy to see that there’s an e ort to utilize land trusts on the west side. I think that is a critical factor.

CM: And the alternative is the status quo. drove past Wayne’s, and the green meat in Wayne’s, to get to the grocery store. I think a lot of people who were criticizing this project would have a lot more credibility if they spent a couple of nights on the west side and bought their food there and lived there. It’s a di erent experience, and until you’ve lived it, it’s really hard to understand it.

CM: What should elected o cials here think about when they consider funding for Phase 3?

AF: When you get on a bus to go to the central transfer station, the whole idea is that you can get anywhere in the city on it, and our xed-rail system should have that same kind of nimbleness to it. ... We have to think in terms of the interconnectivity throughout the city.

One of the things that I’ve always thought about transit is that it’s one of the ways in which we have these casual interactions with people that we would never interact with on our own. Had we not done this project, another concern or fear I would have had is that we’d have a two-tier transit system: a bus for the poor folks and xed rail for everybody else. That’s no way to run a city.