Surreal streetcars

The continuing saga of mass transit in Elizabeth now enters its surreal phase. How else can you describe the decision to lay the tracks now but not use them for 12 years? This decision makes no sense. If we don't have streetcars we don't need track. Twelve years is an eternity when it comes to public policy. Will laying track now guarantee a route will go up Elizabeth Avenue? No. Will it guarantee we'll even have a streetcar? No. So what's the point?

So long mass transit

Looks like Elizabeth won't have mass transit as an issue to talk about for quite awhile -- if ever. Work on the center city street car line, which would run through Elizabeth, now won't start until 2013. Seems there's some debate about what timeline was promised, but Charlotte Center City says the project will be completed in 2009 (PDF). Add in the usual delays between now and then and we're talking 2018 at the earliest before they start design work. And, as I more or less predicted, work on the Southeast Corridor now won't start until 2016 at the earliest.

They delayed for five years starting work on one of Charlotte's heaviest commuter corridors. Now they've tacked another five years of wait to it. At this rate the corridor that affects us most won't be finished in my lifetime. Heck, it may not even get started. And if you think it doesn't matter to us because we're close in and don't need mass transit, see my post about widening 7th Street.

SE transit corridor doomed

I wonder what people are thinking when they decide no loaf is better than half. Voting to wait five years before choosing between light rail or busway for the Southeast corridor? So much can happen in five years -- and almost none of it is good for realizing mass transit along Independence Boulevard, which last I knew was one of the more heavily traveled roads in the state. To top it off, they spent an extra $19.5 million on land they may not need. What -- they're not spending enough already?

Look, if the next corridor is managed as poorly as the south corridor has been, a third corridor might never get built. You know, fool me once. And every day nothing is done to give motorists a choice on Independence is a day the state remembers how much it wants to widen 7th Street. We do not want to fight that battle again.

After the Center City corridor, the Southeast corridor will most impact Elizabeth. Or would, if it ever gets built. I understand the yearning for light rail. It's hot; busways are not. But busways cost less, can be built quicker and promise greater ridership (pdf). Why isn't that good enough?

Streetcar meeting

From the CATS folks: "The Charlotte Area Transit System (CATS) will hold a public meeting to discuss updated information on the streetcar project. Project information on the capital costs, environmental effects, and the top two sites for the maintenance facility will be shared with the public for feedback. Boards will be present displaying renderings of the proposed maintenance facility sites." If you hope to have an affect on the future of the streetcar system -- which will become a part of our neighborhood -- now is the time.