Lake Norman Publications

COLUMN: Let the Red Line come, then (maybe) tax



The best way to access Charlotte via public transportation is  the 77X bus line, accessed through the north Mecklenburg Park and Rides. /Doug Coats

The push for an updated design plan for the Charlotte Area Transit System (CATS) Red Line has not altered – at least, not yet – the clear and regularly repeated negative perspectives of north Mecklenburg municipal leaders about a potential one-cent countywide tax to finance transportation improvements.

CATS is proposing a year-plus undertaking to revisit specific aspects of outdated plans for potential passenger service on the Red Line (the “Red Line” is the decades-old CATS designation for the railroad corridor between Charlotte and Mooresville).

The design plan revision would take into consideration issues like public support for non-diesel engines, the need for repositioned stations as well as development patterns since the last plan was created and revised routes to inner-Charlotte. The identified CATS goal would be to reach the 30-percent design plan threshold to position the Red Line concept to compete for some of the billions in funding designated for public transportation in a $1.2 trillion federal infrastructure package.

As reported in last week’s Citizen, the renewed CATS push for an updated plan, and the idea that rail service could become a transit option for north Mecklenburg and southern Iredell commuters, still triggers – as Cornelius Mayor Woody Washam said – a “sense of hope.”

Huntersville Mayor Melinda Bales added it appears a new “window of opportunity” has opened, and Davidson Mayor Rusty Knox said, “If there has ever been a better time to get this moving, I don’t know when.”

But the traces of optimism are strained by reality, as Mooresville Mayor Miles Atkins – referencing the behemoth in the room everyone recognizes – demonstrated through his “Not unless Norfolk Southern has agreed to allow use of their rail,” disclaimer about any Red Line-related investments.

And for north Mecklenburg’s mayors – not necessarily about an updated study, but definitely in terms of a new transit tax – that prominent point is not overlooked.

For the Red Line to change from the faded promise included in a tax package decades ago into a practical possibility – a giant step all three mayors agree is necessary before they endorse a transit tax – Norfolk Southern must change its view of the Red Line as a freight, and freight only, corridor.

“I’d need to sit down with the Norfolk Southern people, hear it from them face to face,” Washam said about any potential change in his transit tax opposition. “Their answer might be ‘hell no” – that’s what it’s been for years – but at least I’d know. Either way, if something’s changed, I still need to hear it directly from them.”

Bales doesn’t believe, given current economic conditions, the transit tax warrants discussion – “It shouldn’t even be on the table at this point,” she said. But her stance remains that a Red Line commitment, not just intentions, is required to alter her opposition.

“I would need something substantial, something showing CATS and Norfolk Southern saw it as a priority, not just a possibility,” Bales said.

And Knox, a commuter rail advocate, strongly opposes the idea of a transit tax without an agreement involving Norfolk Southern confirming the Red Line as a part of future plans.

“In terms of the tax, I don’t need a contract in hand for the Red Line, but there has to be a clear commitment,” he said. “If we get that commitment – from Norfolk Southern and CATS – I’d be the biggest cheerleader for the transit tax. But it has to be a high-level commitment. I need more than a 23-year-old promise.”

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