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Metropolitan Transit Commission

November 28, 2018

Metropolitan Transit Commission November 28, 2018 Agenda

METROPOLITAN TRANSIT COMMISSION Wednesday, November 28, 2018

5:00pm Charlotte Mecklenburg Government Center

Room 267 AGENDA

I. Call to Order ........................................................................... Commissioner Ella Scarborough

II. Approval of the October 24, 2018 Summary .......................... Commissioner Ella Scarborough

III. Report from the Chair of the Transit Service Advisory Committee (TSAC) ......... Chris Maloy

IV. Report from the Chair of the Citizens Transit Advisory Group (CTAG) ......... Edward Tillman

V. Public Comments

VI. Action Items

• 2019 State & Federal Legislative Agendas ................................................. Dana Fenton • Travel Markets and Transit Service Guidelines Policies .............................. Larry Kopf • North Mecklenburg Express Services ........................................................... Larry Kopf • Cancellation of December 2018 MTC Meeting ............................................. John Muth

VII. Information Items

• Regional Transit Plan Update ................................................................ Michelle Nance

VIII. Chief Executive Officer’s Report .............................................................................. John Muth

IX. Other Business ........................................................................ Commissioner Ella Scarborough

X. Adjourn

Metropolitan Transit Commission Meeting Summary September 26, 2018 Page 1 of 19

METROPOLITAN TRANSIT COMMISSION

MEETING SUMMARY

October 24, 2018

Presiding: Ella Scarborough (Chair, Mecklenburg County Commission) Present: Mayor Vi Lyles, (City of Charlotte) Danny Pleasant (Charlotte Assistant City Manager) Mayor Rusty Knox (Davidson) Mayor Walker Reid (Gastonia)

Mayor John Aneralla (Huntersville) Mayor Jack Edwards (Pineville) Mayor Woody Washam (Cornelius) Andrew Grant (Cornelius Town Manager)

Chief Executive Officer: John Lewis, Jr.

I. Call to Order

The regular meeting of the Metropolitan Transit Commission was called to order at 5:34 p.m. by MTC’s Chairman, Commissioner Scarborough.

II. Review of Meeting Summary The meeting summary of September 26, 2018 was approved as written.

III. Transit Services Advisory Committee (TSAC) Chair’s Report MR. MALOY: The Transportation Services Advisory Committee met on Thursday, October 11th and had a number of both action items and information items. 1) The action items that we received, were concerning the travel market policies as well as the

transit services guidelines. Those were both reviewed, and the recommendation to MTC is to move forward.

2) The information item we received an update on the upcoming January-February service change that was presented by Ms. Pamela White that included the North Mecklenburg corridor updates in conjunction with the opening of the I-77 express lanes.

3) We received an update on the legislative agenda presented by Mr. Dana Felton. In addition to our regular obtains there is a statement that I would like to read on behalf of the Transportation Services Advisory Committee in response -- it was to be preempted to the CEO's report, so some of the items that he has addressed, but I will read it in full as it was drafted. “The Transportation Services Advisory Committee, also known as TSAC, was a committee that's charged with providing CATS with citizen input on day-to-day operations of transportation service to ensure it meets the needs of the community. On October 11th, nearly two weeks ago, CATS experienced a failure in service on the Blue Line Light Rail system due to a tree falling on the wires, the power of the Light Rail vehicles. This failure has had a significant impact on the citizens who rely on this service. Per CATS data 722,000 rides were provided in the month of August 2018, with 27,000 daily riders on the weekday and 19,000 daily riders on the weekend.


The impact of the service outage has impacted tens of thousands of daily riders, many of whom do not have access to other means of transportation. TSAC would like to recognize and thank the employees and contractors that work tirelessly to restore the service and provide alternate transportation and return that transportation service ahead of what was the initial schedule. Disruptions to rail service unfortunately are a certainty in the future, not only on expected events like the hurricane but also planned outages like the one back in August where the system was shut down for an entire weekend. CATS is concerned that the preparation for this weather event may have missed identifying risks to the systems. A felled tree damaged the electrical system that powers the train and a critical part of the system, shutting down a large majority of the critical portion of the service uptown. The questions that are open, why was this not surveyed to determine to be a risk prior to the hurricane hitting the area. TSAC is also concerned about the response to the event, which included buses offered to the staff on-site that seemed inadequately prepared to provide accurate and timely information to passengers. Notifications of the reason for the outage occurred days after the trains were shut down, and notifications of an estimated return to service did not occur until days after that. Many questions were asked through social media channels that seem to be ignored, leaving riders with an additional sense of frustration. While TSAC understands service interruptions are inevitable, proper planning and execution of disaster recovery plans will set the city apart from its peers. Now that service has been returned to normal, TSAC on behalf of the riders of CATS, do request the following actions to occur. We would like to hear the CEO's full review of the service failure to TSAC, which would include responsibility of the risk mitigation within the transportation system. We would like also to hear about updates on the disaster recovery business continuity plans that are already in place and may be updated as a result of this service failure. This should include where if a system issue does occur, that a plan is in place to manage operations until that service can be restored and the testing of these plans to ensure that those are updated as needed on a regular basis. Third and final is a communication of customer service improvement. There seemed to be a pretty large gap in how customers were hearing about the service outage and how they would get transportation, where that transportation would occur. Customer service requests by phone, in person, and online responses need to be timely and accurate, and CATS must do its part to provide consistent communication to ensure that all customers that need assistance are answered, regardless of the communication channel they are using.

IV. Citizens Transit Advisory Group (CTAG) Chair’s Report

Co-Chairman Edward Tillman gave the CTAG’s Report. An update from a previous meeting we had on the 16th of October, we were presented the 2030 plan with updates on the commuter rail rapid bus in the North Corridor and the Silver Line and streetcar. There were some comments from the group, around the problems with Norfolk Southern and the commuter rail, and whether having a coalition of politicians from the region would be able to address their concerns. There were also some concerns by at least one member of the committee regarding the RFP for security force which was filled by G4S. This committee member wondered why that RFP was not brought in front of CTAG, although that may be not part of the purview, but certainly that was a question raised. We did approve the meeting minutes from the previous month.

