The Charlotte City Council is scheduled to vote Sept. 9 on buying the O Line freight rail tracks from Norfolk-Southern — a major step towards building the long-delayed Red Line commuter train to Lake Norman communities.
Ed McKinney, who is the city’s point person for the transportation plan, said the agreement has been a long time coming.
Norfolk Southern had previously refused to sell or share the little-used line with the city.
“Take the big picture and step back,” he said, noting the city has been trying to get access to the line for more than 20 years. “This is an unprecedented opportunity at this point.”
The city hasn’t said how much it will spend to buy the line. Council members are scheduled to discuss the purchase in closed session before the final vote.
The good news about the Red Line came during a discussion Tuesday with the council’s transportation committee about Charlotte’s overall transit and transportation goals.
The city unveiled the framework for a new transit authority that would replace the city-run Charlotte Area Transit System. Officials also discussed plans to ask state legislators for permission to have a referendum for a one-cent sales tax increase to pay for transportation improvements.
Under the city’s proposal, 40% of new tax money would be spent on roads with only 40% spent on new rail transit. The rest would be spent on buses. That's a big change from the initial plans, which called for spending upward of 80% of new tax money on new transit, including the $8 billion-plus Silver Line light rail.
The cap on rail transit was done to please Republican lawmakers in Raleigh, who have questioned the city’s plans to spend billions of dollars on new rail lines.
The 40% limit, however, means the city can’t build all of its proposed rail lines. In May, the city told the town of Matthews that it could no longer build the most expensive project of all — the Silver Line light rail from uptown to Matthews — and would build bus rapid transit instead.
After Matthews Commissioners blasted the city at their own meeting Monday, some City Council members like Renee Johnson were sympathetic.
“Not only do I respect Mayor (John) Higdon and the Board of Commissioners, I applaud them,” Johnson said. “I applaud them for standing up for their constituents and standing up for what they have promised to do for a long time.”
Johnson, along with Malcolm Graham and Marjorie Molina, asked whether the Silver Line could be restored. It would run through east Charlotte.
City Manager Marcus Jones distanced himself from the Silver Line decision, saying he never told Matthews the train was out. He said any decision would be made by the new transit authority, should it come to pass.
