The Charlotte Area Transit System plans to terminate the leases of the six stores and restaurants inside the main bus station uptown — a change the transit system says will make the station safer.
The station on Trade Street — known as the Charlotte Transportation Center — has been a crime hotspot for years, including a fatal shooting last month.
Interim CATS CEO Brent Cagle said that within 90 days the transit system plans to end the leases of all vendors, which includes a Burger King. They won’t be replaced.
“By removing the concessionaires it will give us the ability to better enforce the entirety of the inside of the transit center as what we call a fare zone,” Cagle told members of the Metropolitan Transit Commission Wednesday.
By creating a fare zone, Cagle says CATS security personnel can ask people inside the bus station if they have a ticket or a bus pass. If not, they will be required to leave.
Lynx Blue Line stations are already designated as fare zones.
The empty retail space will be converted to waiting areas for passengers and drivers.
Cagle plans to unveil a larger plan to renovate the bus station next month after earlier plans to replace the station with a new underground facility fell through.
The bus station is in a perfect location for passengers. It’s close to the heart of uptown and just a block from the Gold Line streetcar and the Lynx Blue Line. It’s also across the street from the Spectrum Center.
But violence in and around the CTC has been a problem.
The city also wants to make the area around the Spectrum Center a new family-friendly entertainment district, and the CTC has been seen as a hurdle to overcome.