V. Public Comments. None


VI. Action Items. None VII. Information Items

a. Federal Transit Funding Update Jeff Boothe Jeff Boothe is the owner of Boothe Transit Consulting, merging with InfraStrategies and gave the following update. As of today, you see a lot of discussions about sort of the Trump administration, and I've heard from so many clients who are concerned about these potential cuts in the program and wondering if in fact there's going to be a transit program, wondering if there's going to be a capital investment grants program, and part of this discussion is to disabuse you of those concerns, given what Congress has done in response to the Trump budget. I wanted to show you some of the funding. Looking at the funding levels for fiscal years '17 through '19, look at how the program is being managed by the FTA and sort of their position was to eliminate the program, seek funding for new projects, and gradually try to eliminate the program. So that was the Trump position that we saw released early in the administration. But in response, you see in the numbers what Congress's response to that was. In the one column you have the authorization bill level, which is roughly a little over -- about $2.3 billion authorized annually. You see in the middle what the administration's request was, and I showed in the FY '17 vote President Obama and then President Trump in terms of the distinction between their two requests. And then what you see in the third column is what Congress ultimately provided for the program, and what you'll see in the third column is in both years they increased it not only above the Trump administration's but also above the authorized level, so they provided a robust amount of money for the capital investment branch program. And where we are right now in FY '18 is that Congress put in limitations of the funding for the administration to obligate monies by the end of next calendar year and then fully obligate by September 30, 2020, and so the administration is under pressure to begin obligating those monies because Congress became concerned about their unwillingness to do so. And then what we see in FY '19 is sort of the spread between the House and the Senate, and unfortunately, we had hoped to get the bill done on time, but it was the only minibus that didn't get done by September 30th and so it's one of four appropriations bills that still await congressional action when they return in the middle of November. We are hopeful that can be done. What I share with you here is sort of what happened in FY '17 and '18, the limitations are applying to the '18 monies since they must obligate the monies, so there is a lot of pressure on the administration to do so. That language did not repeat in FY '19, but there is pressure for them to finally request projects next February for the FY '20 budget. So where are we right now? As I said, all but the four bill minibus that we thought it was part of transportation causing urban development it was part of, it didn't get past the other. Congress returns the middle of November. The bill Continuing Resolution lasts until December 7th, and at this point we're going to have to see what happens on November 6th. When Congress comes back on the 15th, whether they decide to try to complete the appropriations process for the next Congress or whether this lapses until the next Congress and like what happened in FY '17 when the bill actually didn't get adopted until well into the calendar year '17. May of '17 is when we adopted the FY '17 bill. I'm hoping it doesn't take


that long, but history may repeat itself, depending on if there is a change in control of either the House or the Senate. So where are we right now, and my observations is first of all, just to put it in perspective, I have been working on transit appropriations bills or transit since 1982 when I worked on the Senate Appropriations Committee, and lived through a time where at the time President Reagan -- yes, I'm that old -- had an OMB director by the name of David Stockton, who was a former member of Congress, Mick Mulvaney, former member of Congress who arranged the OMB, where they tried to kill the transit program. They tried to eliminate it altogether. And Congress responded by funding the program and making it so that it didn't disappear. We had at that time Republican support of both the House and Senate Appropriations Committee to keep it alive. What's happened this time around in response to the Trump budget is we have seen bipartisan support for the transit program through the appropriations bills, and we have strong Democratic and Republican support for the transit program through the appropriation bills, and I was just telling Dana earlier, that's evidenced by the fact that a nonpartisan investigative committee on the House Appropriations Committee has been sending letters to grantees who are currently in the process of asking how has been their experience with the Federal Transit Administration and have they seen delays in the process, which would be used towards the goal of giving direction to Congress in the next appropriations bill about how they're managing the program, and so it could serve as the basis for hearings early next year, bringing a chance to answer for how they're managing the program and how they're advancing the project. And that's an indication of the level of support, because this is coming from a Republican-controlled Congress and Republican-controlled House Appropriations Committee that is expressing these concerns about the program. Where we are right now is we've had two Obama-era funding grant agreements signed, one in California with the Caltrain Electrification Project, the other with the Purple Line in Maryland. We've had a number of Small Start projects go to grant agreement around the country. We've had a couple of projects in which they've requested money and they've allocated the monies for projects in Seattle and also in Orange County Streetcar, and they issued what's known us Letters of No-Prejudice for projects in Los Angeles and Tempe, which is a precursor to getting a full funding grant agreement, so we are beginning to see that dam break a little bit. We're beginning to see projects go to grant agreements, so we're optimistic that we're going to see those projects that have received allocation of funding for FY '18 as well as those projects that have Letters of No-Prejudice to go to grant agreement by the end of the year. I think we are reasonably optimistic at this point that we're going to begin to return to regular order on the program, albeit they've made some changes in the program. We expect some additional changes to happen early next year as they issue additional guidance to guide the capital investment grants program.

b. 2019-2020 State & Federal Legislative Agendas Dana Fenton

Dana Fenton, Inter-Government Relations Manager, presented the proposed federal and state legislative agendas for the coming year. First, we'll just go back down memory lane, take a look at what happened with the state and the federal government, take state transportation out, look at those agendas. In 2017 the FTC did put out statements for continuation of federal resources for the buildup of the program. I think as Jeff said, those resources are still there. They did survive attempts to defund them, but the Congress has


responded appropriately. And of course, all the different grant programs are still in place. The build program is an acronym, and please don't ask me what it means but it's the replacement for the Tiger program which came onboard about eight or nine years ago. With the State you adopted a statement two years ago to support community efforts to complete the regional public transportation division, and a key part of that of course was for the State to continue funding the State share of construction of the LYNX Blue Line extension. That has been appropriated every year and we'll be continuing to look at that in the future. The State is also putting money into the Gateway Station. We wanted to make sure that there weren't any changes to qualifications for those types of projects in the SDI. Of course, the State did decrease funding respondent for the State maintenance and systems program. What I think you're seeing there is that when it comes to public transportation, Light Rail has been somewhat of a target the last couple of years. Since John got here in 2015, Mr. Lewis, that is, I think there's been about three different things that have happened on Light Rail, and from where we began back in 2015, our project, LYNX Blue Line Extension, had had a commitment of 25% of the cost of construction from the State. That is now 10% at the most. And going forward, as you look at new projects you may have to think about putting in more local money in order to get around that state limit. Of course, you're broken ground at the Gateway Station. That's going to be a huge project for the region. And when we look at the state transportation outlook coming up, I think at this point your attention to the middle, there is a long-term trend, the state motor fuel tax revenue. That is continuing to go down in value. The car fleets are getting better mileage so put less gas in the tank to go the same distance, and therefore, the revenue grows slowly if anything at all. And then of course, we'll share with you at the state level there is an effort that's going to be made this coming year to get capital funding for commercial service Air Force. You might ask what does that have to do with transit. It's that there is going to be a -- basically it's going look like there's going to be some additional funding for another mode of transportation in there. This revenue here will be probably coming from rental car taxes that now build a general fund. They will be shifted to the transportation trust fund itself. By itself I don't see that impacting the transit at all. So as to go forward to continue next year, basically what I said before, this is a status quo legislative agenda. We propose that you continue supporting federal resources for buildout of the 2030 transit corridor system plan, and on the state side continue the efforts to complete the regional public transportation vision with one addition there. There is a source of revenue, a special assessment district legislation that can be used for projects like the Gateway Station. That legislation expires on July 1 of 2020, so it's going to have to be renewed or extended sometime within the next few years. And next steps, we'll be back before you on November 28th, and of course the Congress and the General Assembly start their work in January next year.

c. Travel Markets & Transit Service Guideline Policies Larry Kopf

Larry Kopf, CATS Chief Planning Officer, presented the following updates on two present MTC policies. We've reviewed these policies with you on a regular basis. These are policies that have been adopted and approved. They set direction for staff. They have been approved by MTC, and we review them every so many years to make sure that they are still germane and up-to-date, and that's the purpose for bringing them to you tonight.


