JEVONNA MORRIS
alternative in the City of Charlotte. The sales tax also went towards establishing the Metropolitan Transit Commission in 1999, which went on to merge with Charlotte Transit in 2000 to create the now existing Charlotte Area Transit System (CATS). CATS went on to play a vital role in improving transit in the city, both by improving bus service from when it was provided by Charlotte Transit, as well as taking on the role of implementing light rail in the City of Charlotte. Origins of Light Rail The implementation of LYNX in the City of Charlotte involved several processes at the local, state, and federal level. In 2000, the Federal Transit Administration (FTA) approved the South Corridor Light Rail project (SCLR) for preliminary engineering, and in 2002 CATS issued a Draft Environmental Impact Statement for the project. The following year, the project was approved for entry into a final decision by the FTA. $30.6 million was appropriated by the U.S. Congress as part of the New Starts funds.
City Comparison Charlotte, NC shares many of the same traits as Columbus, OH, which make Charlotte a comparable case study for the implementation of light rail in Columbus. Between the
Conclusions In most ways, the two cities are comparable in terms of transit systems and population, which can allow Charlotte to be a reasonable model for Columbus. However, the small differences between the two cities point to some advantages and disadvantages Columbus might be facing in implementing their own light rail train. While Charlotte’s population was less than an 8% difference from Columbus’ population, the population density in Columbus is 32% higher. This could mean that light rail in Columbus could experience higher ridership, solely based on how many more people could be in proximity to the light rail train. Another difference is in median income, with Columbus’ median income being about 20% lower than Charlotte’s median income. As a disadvantage, this could mean that residents in Columbus would be less likely to want to publicly fund a new rail project. As an advantage, this could mean that more people in Columbus would be willing to save money by switching from driving a personal automobile to riding a light rail system, allowing them to travel in an entirely new way.
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Light Rail Setbacks In 2003 the project timeline placed the opening date for 2005, and the capital cost at $385.9 million, with New Starts funding $193 million, or 50% of the capital costs. In reality, LYNX opened two years behind schedule, in late November of 2007, and $76.85 million over budget, at $462.75 million. The LYNX Blue Line does not travel to the Charlotte Douglass International Airport. In order to accommodate demand for airport transportation, CATS implemented the Sprinter bus, a branded bus which runs from Uptown to the airport every 20 to 30 minutes from 6 a.m. to 12 a.m. Along the route, the Sprinter bus stops at restaurants, shopping, and hotels. The bus is fitted with wider aisles and a luggage rack to accommodate passengers traveling to or from the airport. There are also some Sprinter bus stops equipped with digital signs that read real-time information for where the Sprinter bus is along its route
transit systems that run in each city, CATS runs 73 fixed bus routes, while the transit system in Columbus, the Central Ohio Transit Authority (COTA), runs 69 fixed bus routes. As recently as two months ago, the one-way ticket fare was equal across the two cities, at $2.00 for an adult ticket, while the current fares differ by $0.20. Both CATS and COTA are partially publicly funded through local sales taxes equaling ½ percent. This sales tax is part of a total sales tax; in Charlotte it is 7.25%, and in Columbus it is 7.5%. Another similarity between the two cities is in population and density. According to the 2010 census data, the population of Charlotte was 731,424 people, while Columbus was 787,033 people (Figure 4). In terms of density, the land area for Charlotte was 297.68 square miles, with 2,457 people per square mile, while the land area for Columbus was 217.17, with 3,624 people per square mile. Within that population, the median household income for Charlotte was $52,916 while the median household income for Columbus was $43,992.