The new Metropolitan Public Transportation Authority is brainstorming ways to extend the proposed Silver Line light rail farther into east Charlotte and Matthews, but a consultant said this week a new sales tax is likely needed to finish the project.
The MPTA will take over Charlotte’s transit operations this summer, when a new one-cent sales tax for transportation is levied. Forty percent of that money will go to roads, and 60% will be directed to the MPTA for trains and buses.
The authority’s board this week looked at ways to extend the Silver Line, which is slated to go from the airport to Bojangles Coliseum. Extending the light rail line to Sharon Amity Road would cost $400 million, and bringing the train to Central Piedmont Community College in Matthews would cost an additional $2.4 billion.
During last fall’s debate over the tax, many east Charlotte and Matthews residents were upset that the train had been cut short to save money. The tax passed in Mecklenburg County overall, with 52% of voters backing it. But much of Matthews and east Charlotte rejected it.
A consultant, WSP, said the authority could squeeze $200 million in savings from the first phase of the Silver Line, but the authority would still need more money to extend the train to Sharon Amity.
Some of the possible cost savings include: Consolidating the Remount and Berryhill stations in west Charlotte; removing the Summit and First Ward stations; shifting the Silver Line’s planned route in uptown to the north side of 11th street; and moving the train’s route to the front side of Bojangles Coliseum instead of the back.
WSP also considered bringing the Silver Line closer to the terminal at Charlotte Douglas Airport – something that Charlotte Area Transit officials have long said isn’t feasible.
The current plan calls for the Silver Line to have an airport station on Wilkinson Boulevard, which is about one mile from the terminal. WSP said the Silver Line could instead run parallel to the Norfolk Southern rail tracks and have a station that’s a half-mile from the terminal.
That would make it more feasible for passengers to walk from the station to the terminal, rather than taking a bus or some sort of automated people mover train.
But even with those possible cost savings, the new MPTA would still need more money to extend the train to Sharon Amity. Getting all the way to Matthews would require a new quarter-cent sales tax, which would be the county’s third sales tax dedicated to transit.
The consultant floated other possibilities to raise money, such as selling naming rights to stations. But it’s unlikely that would generate much money.
The enabling legislation for the new one-cent transportation tax, the PAVE Act, mandates that the Red Line commuter train to Lake Norman be built first. That train is estimated to cost $1.4 billion.
The Charlotte City Council this month approved spending $37.9 million to continue engineering work on the Red Line. That work should refine the final cost as well as the projected ridership.
If the train costs more than projected, that will make it even harder for the MPTA to extend the Silver Line to the east. In addition, if the Federal Transit Agency declines to award the MPTA a 50% grant for construction costs, that also makes the Silver Line less feasible.