1) Travel Market Policy Starting with the travel markets policy. The purpose of this policy is to determine which markets CATS will focus on. There are some markets that we probably should not be focused on. For example, we're probably not going to compete very well for trips where people are trying to take their kids to soccer practice or something of that nature, and so what this policy does, it sets out those markets where we think that we can compete and where we should compete. It also sets priority for staff, and I mentioned that this was established by MTC. We are not recommending many changes to this policy, but we are looking to update some of the references in the policy. I'm going to talk a little bit about the primary market so if you do have the policy in front of you I will be referring to that. But if you look at the primary markets, this policy comes in very handy for staff. We are approached with requests for service on a regular basis, and if it's a request that we think we should not be -- you know, a market that we should not be competing in -- and I think this policy kind of gives us your backing in terms of how we respond to that request, and that's why it's important in that regard. It's also important, and it really came into the fore back in 2009 when the economy dropped and we had to make decisions in terms of where we were going to cut service. And we did refer to this policy, and it helped us to make those decisions. So with that, I'll quickly go over the markets. The number one market that we have, number one primary market, is all trips, all purposes, by those individuals who do not have access to or cannot utilize private transportation and require public transportation for mobility, so that's the number one market where we can compete and we feel we should compete. Number 2 is existing customers from existing service areas. That probably requires a little bit of an explanation. We did lean on number 2 that market back in 2009 when we were making decisions to cut service. Basically, what it means, if you're making a decision on what to cut, you're going to cut a low ridership route for a high ridership route, so we are trying to retain as many customers or existing customers as we can. After our plans are on the books for services in the future that are not running today, those might be cut for existing services that are running today, so that's the point of number 2. And then we also have number 3 references trips within the five original corridors that we have in our plan. Number 4 refers to transit-oriented development, and we're recommending that we add activity centers, because of a lot of the transit-oriented development is actually in the corridors, and this refers to transit-oriented developed in the wedges, and we thought that we would add activity centers, so that that would include activity centers such as the Arboretum and other major destinations that are not strictly TOD but we are recommending we add that language. Number 5 is commuter trips and congested travel corridors outside the original five corridors. That would be, for example, Providence Road or Brookshire, those would be major travel corridors where we tried to capture commuter trips. And number 6 is commuter trips to/from surrounding counties, so we do have as one of our primary markets capturing trips from surrounding counties, and we currently do have a regional engagement series and are talking with our partners outside of Mecklenburg County about that. Now, secondary markets are trips to and from non-TOD regardless location, local trips outside -- totally outside -- Mecklenburg County. That could be


something that we might want to look at at some point as our regional series goes forward. We didn't recommend the change at this point. We could always bring this policy back if we want to look at that. We don't have to wait three more years to discuss it again, but we weren't recommending a change at this time to that secondary market. And then inter-county trips outside of the original five corridors. So that's the purpose of this policy, and we are recommending some minor changes. It is an important policy, and before I get into the next -- this is just a summary of the changes. 2) Transit Service Guidelines Policy The Transit Service Guidelines Policy has many categories. The purpose of this policy, again, this is a policy set by MTC to give guidance to staff. We have turnover in the staff department; people have different ideas of how service should be constructed, what's important in terms of service design. And this policy is set by MTC so that we don't lose sight of those features that make service successful and that we keep that in mind as staff turns over. It covers areas such as transit coverage, transit access, stop spacing, where we put amenities, load standards, you know, how many standees we'll accept on our service, OTP or on-time performance, and route design. And I'm going to talk from the policy as I move forward with this, because many the changes that we are recommending are minor in nature. We want to improve or update our preferences, as some of the plans that are referenced have changed, so we want to update that. But I'll mention some of the recommended changes. In section 2.2 we are recommending the coverage area around a route be extended from 1/4 mile to ½ mile. That kind of coincides with what we're doing with Envision My Ride where we're striking out our routes and asking people in some cases to walk a little further, and so that's why we're recommending that change. Let's see, the next change would be in section 2.4 in terms of bus stop spacing, and we are just changing some of the language in number 4. We think that we are improving the language in terms of referencing density instead of walking distance. And we are also putting some language in there about microtransit, is that becoming more prevalent in the area. Now, we are not making any recommendations to change the section on amenities, where we put benches and shelters. Our criteria for where we put benches and shelters, we basically look for stops that have 25 boardings a day, but we do have language that allows us to put benches and shelters at other stops. For example, if there is a lengthy wait time where there is a long headway, the buses are not very frequent, we are allowed to make exceptions to that rule, high percentage of transfer passengers or a stop where there's a high percentage of seniors or people with disabilities. We have 2951 stops in our system, and there are 136 stops that have 25 or more boardings that do not have a bench or a shelter today. Out of those 136, 129 of them are in the city of Charlotte. I think we have one in Huntersville, one in Davidson, two in Pineville, one in Matthews, and then the other two are outside the county. So that's how it breaks down in terms of bus stops with 25 boardings without a bench or shelter today. There are various reasons why we don't have benches at shelters at all these stops. In some cases, there is not right-of-way to put a bench or a shelter or it would cause us to encroach on private property; we have a property owner who is not willing or does not want a bench or a shelter.


There are certain rules. For example, NCDOT requires a sidewalk in order for us to put a bench or a shelter. And NCDOT also requires a further setback, so depending on the miles per hour of the roadway, we have to be further back, and that means we are encroaching into a larger portion of private property in many cases, and then there is a whole cost-benefit analysis that goes on in those cases. So those are the issues that we run into on a regular basis. Typically, we don't put benches or shelters where we don't have sidewalks. The Americans With Disabilities Act requires if you're making an improvement, that it has to be improved to the standard of ADA, and that means there has to be a path of travel, and so we are concerned about putting those where we are not able to develop that path of travel successfully. So those are some of the issues that we've run into on amenities. I don't know if there are any questions on that section. MAYOR ANERALLA: Just a quick question. With all the construction that's going on in the new roads in our area or Mecklenburg, does NCDOT take into account the fact that there are 25 people might be impacted or do you work together on something like that? MR. KOPF: Yes, we do work with NCDOT. You know, we approach them. We typically reach out to them when we see an opportunity or know of some road construction that's going on, and we will make a request for an improvement. They do require a further setback if it's a roadway with a higher mile per hour, but we do try to work with them in those situations. MAYOR LYLES: I'm following up on the question about the benches and the amenities. You talked about over 100 that are not -- that we have places with over 100 that do not have amenities, right? MR. KOPF: Yeah, we have 25 boardings a day that we don't have amenities at those bus stops. MAYOR LYLES: What percentage of those fall within your exceptions like no right-of-way, no sidewalks? I guess the question I'm asking, are those and out that number that qualify that just haven't been done because of something besides an exception? MR. KOPF: Yeah, I couldn't quantify it for you, but I can tell you that some of those locations we would like to make improvements, and it just takes time to get to all those locations. We do make improvements on a regular basis. We work with private developers. When they have a project, we will ask for improvements in the rezoning process. We do work with other city departments with engineering and with CDOT, and we have good coordination with them. We try to work with the towns in terms of what's going on in your areas and try to make improvements when we see opportunities. And then we have our own resources to make improvements also, it's just that that's a pretty high number to get too all-in at one time, and we are making progress, I guess, incrementally. MAYOR LYLES: Do you have a metric for the backup for the ones that are not done? Do you have a metric that says you want to reduce it by 20% a year or something like that?


