Charlotte vs. Norfolk: Light-rail lines on same track?

It's standing room only during morning and evening rush hours, and often at lunchtime, on Charlotte's 9-1/2-mile light-rail line that runs between the city center and the suburbs.

The train takes passengers, for a fare of $1.75, past the business district, convention center, sports arena and new apartments and condos that flank the tracks. It stops at park-and-ride lots that sometimes fill to capacity.

For many of the 15,000 people who ride it daily, LYNX light rail has saved time, money and commuting headaches getting around a city that's home to the nation's second-largest financial center.

"It gives me 30 minutes of peace," said Bridget McCall, who rides daily to her accounting job. "It beats sitting in traffic, I save gas and I don't have to pay for parking. I love it."

Banker Mike Gathman drives 10 miles from his South Carolina home to the end of the line to hop the train to work. He's tried driving, carpooling and riding the bus, but he far prefers light rail.

"Disadvantages? There really are none," he said. "Except it gets crowded."

Charlotte wasn't always enamored with light rail. Before it opened in 2007, there were cost overruns, construction delays and ultimately an effort to try to repeal the regional sales tax that pays for it.

Sound familiar?

"We went through eight years of hell during the construction and planning phases," said Pat McCrory, former mayor of Charlotte. "You always get curve balls thrown at you. During construction, it was called 'the McCrory line,' and it was not meant as a compliment.

"I thought I'd be run out of office."

In many ways, Charlotte's early challenges with light rail are similar to Norfolk's.

The Tide in Norfolk is nearly 50 percent, or $106 million, over budget. It will open Aug. 19, more than a year and a half after it was originally scheduled to launch.

Whether Norfolk can shrug off its rocky start and embrace the 7.4-mile starter line the way much of Charlotte has remains to be seen. Charlotte voters rejected the tax repeal by a margin of 7 to 3.

"Twenty years from now, who's going to care about overruns?" Bob Morgan, president of the Charlotte Chamber of Commerce, said. "In the long term, it's going to be a footnote because light rail is going to shape the development of your region."

"How much did the New York City subway cost? Was it over budget or under budget? Does it matter now?"

Norfolk is no New York City, or even Charlotte.

Yet, Norfolk's light rail is often compared to Charlotte's because of its proximity (about 350 miles away), the length of the route and its similar costs. Norfolk's per-mile construction cost is $45.7 million; Charlotte's was $48.2 million.

There are some negative comparisons as well.

"Light rail is a huge burden to any city that has one," said Don Reid, a former Charlotte city councilman who headed the failed drive to repeal the sales tax for transit. "From a practical standpoint, it's a loser, a real loser. There's no way Norfolk can afford it."

Reid maintains that the money needed for light rail would have been more wisely invested in highways or buses.

"Sure, light rail gives people a choice, but at what cost?" he said. "How much is Norfolk willing to pay to give people a choice?"

Norfolk is the smallest U.S. city to build light rail. It's home to one Fortune 500 company; Charlotte has eight. Norfolk's downtown workforce is 30,000 and its residential population is 3,900, compared with downtown Charlotte's 70,000 workers and 11,000 residents.

When construction began on the Charlotte system, the economy was booming, and new development immediately followed. The economy tanked just after Norfolk's light-rail construction began.

Because of those and other differences, light-rail planners don't expect Norfolk to perform to Charlotte's levels. Daily ridership in Norfolk is estimated to be 2,900 when it opens and 7,200 in 20 years.

Many light-rail startups across the country quickly exceed projections. Charlotte's first-year daily trip projection was 9,000; actual ridership was 18,000, which is its 20-year mark.

Daily ridership has dropped to about 15,000 over the past couple of years due to the economy and job losses, said John Muth, deputy director of the Charlotte Area Transit System.

Even light rail's biggest cheerleader, McCrory, was "pleasantly surprised" by the numbers.

"I thought it would take three to four years to reach those ridership levels," he said. "If you build it in the right place, you'll exceed your expectations."

Still, Charlotte's buses carry the vast majority of transit riders, with 65,000 daily trips. Before building light rail, the half-cent transit sales tax went into beefing up bus service in preparation for the new rail service.

Hampton Roads Transit's buses handle about 54,000 passenger trips a day. Its busiest route, along Virginia Beach Boulevard, shuttles close to 5,000 daily.

Charlotte's LYNX runs from the downtown area known as Uptown, past an arena that's home to the Bobcats NBA team, bisecting the convention center, then through the trendy South End area and on to suburban neighborhoods with strip shopping centers. In the downtown core, the rail is two city blocks from bustling Tryon Street, considered the Main Street of Uptown.

