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Ground broken for Charlotte light rail expansion
Oh, if only Houston’s MetroRail were this open about the progress of their light rail expansion.
Such good news! A progressive city that “gets it” about local rail transit demonstrates once more its vision for its future. Let this be an example to others who are watching from the sidelines: in a future in which there is traffic gridlock in metropolitan America, the people on the trains will be waving “bye bye” to the poor souls stuck on the streets. Charlotte truly is a Queen City!
Good on ya, Charlotte! Let the naysayers whine. Pittsburghers harrumphed when Port Authority extended its 28-year-old system by just a mile, taking it from downtown and under the Allegheny River to two new north side stations. “The light rail to nowhere, just for Steelers and Pirates fans,” they scoffed. But lots of riders now use it to reach the community college, science museum, recreational areas, connections to bus routes that no longer fight downtown congestion, and a garage with parking rates below downtown’s. Fans crowd light rail on game days, too. PAAC claims this extension opens the way to eventual (!) airport service.
Rode Charlotte’s light rail once and was impressed with its start. Too bad we didn’t have something like this in place in Tampa Bay prior to the GOP convention, which brought traffic gridlock to the area for a week.
Even if light-rail helped out in the movement of traffic in an otherwise gridlocked Republican Convention venue, I doubt that would sway the GOP away from it’s hatred toward anything that runs on rail, especially a system that accommodates passengers.