CATS CEO LEWIS: I think we do not currently, but I think to your original point why don't we go back and take a look at categorizing of those stops that meet this threshold, what are the challenges. So is it sidewalk, is it private property, is it funding, et cetera, and then we'll come back and give you that information. MAYOR LYLES: Okay. And I didn't know we were going to do this by section so I want to go back to 2.2. And when you talk about the 2.2 section on walking, you've added the time and then you said in some areas that you are going to -- that you can't do that and you will not do it, so the qualification right now is that you are going from a quarter-mile to a half mile around the pickup area. And the question I have, do you account for the actually ability to walk, because there are some areas where there is no space to walk, and I often see these paths that people have created that are not curbside and look to me to be not assessed in a way that we should, so my question was can you really prepare and have someone go out and walk the site and see if you can actually walk the half mile? MR. KOPF: Yes. What we do whenever we are making route changes, we do look at where the natural walking path would be, and we did do some straightening out on October 1st when we implemented some changes. What we did in that instance was we put up new bus stops in between areas where we thought people would be naturally walking out to, to try to make that better. We also try to work with CDOT to the extent possible in terms of infrastructure improvements. That's a little bit of a slower process but we do, we do work with them for that. But we do look at walking distance and how that's going to affect people when we make route changes. MAYOR LYLES: I'd ask the same kind of metric of assessment there, that if we have places that we are doing the half mile natural walking areas, so it wouldn't necessarily mean that people should be walking that way, they just have no choice, and I don't think we ought to have a sloped process between our two departments on getting things do work in the correct way. I would like to get more of a sense of what are those areas and which ones have sidewalk, which ones require you to cross a 6 lane road or a 4 lane road or a 2 lane road. There are all kinds of things like that. I guess what I'm saying overall, the purpose is to provide convenient access. Well, I think that convenience has changed a good bit since we started running buses and I expect we are continuing the update, so I think it ought to be to provide safe and convenient access versus just convenience, and I think convenience needs to be more of a condition of where desirable instead of convenience. So those are just two -- I'd really like to see the safety aspect there first as we are trying to get to a place where pedestrians are safe. So safe, and I don't know if desirable can replace convenient. Maybe that's too much to ask. So that's the comment I have on the section 2.2. MR. KOPF: The next major adjustment is in section 2.7. We do have load standards for our service. We have a certain number of seats, but we do accept standees on our service. It's 115% of seated capacity for express service and 130% of seated capacity for local service. Express riders are usually riding a longer distance and local riders are getting on and off and usually are riding shorter distances is why that's different. We are having load standards for the CityLYNX Gold Line, and these standards are based on the vehicle dimensions and the amount of floor space that is in those vehicles. So that's an addition to the policy that we're recommending. And let's see --


It does talk about service design and service directness. We are recommending a change on 2.12. We have a desire to improve our frequency so we are recommending that we change the language, and instead of having a goal of 30 minute headways we want to have a goal in 15 minute headways in the peak on our core routes and then 30 minutes on our common local routes, so we want to change that for that reason. And then in 2.13 we are updating our vehicle assignment list, and that's kind of a summary of the changes that we are recommending. That concludes my presentation on this, if there are many more questions. We do intend to bring it back next month for action. MR. GRANT: Will that change the headways for village riders now in section 2.12? MR. KOPF: Not necessarily. Village rider is not seen as a town service. That doesn't mean we don't have a desire to improve frequency on all of our bus routes. This kind of sets a minimum, and we would like to have 30 minutes on our local, kind of our common local routes, and so that's what that's referring to.

c. North Mecklenburg Express Services Larry Kopf

Larry Kopf presented the proposed February 2019 service changes for the North Mecklenburg Express Services. The focus of the February service change will be improvements to the North Mecklenburg Express Services, and so that's what I'm going to talk about. We all know that the express lanes are scheduled to be open at the end of this year or early next year, and we do have plans to take advantage of that infrastructure and to improve our express service. We have met with all of the staff of all three towns in the North Mecklenburg area. We've had a number of public meetings to discuss potential changes with riders. We've had meetings in all three towns, and we also attended the National Night Out in Huntersville in the North Mecklenburg area and talked about these proposals at that time also. This would need our initial, I guess, initial service when the lane is open that we are proposing. I'll start with the 53X Northlake express. This route starts at Ridge Road, which is an on-street parking situation by Prosperity Church and 485 and then it goes over to Northlake Mall. We are proposing to use the Direct-Connect on Lakeview when that is available to us. Otherwise, this route would basically remain the same, but the Direct-Connect would take us directly into the express lanes and then in the afternoon and vice versa, we would get directly from the express lanes onto Lakeview, and that would take us up to Northlake Mall. So that's the only change on this route that we're recommending. The next is the 48X Huntersville Express. We're proposing to introduce reverse commute service, so in the morning the service would begin in Charlotte. We are proposing to get off at Hambright, which again would be a Direct-Connect from the express lanes to the local roads. And then we would take that service up through the office park on Reese Road to bring people from Charlotte to the jobs in that office park and then continue to the Huntersville Gateway park-and-ride. At that point we would pick up the residents of Huntersville and would get back on the highway, back to Gilead and get back on the highway, and then take them to Charlotte, and then we would reverse that loop in the afternoon MAYOR ANERALLA: The rail in Huntersville. Obviously, you can go from Harris Boulevard to 77 and then get into the toll lanes. So how are you figuring timing of this; are you just going to try to avoid much traffic on 77, is that why?


MR. KOPF: Yes. For one thing, this is a safer way to operate for us because it keeps our drivers from getting in the right-hand lane and working their way over, and it's also -- you know, we think that by virtue of just getting directly into those express lanes, hopefully it will be about the same amount of time. I think we are all still waiting to actually do some testing out there, but we think this will be safer and hopefully just as timely. MR. KOPF: The next route to 77X North Meck express, and we're proposed to start in Davidson like we do today, pick up at Davidson Gateway and come down Griffith and Main Street and then go down to the Cornelius park-and-ride. If you're familiar with that park-and-ride today, people get on at the Cornelius park-and-ride and then they ride to the Northcross park-and-ride and make another stop. We are proposing that once it leaves the Cornelius park-and-ride, that it gets directly on the highway, gets into the express lanes and comes into Charlotte, so this will improve time for people who are currently boarding at the Cornelius park-and-ride. And it will also improve time for the people who are getting off at Davidson, so this is a more -- it will be timelier for them also. And then we are proposing to introduce a new route. Currently we have three routes, so we would have four routes under this configuration. And this would be a route totally dedicated to the Northcross park-and-ride. That's our largest park-and-ride in the North Mecklenburg area, and it's a very popular park-and-ride and we are proposing to have service that leaves the park-and-ride and gets directly on the highway and runs very frequently. So those are the four routes that we're planning in the North Mecklenburg area. I do have to talk about the Uptown routing. We were proposing to use a pair of -- in the morning getting off, there is a Direct-Connect from 77 onto the Brookshire and then using that and getting off at Church Street in the morning and then in the afternoon using College and going up to 12th and getting on the Brookshire again using the Direct-Connect to get into the express lanes. We are looking at that because we do have some concern. Our operations group has looked at it. Unfortunately, the Direct-Connect puts you on the left-hand side of the Brookshire, and so once you're on the left-hand side, then you have to work your way over to the right-hand side to exit, and so we are looking to see if there is enough space in between where that lets out into the Brookshire and where you have to get off to use Church Street. So we are currently reviewing that, and we'll come up with a recommendation on how we will be operating in the Uptown area next month when we have had a chance to review that. We have another round of public meetings to discuss this with riders. We'll be meeting with TSAC to get their recommendation on November 8th, and I didn't know when the FTC meeting was going to be. Obviously, it's not going to be November 15th so that is an incorrect date, but we will seek your approval, and then the proposed implementation date is February 4th. And that concludes my presentation. MAYOR LYLES: I'm sure that everyone that's worked on them is feeling good and comfortable, so that's an assumption on my part. But I wondered, how much flexibility – so let's just say things need to be changed quickly. We know this is a new service and we want to do a route change or something. How quickly can you react or does it have to go through this 60-day process, because again, this goes to new service, how do you want to make sure works, and flexibility for you to make adjustments?


