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Track Work Begins At Uptown's Gateway Station Site

Phase 1 of the project begins this summer, and will include track and bridge work, including a 2,000-foot platform.
Charlotte Area Transit System
Phase 1 of the Gateway Station project includes track and bridge work, including a 2,000-foot platform.

City officials will break ground Friday morning on a project that eventually will bring passenger trains downtown for the first time since 1962.  Work is already underway on the $90 million first phase of the Gateway Station. 

Charlotte Area Transit System CEO John Lewis said that money will pay for separating freight and passenger tracks through uptown, building five new bridges and constructing a 2,000-foot covered passenger platform.

The station will be on 17 acres along West Trade Street. Still to come is a mixed-use project that CATS will develop with private partners, Lewis said.

"I envision something you know retail, housing, office space, maybe a hotel. Something that is almost a 24/7 kind of atmosphere," he said. 

Lewis said it could be 2022 or 2023 before Amtrak moves its passenger terminal to West Trade Street from the current site off North Tryon Street.

CATS already has city, state and federal funds for the first phase of the project. Lewis said he's not sure what the second phase might cost.

David Boraks previously covered climate change and the environment for WFAE. See more at www.wfae.org/climate-news. He also has covered housing and homelessness, energy and the environment, transportation and business.