CATS pleased with rail's first year
Light rail expansion is still in the works for parts of Charlotte.
CHARLOTTE -- Charlotte Area Transit officials are calling the first year of the Lynx light rail a huge success.
Since the light rail opened for business on November 24, 2007, ridership numbers have exceeded expectations, reaching 5 million riders. That’s about 1.5-2 million more than the system anticipated according to Olaf Kinard of CATS.
CATS officials estimate average daily ridership to be 16,000 people. They only expected less than 10,000 a day.
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Big events in Charlotte have helped those numbers, with light rail cars packed to capacity at times.
"Excluding opening weekend, the Speed Street period of time was probably the largest number of riders we had -- over 95,000 over a 2.5-day period,” said Kinard.
CATS officials hope and expect the light rail to stay successful in 2009. They are still in the planning stages for the North and Northeast Corridor. Those reports should be out late spring or summer of next year.