CATS CEO LEWIS: It depends on the level of adjustments. I think we are very confident with the routes that we've chosen, because we've been operating express service along the corridor already so we have a pretty good idea. I think to the extent that we may need to make operational changes or time changes, we can make minor adjustments without going through this process. But if for some reason we had to change an entire route we would have to go through a public information, bringing it to the MTC, which would generally take three to four months to do that. Time changes, minor route changes, the minor change in where we get on and off, that can be done very quickly without going through a public process. MAYOR LYLES: My bias is that we're trying to make this work really well. And if we are trying to make it work really well, time shouldn't stand in the way of progress. On decision-making I don't know how that works, but I trust what you're saying. Then the other question I had is what do the buses look like? CATS CEO LEWIS: They are our new MCI over-the-road coaches. MAYOR LYLES: And do they have Wi-Fi and coffee service? CATS CEO LEWIS: Wi-Fi is, but no coffee. MAYOR ANERALLA: Can I just request somebody from CATS to come up between December and January to talk about the new routes? CATS CEO LEWIS: Absolutely. MAYOR WASHAM: Same with all of us. I think that's a great idea. MAYOR KNOX: You guys have done a great job all around, but I think with the new routes that would be awesome. And again, I'm going to make one last request. I want a bus to come up for the farmers market so our riders can see what they're going to be riding up on the bus services.

c. LYNX System Update: Center City Charrette & Study Status Jason Lawrence Jason Lawrence, CATS Transit Planner, presented an update of where we are the with LYNX system update. Our main focus since the last time we gave you updates, were the North and the West Corridor public outreach and a lot of detail about this emerging path forward that we're developing for the North Corridor options. Since then we've been talking about, well, how does all that come together in Uptown. We've really been focusing on what does that look like. Now that we are recommending that the Silver Line could go from the southeast from Matthews through Uptown to the West, and we have many North Corridor options, a new Light Rail option, the commuter rail, the bus rapid transit, how do they fit into Uptown? We have a totally different system plan than we had since 1998. We have new Light Rail corridors, we have a streetcar. This level of system integration we haven't done for a long time, so we've been working on that since then, and I'll give you a brief update on that as well as where we are on some of the corridor planning as well.


If you remember, we took out to the public four main concept options, and I'll have a map and I'll show that later. Just a few weeks ago we focused on 2 to 3 of those, to really take those down into a more detailed refinement. And we did that over October 8th through 12th on a, we call it a Center City charrette. And planner bees, that's just a fancy word for a workshop, a focus/interaction with the stakeholders and city staff to get down to the details of each the alignment options. And those were how do you bring the Silver Line through Uptown and how do you bring the North Corridor in. And the two that we focused on for Silver Line was wrapping around the Brookshire over to the Graham Street or into the Charlotte Gateway Station, how do you go west from that point, and also, how do you potentially use the CityLYNX Gold Line tracks on Trade Street, and since all the North Corridor options come in around Graham Street, how do we accommodate those North Corridor options to make sure that we get the new location of the platform at Charlotte Gateway Station and how do you bring in potential bus rapid transit options, either from Statesville or from I-77. And over the course of that week we did tours on the first day. We had intense presentations about technical topics on that second day. Wednesday-Thursday we broke out into groups to look at each of the options, and on Friday we have a walk-through and taking leadership through the detailed options that we discovered and did a lot of nice pretty drawings. We're taking these drawings and putting some engineering work to each of them to understand the trade-offs for each of them. And so that probably goes without saying there's certainly nothing easy left in Uptown to bring in another Light Rail corridor or other options. We have that. That was the LYNX Blue Line. That was a preserved rail corridor through the Uptown, so now we must find somewhere else to fit everything else, and where there's so much development, that's going to be increasingly difficult as we move forward in this rapid development phase that Charlotte is seeing. One of our leading alternatives, using Trade Street, currently proposed to be a CityLYNX Gold Line streetcar service. With four miles open in 2020 how does the LYNX Silver Line fit -- it uses those tracks; how does it share those tracks? That's a 300 foot train versus 80 foot train. It's a smaller vehicle, the streetcar versus a three car Light Rail train. What do the platforms look like, can they share those platforms, how much of the track can we reuse? It really comes down to the question of what is Trade Street and what is the function of Trade Street. The other option has other trade-offs. If we go around Uptown on the Brookshire and we come around Graham Street, we may get to Charlotte Gateway Station but we would miss the Charlotte Transportation Center. And what does that mean? Each of these have their own distinct trade-offs. And in looking at this long-term you know, part of our charge and we scoped this out was, what is the long-term need for rapid transit in Uptown and the long-term operating scenario. If we had additional micro-corridors beyond the original five, a tunnel can offer you the most maximum operational efficiency and capacity over time, so we brought in some tunnel experts to really understand what does it mean in our community to be thinking about those options in the long-term sense. What did we learn as we think about the West Corridor? The image you see there is Wilkinson Boulevard as it approaches 77. You see Charlotte Panther Stadium there in the background. If we think about stations around the Panthers district, we could have stations at Summit Avenue, things near Bryant Street, near Morehead. Mecklenburg County has been planning for a Greenway for many years, kind of paralleling 77 and 277 there. If we're in that same, like, location is it possible to layer our needs with their needs and achieve both


