Thursday, December 17, 2009 11:55 AM
The use of mass transit grew more in the Charlotte area from 2006-2008 than anyplace else in the entire nation.
The U.S. Census Bureau’s most recent transit-use data show that the Charlotte-Gastonia-Concord area grew 47 percent during the two-year period. That is 17 percent more than the second-place metro area, Detroit-Warren-Livonia, Mich.
Charlotte opened its 9.6 mile light-rail line through Uptown and the South End to the Pineville city limits in November 2007. Officials projected a weekday ridership of 9,100, but the LYNX Blue Line has greatly exceeded that projection. Average weekday ridership as of October 2009 was 14,677, according to Jean Leier, manager of public and community relations for the Charlotte Area Transit System. Ridership from its opening date through October was 9.5 million trips.
An extension of the Blue Line, which will run to I-485 north of the University of North Carolina-Charlotte campus, is currently in the preliminary engineering stage. The design is projected to be 30 percent complete in the fall of 2010. At that time, the staff will present the information to the Metropolitan Transit Commission.
