The Queen City is moving forward with major Uptown transportation changes, and one involves building a new transit center underground.
Mecklenburg County leaders voted to build the new Charlotte Transportation Center beneath the city, and they also voted to change part of the plan for the Silver Line light rail, moving a station closer to the Bojangles Coliseum.
The Metropolitan Transit Commission, which includes mayors from the cities and towns in Mecklenburg County, voted unanimously on both decisions Tuesday evening.
The Transportation Center vote mirrors the vote at the Charlotte City Council, supporting the plan to put the transit hub underground, supporting mixed-use development in the uptown area that is currently dominated by parking lots.
“This community wants to have a quality, reliable and safe system. And you do that starting where people enter into it,” said Charlotte Mayor Vi Lyles.
The evaluation of the underground transit center, called the “concourse option” by transit planners, came out as safer and easier to secure than above-ground options. It will also be climate controlled, compared to the other option that would be mostly open-air.
“Part of the upside for putting it underground is you have to have a ticket to go in,” said Krissy Oechslin, chair of the Transit Service Advisory Committee.
But, she said, there were several concerns and criticisms about putting the hub underground. One critique she heard, Oechslin said, is that it felt like the city was trying to hide bus riders underground.
Several on the commission said they worried about air quality in the station with buses idling underground.
Commission members voted to change a section of the plans for the Silver Line light rail route around the Bojangles Coliseum.
The new route moves the line closer to the coliseum and puts a new station closer to the Independence Boulevard coliseum.
“People like having the station right outside the event venue,” said Andrew Mock, with CATS. He said the vast majority of people surveyed preferred the closer option, though it will cost more.
The change around the coliseum will add about $8 million to the project, Mock said. Most of that comes from having to build a taller bridge over Briar Creek Road.
One of the advantages, Mock said, is the other option would mean the city has to close Television Place, cutting off the main road alongside the Bojangles Coliseum.
Town of Matthews Mayor John Higdon said he was worried the increased costs for the project around Uptown Charlotte could end up with his town getting short-changed in the long run.
“Cost is always a consideration,” Mock said. “Financial models don’t project that at this point.”
The LYNX Silver Line is a 29-mile light rail route planned to run from Belmont, in Gaston County, through Charlotte and west to the Town of Matthews. The project is still in the planning stage and it will be well over a decade before the line is built and open.