projects, and we're taking that lens through all the different alignments. What are the other things that are happening around it that could have benefits from this project? Tunnels, you must come in at some point and you've got to come out at some point so anything within the Center City Loop, any kind of portal that you would enter into a tunnel scenario is going to be in essence a big hole, you know, an opening where you go into that tunnel. And where is the best location for those? We feel that probably in that Charlotte Gateway block we shouldn't have a big opening in that area. It's hard to -- you can urban design that only so far, and we feel that having access to the Plaza level where we will have the Amtrak future commuter rail and Light Rail and a streetcar below that, that could be a potential positive for the Charlotte Gateway area. Initially we started thinking about Graham Street as it ties into that Brookshire line. There in the middle of your image is Graham Street. A block off of that towards the railroad corridor is Smith Street. Graham is really narrow through that section. It's also a state road. Anything that would use Graham Street there, we are not going to be able to do what we did on North Tryon in that section, for example. We're not going to be able to widen that out to be numerous property and have access to a very narrow road, and probably it wouldn't be feasible to take that down a lane off of Graham Street. If we were on Graham Street it probably would require a tunnel, you know, something of a cut and cover or a boring on that example I showed you from Dallas just a few minutes ago. We gravitated more towards the rail corridor linking at Smith Street and keeping that type with the current Phase 1 track alignments underway in the Charlotte Gateway area. Also, there are many maintenance and fuel ramps that are currently being planned along that area for Norfolk Southern and for the Amtrak facility. Adding Silver Lines, that LYNX is going to require a dialogue with the State about those facilities and how they interact or if they're in conflict, so we're going to continue the analysis of what that means. In this image is the Brookshire. On this side of the screen is 12th Street; on the other side's 11th Street; and between that is the Brookshire. Our idea is as you come from the southeast area, that's in this direction, originally our LPA brought us around 12th Street and tied into the LYNX Blue Line, but it's conversations about Charlotte Gateway and the ability to create additional capacity in Uptown, we started thinking about well, what happens if you go past that. And through the charrette we feel that maybe 11th Street is more appropriate, it's closer to downtown, it's closer to the 9th Street Station at the LYNX Blue Line and enables us to maybe coordinate differently with the ramps that are there in place. One idea for that, that came out of this charrette was what if there was, between those two bridges could there be a cap on that piece of Brookshire to enable you to get from one side over to 12th Street over to 11th Street. We are taking that option and putting some more engineering into that, and we'll be meeting very shortly with NCDOT to talk with them about that because this project eventually will be rebuilt by NCDOT. This whole facility here is being submitted to be redesigned. The last time that was done was in 1965. And similar to the example for the Wilkinson Boulevard bridge across the Catawba, if this is redone, we get once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to effect the design of that, and so we're looking to see what that means from NCDOT, because they certainly will have capacity questions about if we're altering that, so continued conversations about that. Trade Street surface, those three things that are there, vehicular access, dedicated transit guideway, reuse of the Gold Line infrastructure, you can only have two of those things. In kind of the Venn diagram manner you can either have less vehicle access but you


can have more dedicated travel guideway. You can reuse some of the Gold Line infrastructure but it may lessen your use of the dedicated transit guideway. As we develop what the Trade Street option looks like, we're focusing on which of those three are the most important to advance that option. And the same thing with Gateway, anything on Trade Street, if we're thinking about a tunnel you've got to think about those entrances. If you are familiar with where the arena is at the Charlotte Transportation Center, Trade Street goes up at that point. It starts to elevate towards Tryon. If you were on those Gold Line tracks you could potentially enter in at grade there and continue out to the CGS area. However, you would also have that kind of looping that we talked about earlier around CGS and is that desirable almost in the heart of uptown Charlotte. For some of the North Corridor options, and this also can benefit some of our bus mobility in Uptown, in Uptown Charlotte we are developing some bike priority lanes. We have pedestrian more focused areas within Uptown Charlotte. Is it time to start thinking about a bus priority lane? There is a fight for curb space in Uptown now, and all the shared property with e-scooters and bikes and pedestrians and Uber and Lyft, you know, the bus has got to be in that mix as well. Is it time we started thinking about bus priority lanes on roads like College Street and to follow up with Larry's comment about using those in the peak hours to provide us a more dedicated travel time in Uptown with some heavier amenities in Uptown; could you share those with bikes. You know, there's a speed differential to consider. We'll be working with CDOT and coming up with potential ideas to think about these priority corridors on Church and College and potentially 3rd and 4th. And also with Church, in that peak hour could you use that lane for buses that are coming in in the morning. It goes without saying, as we wrap up the system integration task we are rounding the curve with this effort, we're wrapping up the study towards the end of this year and coming back to you with information early next year about what to advance in your plan, so time is of the essence for selecting for first inner-city transit. We don't want to go forward with two or three options, we want a single line that we can start preserving and accommodating in the Uptown area, and it will only get more difficult over time if we don't be clear on our vision for transit in Uptown, so we'll be providing more detail on that in the coming MTC meetings. And that Gateway option I talked about earlier, in the middle of that are the freight corridor. Just to the other side of that is where future commuter rail, that red line that goes right through the middle of the map, and then outside of that would be the Light Rail. We discovered that any kind of Light Rail option from Silver Line shouldn't go through those two main blocks that's in between the text of red line and silver line. That's the Charlotte Gateway area. If we can combine all the transit and rail and transportation elements in the back of that and create cleaner blocks for development and put maybe the bus elements on that site too -- there's proposed to be a Charlotte CATS transit station here as well as a greyhound facility. If that can all kind of be accommodated in a cleaner environment in the back and create more area for development, we think that would be more appealing in the request for proposal, so we're continuing to further develop that option and make sure all that can fit in that area before we commit to that. So then for the North we are continuing to develop those paths forward for each of the four options that we took out to the public just this past summer. Those workshops that we had just with the towns, most recently in September, we'll be coming back to the towns with further developing those options and talking about these path forwards for each of


these options. Just highlights of some of the effort, last September in the Huntersville area we talked about Hambright and Gilead. I think it goes without saying in my time since the North Corridor mobility study that we did a few years ago and this current effort, there needs to be more network in the north area and more network for not relying all on 77 or all in Statesville. Coming up with this kind of broader vision of how bus and bus rapid transit can work with an expanded road network is going to be critical not only for mobility but also for possibly being able to serve more destinations. We'll be taking those options that are already in the books in the towns and potentially proposing more additional network for mobility. At the Hambright area we have the potential to coordinate with future development and potentially a standalone park-and-ride, and the mobility of it was a concept we brought out at the last meeting. These park-and-rides can be more than just places where you park your car. They could be carpooling places, they could be where ride shares could happen, bike share types of things, so more things could happen at park-and-rides and further developing that option would be part of this effort. And at Gilead and at Northcross we are looking at could we build from a capital side a Direct-Connect to those park-and-rides, a new Direct-Connect so you could come out -- the bus could directly serve those park-and-rides without having to go onto the local roads and provide quick access to those parking locations. In Cornelius we took a broader look at the Westmoreland area. Cornelius is look at a potential interchange at Westmoreland. Could a Direct-Connect and an interchange exist in the same location so we're taking some ideas to see if that can happen, or is there another flyover like the Bailey Road flyover that's proposed in that area, can we look at a Direct-Connect there and directly serving new mixed-use development in Cornelius. In Davidson we're looking at connecting to existing development. At Exit 30 we have an opportunity where the bus could come off the ramps and have a station right at the ramp -- it's called a slip ramp -- and serve a station directly there with a network of moped and bike and road network to get you from that station over to existing development. And in Mooresville we talked about there's a lot of economic development happening in Mooresville right now. They have a lot of goals with a potential build project that was submitted this year for an east-west connector, and we thought there was some opportunities for near-term parking at the Lowe's campus. We're going to take all these and develop them further along with the other options and bring those to town staff and this board as we develop the path forward for each of those options. For the West we have two options we're currently considering. I will say that from what we heard from the public and as we get deeper into the engineering we're focusing more on the Wilkinson Boulevard option, and we're going to be having a workshop in the month of November to look at the cross-section, you know, could we potentially take a lane on Wilkinson and give that to transit, are we keeping the same cross-section? How about running beside Wilkinson Boulevard? We're going to be developing that option as it comes out of Uptown. Also, we're talking to the airport. We are considering running through the length of property that the airport controls and have a station in that location. The question will be how many stations? From Billy Graham to 485 is 2-3/4 miles. Is that one station, is it two, is it three? I think that's something that we would want to talk with the airport as they look to develop their property. Also, what does that people mover look like? If we're on the other side of Wilkinson and the airport is proposing some type of people mover, shuttle or fixed rail or autonomous vehicle, whatever that is, how do we plan it so that when you get off at


