Commuter rail to Lake Norman won’t happen overnight
ANALYSIS | By Dave Vieser
Sept. 11. The Cornelius Town Board had just unanimously approved local legislation in support of a countywide referendum for a 1 percent sales tax to fund road and transit projects, including the Red Line. Mayor Woody Washam, while thankful for the commissioners support, sounded a note of caution: “It’s been a long journey but it’s not over.”
Indeed, the vote taken by the town board is just one early piece of a complex process necessary to bring commuter rail to North Mecklenburg.
About the commuter line
The Red Line would provide service from Charlotte’s Uptown station northward to Mount Mourne/Mooresville, including Cornelius. As opposed to the light rail system which serves other areas of Charlotte, commuter rail is comprised of heavier equipment which travels longer distances than light rail. Connections would be available in Charlotte to the airport as well as other key areas of the city.
Norfolk Southern right of way a necessity
Up until July 2023, having a rail line on the rarely used freight track seemed like an Impossibility since the Norfolk/Southern executives had expressed no interest in selling their right of way. That finally changed in 2023 and negotiations began between the city of Charlotte and the rail line representatives.
If all goes as planned, the city will closed on that sale agreement in Sept. 9.
How to fund the Red Line
Building a rail line is very expensive. Most estimates place the cost for the Red Line in excess of $680 million. Neither Charlotte nor the municipalities along the route have that type of money to spend on such a project. However, following a precedent which has been used in other parts of the country, local and state officials determined that a sales tax dedicated to funding the rail line could be one means of providing the needed funds.
The process of initiating the sales tax
In most instances, referendums are held to give citizens the choice as to whether they want to increase the sales tax and use the extra proceeds for a specific cause. For example, in 1998, a 1/2 percent sales tax increase was approved in Mecklenburg County to fund transit improvements.
This has been some journey…the darnedest thing I’ve ever been in the middle of!
—Mayor Woody Washam, August 19, 2024
Even before the citizens have the opportunity to vote, the referendum initiative must be authorized by the NC General Assembly.
Common sense would suggest that they would only proceed with such a vote if the various impacted municipalities expressed strong support. Thus, each of the towns are voting on a resolution similar to the August 19 Cornelius document.
The Cornelius legislation contained the following priorities:
1. Citizens shall have the right to vote in a referendum on a sales tax that will determine their road network and transit future
2. The potential sales tax shall provide substantive funding for Cornelius road projects
3. It must include enabling legislation and sales tax that delivers the Red Line to the north Mecklenburg community.
Expect similar resolutions to emerge from other towns. Most state representatives do not expect this issue to be addressed by the General Assembly until next year’s “Long Session” which would be early 2025.
Matthews not pleased
Most of the towns in Mecklenburg are on board, but not Matthews. That’s because the Silver Line, a light rail line to run east of Charlotte, towards Matthews, has been removed from the rail plans, in favor of a bus line. Matthews Mayor John Higdon has made his unhappiness well known, and the state representatives in Raleigh are watching very carefully.
If the General Assembly decides that a referendum is appropriate, it would be on the November 2025 ballot, which also is a local election year.
A 1 percent increase in the sales tax would bring the total in Mecklenburg county to 8.2 percent. Are the citizens of the county—and that would include voters who live in Charlotte—ready to authorize such an increase for rail and transit improvements?
We may not know until a year from November.
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Your article states it connects to the airport….how?
Vote NO. Paying out taxes (again) for next 10 years maybe longer before this is completed. I don’t like toll roads either but this is not the answer, How is the divergent diamond doing for everybody at 28? Get the Exit 27 project going or something else that these local leaders don’t have to come to the public for tax dollars. BTW, due to all the stops rail takes 45 minutes just to get uptown and No airport choice
As with many government projects that are not properly vetted, this one will likely have significant cost overruns, among other things. If it is built, I expect it to lose large sums of money as far as the eye can see; and the losers will be the taxpayers who have to pay for it in perpetuity.
People said the same thing about the blue line and it’s doing great.
Where is the money raised from the 1/2% sales tax from the last 24 years? This will be delayed and cost more than double and will not make money like the one in Charlotte because more than half of the people ride for free.
Bring it on!!!
>I-77
The Federal government, which is not shy about spending money, has clearly stated in the past that the Red Line does not justify the investment.
However, there will be several groups that will have their investment justified:
1. The owners of the properties on which the stations and thousands of homes and businesses will be built.
2. The developers who build those homes and businesses.
3. The consultants, who likely have recommended other rail transit lines that have lost money.
4. The contractors who build the line.
If you do your due diligence, you will review #1, and carefully vet those entities in #3 & 4.
Why don’t we expand the 77 to 3 lanes per side from Charlotte to Statesville (no toll lanes) and fix the nightmare 150 (which people have been requesting for 40 years) before we start wondering about a train line that no one is asking for?
The author makes an unsupported claim that, “Most estimates place the cost for the Red Line in excess of $680 million.” How is this considered journalism? Where are the sources for this claim? When is that last time any legitimate study was done related to construction costs – a decade ago?? And notice how the author ONLY references construction costs for the line. What about additional property acquisition costs (for parking and platform), what about operation costs, and what about ongoing maintenance costs? Not to mention the author makes zero reference to any actual ridership numbers. This is what propaganda looks like. VOTE NO on more sales tax for Charlotte.
The $680 million figure is supported: It’s the last cost estimate provided by CATS. It was released in 2022 so we used “in excess of” since it’s safe to assume the current estimates would be higher.
The must be able to vote the red line not only the sales tax. If the tax is voted down they will find another way to fund this with out a vote. Tax payers will have to pay up unless we get to vote on the red line. But I see it’s to late the town has already voted for the red lion. Looks like we may get a whole new board next election.