The entire route is a former freight corridor, upgraded to handle light rail. It crosses city streets, but does not run in city streets as The Tide does in downtown Norfolk. East of downtown, The Tide also runs along an abandoned freight railroad track.

LYNX has 15 stations and seven park-and-ride lots with 3,200 parking spaces. Trains run on time 99 percent of the time.

A recent customer survey offers this profile of riders: average income is more than $50,000, average age is 40. Just over half are men; 62 percent used to commute alone in vehicles.

"Don't be fooled by the first week of operating in Norfolk," said David Hartgen, a consultant and retired professor of transportation studies at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. "Everybody in the whole town will try it at least once."

Since LYNX opened, he said ridership has declined, costs have escalated, and the sales tax to pay for it has shrunk: "There are very serious issues going forward."

Hartgen conducted an assessment of the system the year after it opened. He found it had minimal impact on road congestion, diverting about 4 percent of peak-hour travel, and that the actual cost per trip is $6.90 when factoring in construction and operating costs, of which riders pay about 60 cents.

He said Charlotte jumped on light rail because of "the allure of someone else's money." Federal funds paid for half the construction cost; federal sources cover nearly 60 percent of The Tide's $338.3 million cost. Norfolk is paying its share using the city's capital budget.

When it became clear that light rail was coming to Charlotte, investors seized the opportunity and started snapping up properties for development. McCrory said that was good for Charlotte but it also drove up real estate costs for light-rail stations and park-and-ride lots, which contributed to cost overruns.

Skyrocketing steel prices also drove up costs. The price tag went from $427 million when construction began in early 2005 to $463 million at its completion in late 2007. When the project was first conceived in 1998, it was estimated at $227 million.

Charlotte officials say nearly $300 million in development near light-rail stations has been completed and another $522 million in development is under way, most of it apartments. The numbers do not reflect development in the downtown area.

The Charlotte Area Transit System estimates the total will reach $1.4 billion in new development near light-rail stations outside of downtown by 2013. More development had been planned but has been in limbo since the recession hit in 2008, said Tina Votaw, a CATS transit-oriented development specialist.

"We have sites that are totally cleared, waiting for development if the economy comes around," she said.

The Chamber of Commerce is more optimistic and places new development at $3 billion when counting downtown development.

"Light rail sends a powerful message to the companies here and the companies looking to come here - we are investing in our future so our workers have options for getting to work," Morgan, the chamber president, said. "Transit is not a luxury; it's a necessity. It sends a message and symbol of how you as a community are thinking about the future."

A University of North Carolina at Charlotte study last year showed that housing prices around light-rail stations closest to downtown have jumped more than 15 percent since light rail opened. Farther from downtown, housing values rose less or not at all.

Walter Broome, manager of Price's Chicken Coop, which has been selling fried chicken for 48 years just outside of downtown Charlotte, said: "At one time, this was the wrong side of the track. But people are coming back now. Real estate is at a premium."

Norfolk, however, embarked on light rail just before the economic downturn. The developers of three new projects downtown - the Wells Fargo Center, Belmont at Freemason and the Residence Inn - worth a combined $220 million, said their decision to build was influenced by light rail.

No new development tied to light rail has been announced since.

Black Sheep skate shop owner Josh Frazier was in business before light rail opened in Charlotte's South End, which has experienced a resurgence since light rail opened.

"It's made the neighborhood more accessible," he said. "I've seen an increase in interest in the area, more shops and condos. It's a great thing - very progressive and environmentally friendly."

Chuck Barger, who owns The Common Market gourmet store in the South End, opened his store after light rail began operating and said the transit line was one reason for choosing the location. He said the residential development that followed rail has helped to build his customer base.

"It's helped change people's opinions on mass transit," he said. "Now everyone wants it in their neighborhood."

Next year, CATS will start building a $977 million, 9-1/2-mile extension to the UNC Charlotte campus and the city's northeast corridor. It is scheduled to open in late 2016 or early 2017.

Because of the recession, the sales tax dedicated to transit is falling about $20 million short of expectations each year, prompting CATS to cut about $200 million from the project cost by shortening the line by just over a mile, planning for two-car instead of three-car trains and shifting some costs to the city.

CATS' long-term master plan includes 76 miles of light rail, commuter rail, streetcar and bus rapid transit by 2030.

"The shape of Charlotte over 100 years is dependant on transit," Morgan said. "Development will go where transportation infrastructure will allow it."

Debbie Messina, (757) 446-2588, debbie.messina@pilotonline.com