the airport station that you feel like you've arrived at the airport and it's a simple transfer, walk across the platform to get to the terminal at the airport. We've also been talking to NCDOT. We recently had a meeting about that bridge across the Catawba. It's a critical piece and once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for us, and NCDOT had talked about mobility across the river. We held a meeting on October 18th with both our local divisions, division 10 and 12, the structures division out of Raleigh, and CATS and CDOT to talk about the bridge, what is the location of the Light Rail, is it on the side, is it in the middle, what does that mean from an environmental standpoint? And if this is a state-funded project, if we potentially have a federally-funded project what does that mean in the context of their project delivery. It was an initial meeting, and we'll continue to have this dialogue with them because we do feel like it's a critical planning to have these conversations now. And just briefly about the LYNX Silver Line, there currently is a rezoning Matthews. The Novant hospital in Matthews in the middle of that image, it's currently rezoning. Our alignment goes through that property. The current rezoning has some parking lots, and as they're looking through their master planning, they're looking at building some structures, and our alignment has been proposed to go through that property. As we work through with the hospital and their needs, how can they kind of satisfy both values and their future development but also maintaining our alignment and the goals of Matthews to have Silver Line come through their town. The Town is proposing some road network here on the edge of the Novant property. Could we co-locate both of those and make sure we've got property for both of those. We have a meeting next week with Matthews town staff to strategize about this and how we can make sure that we are accommodating the future LYNX Silver Line, not only here but we are doing this for all our rezonings in both jurisdictions. And we will need to continue to do this corridor level preservation because things are happening very rapidly. I'll put another mention of our regional TOD grant partnership that we hope to hear from by the end of the year, that TOD planning grant from Indian Trail all the way to the city of Gastonia, that future Silver Line potential corridor, and those areas from the station area that we can potentially begin talking about with each of the jurisdictions. And why that's important right now, it's becoming more apparent that we are certainly growing more in a more regional fashion. Just across the county line the map there shows the Silver Line LPA. That's where it terminates at the Central Piedmont Community College Levine Campus. Just under a half a mile is the Union County line. Atrium Health is proposing a major facility there for their hospital. As we do this TOD grant partnership and look at potential station locations outside of Mecklenburg County, how do we coordinate different planning efforts with communities just across either from potential road network there or for future extensions. And you look, you've got the Monroe Expressway that will tie into the Highway 74 at that point, how do we make sure that as you come off that express that you can also access the end of the line. These are the kind of the things we'll be talking about if we are awarded that TOD pilot grant from MTA. So next steps, we are continuing to refine those alternatives and doing our ridership and traffic analysis. We are also making sure that we understand what if we did enter line with the LYNX Blue Line, making sure that we've done the analysis to see what that looks like. If you put Silver on the Blue Line, and making sure that we've documented that through this effort. We're going to put this whole study through the lens of affordable housing and community health and understanding how can we make sure we accommodate the goals of the region, that affordable housing can locate near our station areas -- I think


that will be an important piece going forward with this effort – refine those charrette options, and continuing those paths forward for the North Corridor, and on the end of November we'll be having an airport station and Wilkinson workshop. We'll be giving you updates on these efforts at the next meeting and look to early next year to come to you with information items about our staff recommendations for the West and the path forward for the North Corridor.

VIII. Chief Executive Officer’s Report John Lewis, Jr

Under the CEO’s report, Mr. Lewis discussed the following:

a. November’s MTC Schedule:

CATS’ CEO LEWIS: We talked about at the last meeting, the need normally for our November board meeting because of where Thanksgiving holidays falls, we normally move the MTC meeting up one week, but in this year, it's the other way around. The Thanksgiving holiday and MTC meeting is afterwards, so CRTPO will need to move its meeting. We talked about this last month, that we will need to act on this, and since we weren't moving our meeting we did not place that on the action agenda, but we do have to change the time, and that was just an oversight on our part. So normally we start at 5:30, but to accommodate CRTPO we'll have to start at 5:00 PM and adjourn at 6:00 so CRTPO can start their meeting at 6:00 and hopefully adjourn at 7:00.

MR. BRANHAM: This is not an item that is currently listed on the action items during tonight's agenda. However, pursuant to Section 6 of the MTC rules of procedure, the body does have the ability to add an action item during the session which was not previously listed as an action item to be voted on that evening. The requirement states that the Chair must recognize a motion to add the action item. There must be a unanimous vote. There are six voting members present of the MTC. It requires all six votes to add the item. At that point you could follow standard procedures to have a separate motion to approve or disapprove that motion by majority vote, with a minimum of five votes required.

MAYOR ANERALLA: I'll make the motion to change in our November 28th meeting to 5 o'clock.

MAYOR EDWARDS: Second. (Motion was carried by a unanimous vote.)

MAYOR ANERALLA: I'll make a motion to approve our 5 o'clock meeting on November 28.

MAYOR REID: Second. (Motion was carried by a unanimous vote.).

b. Damage to the LYNX Blue Line during Storm John LEWIS, Jr. CATS Chief Executive Officer gave the board members an update from

the activities that occurred because of Hurricane or Tropical Storm Michael. As you all know, CATS experienced significant damage to the LYNX Blue Line when a tree fell on the overhead catenary near 12th Street. Staff quickly removed the tree and restored partial service in both directions between I-485 and Scaleybark Station and from Sugar Creek Station to UNCC Main Station. A bus bridge was put in place from the New Bern Station initially to 36th Street Station. That bus bridge was changed to Scaleybark and Sugar Creek Station the next day


