North Carolina Governor Pat McCrory, Charlotte Mayor Pat Kinsey, Federal Transit Administrator Peter Rogoff, UNC Charlotte Chancellor Philip Dubois, Chairman of Mecklenburg County Commissioners, CATS CEO Carolyn Flowers and other elected officials and community leaders at the ground breaking ceremony this morning.
This morning at 10 a.m., media and community members alike gathered at the 9th St. station to celebrate the groundbreaking of the LYNX Blue Line lightrail extension. The project has been ongoing since 1994, according to Governor Pat McCrory, and will be open for transit beginning in 2017.
McCrory stated that the lightrail is “completion of a vision from people 15 or 16 years ago.” He went on to explain the university’s role in creating the lightrail. “Without Phil Dubois and UNC Charlotte’s decision to do the curve into UNC Charlotte, we wouldn’t have gotten the funding.”
Chancellor Dubois said that his decision to come on-board with lightrail efforts in July 2005 was simple because of the access it provides not only for university students to the city, but for community members to the university and “the city’s only district one football team.” Dubois also discussed the university’s expansion and growth as a reason for the lightrail. It is projected that the university may have up to 35,000 students in the coming years and the university “simply couldn’t have enough parking for all the students and faculty that are coming into the university,” Dubios said.
Also in attendance was Federal Transit Administrator Peter Rogoff who brought up the many benefits the lightrail has for students. With access to reliable public transportation to all desired areas, students can save on gas and “spend money on books, tuition and their futures.”
Rogoff went on to say “something we don’t say enough: students come down and party and now they aren’t driving home and that benefits the safety of all of us.”
Mayor Pat Kinsey said that the lightrail is “another step forward to giving citizens a access to a better life.” With this extension, there will be better access to major employment centers such as the Center City and University City areas, healthcare facilities and higher learning institutions such as UNC Charlotte and Central Piedmont Community College.
“We are preparing for people who will be coming,” said Kinsey.
“The reason we all have worked together so hard, so well, and for so long is that we have understood that the benefits to the city were too large and too significant not too –both in the job creation that would be necessary just to construct the rail line, and also in the long-term potential for development along the northeast corridor,” Chancellor Dubois said.
Daily ridership on the lightrail is estimated to be 18,000 when operations begin in 2017.