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• CATS working to get Huntersville on board
  While CATS opened the Lynx Blue Line late last month to positive reviews (except for the ticket vending machines), the transit agency was still slogging away on its next project, the commuter rail line to the Lake Norman area.The Nov. 6 elections ushered in a new board in Huntersville, where a majority of members are hesitant to commit town funds to help pay for the train. CATS met recently with the north Mecklenburg towns and floated a few cost-saving proposals.Here is the brief history on what makes building the line tricky:The north corridor train, which is expected to cost $261 million, has what CATS calls a $70 million "funding gap" after CATS and state contributions that must be covered by the towns it will serve.The initial plan had that money coming from the federal government, but the federal government won't help pay because the line didn't meet a set of standards, in part due to not having enough projected riders. (Several transit systems, including Denver's, are building commuter rail lines themselves because they didn't meet the same standards.)CATS plans to initially operate two trains each hour during the morning and afternoon commute. It also wants to operate one train per hour going in the opposite direction. Eventually CATS wants to spend an additional $52 million on an additional train, signalization and extra sidings, which allow trains to pull over and allow others to pass. That would allow CATS to offer more frequent service.CATS has proposed the towns cover the gap by using a portion of the property taxes generated from high-density development near the stations.Davidson is enthusiastic. Huntersville's new board is lukewarm.So CATS is floating different scenarios to get everyone on board.Some of the proposed cost savings include:• Not operating a reverse direction rush-hour train. That would save $24 million because CATS wouldn't need sidings.• Building only five stations instead of the planned nine. That would save $11.5 million. CATS has also proposed building less parking at the stations to save more money.The commuter train is different from light rail in that it's designed to carry almost all of its passengers at rush hour, and it will use existing Norfolk Southern track.CATS, which hopes to operate the first train in 2012, is eager to start now, to better shape development along the line."Nothing is fixed in stone," said David Carol, the north corridor project manager for CATS. "The point of this is there are ways we can reduce costs."Huntersville commissioner Charles Jeter, a skeptic, met last week with Carol. He said the meeting was encouraging, though the town and CATS are still apart.His position: Improving roads is the town's top priority.Jeter floated the idea this week of getting CATS to pay for more than one-third of the train's construction cost."Is 34 percent the right number?" Jeter said. "Or should 50 percent be the right number?" TIDBITFunds OK'd to fix lights on I-277The Mecklenburg-Union Metropolitan Planning Organization on Thursday formally approved the N.C. DOT's plan to spend between $6 million and $7 million from its road fund to repair burned-out lights along a 1.5-mile stretch of the Brookshire Freeway on Interstate 277.Barry Moose, the N.C. Department of Transportation division engineer who oversees Charlotte, said the project was too big to be paid for from his maintenance budget."We receive $34 million in maintenance for five counties -- this would have been 20 percent of our entire budget," said Moose, who had hoped to install less expensive solar lights on the road before his superiors nixed that idea because the lights weren't bright enough.Moose also announced Thursday that he plans to spend $16 million to widen and repave N.C. 218 in Union County. He said the road is being used as a bypass for commercial traffic, and that a recent count estimated that nearly 25 percent of all traffic was trucks or vans.He wants to add turn lanes at N.C. 200 and 205 and U.S. 601.Long light frustrates rush-hour driverJay Todd is frustrated because his normally smooth commute uptown from south Charlotte has hit a rough spot. He recently was sitting at a red light at the intersection of East Morehead and South Kings Drive for a long, long time -- and watching few cars going the other way."It's so bad, and seems so wrong, I've seen people run the light because they thought it was malfunctioning," Todd wrote in an e-mail.The city said an engineer had noticed the light not working correctly in the past, but that it recently tweaked the light. It said it's monitoring the light to make sure it's working. SteveHarrison
• Surprises, glitches in Lynx 1st week
  Light rail has been with us a week. How is it performing so far?Its opening weekend went better than its most fervent supporters hoped, with packed trains during a two-day free trial. That was followed by smaller crowds on a cold, rainy Monday, and more crowded trains Tuesday, which included a sold-out Hannah Montana concert uptown that night.Ridership on the Lynx Blue Line was just under 6,700 trips Monday and roughly 8,000 Tuesday. That averages to about 7,300 for the two days. CATS estimates that ridership will average 9,100 weekday trips in the first year, but CATS chief executive Ron Tober said he believes ridership will creep toward that goal."We're very pleased with the ridership," Tober said. "It's greater in the first week than I anticipated."There have been a number of surprises about Charlotte's light-rail debut.• Tober said midday trains have been more full than he expected. CATS runs single-car trains during the day, and almost all seats are taken, with some passengers standing. It appears there are as many people going into uptown as are leaving.• Some park-and-ride lots at the line's southern end have attracted a sizeable number of cars. But lots closer to uptown are mostly empty.• Trains are mostly running on schedule, though there have been some glitches. One of the biggest problems continues to be with the printers in the ticket vending machines. Passengers have grown frustrated by broken machines or lines at kiosks that are working.Midday trains with sizeable crowds suggests the train line is doing well appealing to people who are using the train for pleasure trips or errands. Tober said he spent 90 minutes at the Charlotte Transportation Center/Arena station one afternoon last week and was pleased to see crowds on the platform."I would see a full car of people drop off, and then the platform would fill up again, with 60 or 70 people," Tober said.Retiree Bill Gerhart caught an 11 a.m. train Friday at the Archdale station for a trip uptown to Reid's Fine Foods. He isn't a bus rider, but said he has enjoyed the train and will take it again."If I have to go anywhere downtown, I don't want to have my car," he said.But CATS hasn't done as well in attracting new commuters, which are essential to making the line successful.The biggest park-and-ride lot is at the southern-most station, I-485/South Boulevard. That garage was about one-quarter full Monday, but since then has had considerably more cars. Tober said he counted 468 vehicles one morning last week -- about 40 percent of the station's 1,120 spaces.The next station on the line -- Sharon Road West -- has been popular with commuters with almost all of its 188 spaces full.But other stations aren't nearly as crowded. The 432-space Archdale station had just 25 cars by late morning Friday. The 465-space Tyvola lot and the 382-space Woodlawn lot also have been less than one-fourth full.It's important to note that CATS added more parking spaces as it was designing the line after rail lines in other cities reported they would need more spaces."We didn't expect these lots to be full yet," said Olaf Kinard, marketing director for CATS.One challenge for CATS is that the Lynx Blue Line is operating where there wasn't an express bus line for commuters. CATS still operates express buses from Rock Hill, but it hadn't operated one along South Boulevard. There wasn't an established market for commuters for the Lynx Blue Line to capture.Still, some express bus riders are driving out of their way for several minutes to catch the train. One Lynx passenger has ditched the Rea Road Express for the train. Another rail passenger, Jason Waldrop, usually takes the Arboretum Express but took the train Friday."It took me 10 minutes to get to the station and 25 minutes to get to my office," said Waldrop, who works at Wachovia. "It took me an hour on the bus."Test of the ticketsTober said contractors have been working round the clock to fix the printers in the ticket vending machines.The problems with the kiosks have caused some passengers to board the train without buying a ticket. Inspectors issued warnings to passengers without tickets last week, but Kinard said problems with the ticket machines won't deter inspectors from writing tickets this week.If a passenger says they couldn't buy a ticket because of a broken machines, inspectors can call the rail operations center to determine