after we realized that there were some ADA issues because of, not of construction at New Bern for an adjacent apartment building that was being renovated and at 36th Street Station our roadway construction. The initial bus bridge was extended from New Bern to 36th to Scaleybark to Sugar Creek Station. I want to say first and foremost that I acknowledge the frustration of our customers having switched modes of transportation in the middle of the alignment. After all, the reason people choose Light Rail is the consistency and reliability of our service when compared to everyday vagaries of traffic on our highways and roadways. When operating to secure this bus bridge route to each of 12 downed stations it was difficult and time-consuming and in many cases more than doubled the travel times for our customers. For that I am apologetic. But I do want to assure the board that our established emergency operations plan went into effect immediately, as evidenced by the fact that we had power train service restored for two-thirds of the alignment within a matter with hours. Our Maintenance of Way staff conducts regularly scheduled evaluations of any and all risks along the corridor, and any identified risks are mitigated immediately. In this case our preliminary analysis shows that the soil around an otherwise healthy tree was weakened by Hurricane Florence days ahead of time and was missed in our normal evaluations and in all likelihood, was the reason why that otherwise healthy tree fell when wind speeds during Michael reached high levels. Now, we will continue to evaluate and analyze what caused that incident and look to see if there are any changes to our normal operating procedures that we will consider. But I am pleased that our team was able to bring full rail service back to the community four days ahead of schedule from our original estimate. And I want to take a moment to recognize Allen Smith and his staff for working literally around the clock for 10 days in order to make this happen. We originally identified that Thursday, tomorrow, would be our first day back in service and we were able to get back up in time for a Monday morning commute, so Allen and his team did a fantastic job. (Applause from the room.) As we transition from restoration of service, back into going into analysis and evaluation phase of this incident, I will report back to the MTC, our customers, and the community, and any and all adjustments or findings that we make as a result of this. But I think staff did a great job on this considering the magnitude of this incident. There are certainly lessons that can be learned, and as I mentioned earlier we were focused on fixing the problem; now we'll get into the analysis and what we can do better, but that will remain to be seen.

IX. Other Business. None

X. Adjourn The meeting was adjourned at 6:55 p.m. by Commissioner Scarborough.

NEXT MTC MEETING: WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 28, 2018, 5:00 P.M.

METROPOLITAN TRANSIT COMMISSION ACTION ITEM

STAFF SUMMARY

SUBJECT: 2019-2020 Federal & State Agendas DATE: November 28, 2018 1.0 PURPOSE/SCOPE: This action will adopt a resolution identifying the MTC’s 2019-2020

federal and state legislative priorities. This will serve as the basis for the MTC’s interaction with the Mecklenburg Federal and State Delegations. Competition for federal and State funding is highly competitive and requires a focused and unified message. The MTC will use this to guide their advocacy efforts on behalf of the MTC. MTC members will present this strategy to their local governing bodies for adoption and use when lobbying for transit funding.

2.0 BACKGROUND: The MTC is the transit policy board, responsible for reviewing and recommending short and long-range public transportation plans and is empowered to identify transit projects for consideration and advancement by the Mecklenburg Congressional Delegation. The MTC may establish strategies for advancing transit projects in the region. The MTC received a briefing at its October 24, 2018 meeting on the legislative environment at the federal and state levels.

3.0 PROCUREMENT BACKGROUND: Not applicable

4.0 POLICY IMPACT: The MTC establishes policy for priority and funding of transit capital projects in the region.

5.0 ECONOMIC IMPACT: The MTC policy direction will determine the funding strategy and proposed schedules for advancement of transit projects.

6.0 ALTERNATIVES: Approve the attached resolution, or Revise the attached resolution.

7.0 RECOMMENDATIONS: The MTC adopts Resolution 2018-01 adopting its 2019-2020 Federal Legislative Agenda and 2019-2020 State Legislative Agenda for submittal to the Mecklenburg Federal and State Delegations and other appropriate parties.

8.0 ATTACHMENT: 2019-2020 Federal Legislative Agenda 2019-2020 State Legislative Agenda

SUBMITTED AND RECOMMENDED BY:

__________________________________________ John M. Lewis, Jr. Chief Executive Officer, Charlotte Area Transit System

Director of Public Transit, City of Charlotte

METROPOLITAN TRANSIT COMMISSION 2019 – 2020 FEDERAL LEGISLATIVE AGENDA

Support continuation of federal resources for the build-out of the 2030 Transit Corridor System Plan

METROPOLITAN TRANSIT COMMISSION 2019 – 2020 STATE LEGISLATIVE AGENDA

Support continued efforts to complete the regional public transportation vision Support continuation of the Special Assessments for Critical Infrastructure Needs Act

RESOLUTION No. 2018-01

ADOPTION OF 2019-2020 FEDERAL LEGISLATIVE AGENDA

& 2019-2020 STATE LEGISLATIVE AGENDA

A motion was made by ____________________ and seconded by ___________________ for the adoption of the following resolution and upon being put to a vote was duly adopted.

WHEREAS the Metropolitan Transit Commission was formed by Mecklenburg County and its municipalities located herein to review and recommend long-range public transportation plans as well as to guide the planning, financing and implementation of an accountable regional transit system, and

WHEREAS the Metropolitan Transit Commission adopted its 2030 Transit Corridor System Plan in 2002, which was amended in 2006, to develop primary transportation corridors, linking our area’s key centers of economic activity, and

WHEREAS the implementation of the 2030 Transit Corridor System Plan will require substantial federal, State, local and private resources to bring to fruition, and

WHEREAS the competition for federal and state funding is highly competitive and requires a focused and unified message, and

WHEREAS the Metropolitan Transit Commission received a briefing on the issues likely to be faced in the 2019 sessions of the U.S. Congress and NC General Assembly at its meeting in October 2018,

NOW, THEREFORE, be it resolved by the Metropolitan Transit Commission that: 1. The Metropolitan Transit Commission hereby adopts this Resolution 2018-01

and the attached 2019-2020 Federal Legislative Agenda & 2019-2020 State Legislative Agenda.

2. CATS Chief Executive Officer is directed to work cooperatively with the Mecklenburg Congressional Delegation, U.S. Department of Transportation, North Carolina General Assembly, North Carolina Department of Transportation, and any other party as appropriate, in promoting the adopted agendas.

3. CATS Chief Executive Officer is directed to seek administrative grants from

the federal government that further the development of the 2030 Transit Corridor System Plan.

4. This resolution shall take effect immediately upon its adoption.

This resolution shall take effect immediately upon its adoption.

I, Ella Scarborough, MTC Chairperson do hereby certify that the above is a true and correct copy of an excerpt from the minutes of a meeting of the Metropolitan Transit Commission, duly held on November 28, 2018. ___ Signature of MTC Chairperson

METROPOLITAN TRANSIT COMMISSION ACTION ITEM

STAFF SUMMARY SUBJECT: Update of Travel Markets and Transit Service DATE: November 28, 2018

Guidelines Policies 1.0 PURPOSE/SCOPE: To request approval of the Metropolitan Transit Commission (MTC)

for proposed adjustments to the Travel Markets Policy and the Transit Service Guidelines Policy.

2.0 BACKGROUND/JUSTIFICATION: The Travel Market Policy and the Transit Service

Guidelines Policy are policies established by the MTC. These policies are used to provide guidance to staff. These policies are reviewed by MTC on a periodic basis and these policies are currently up for review.

CATS staff is recommending wording changes and updates to the references in the Travel Markets Policy and the Transit Service Guidelines Policy.

3.0 PROCUREMENT BACKGROUND: Not Applicable. 4.0 POLICY IMPACT: This action represents an update of the aforementioned policies. 5.0 ECONOMIC IMPACT: Not Applicable. 6.0 ALTERNATIVES: Approve policies with updates as recommended. Approve policies

without updates. Recommend and approved alternative updates to the policies. 7.0 RECOMMENDATION: Approve updates as recommended. 8.0 ATTACHMENT(S): Travel Markets and Transit Service Guidelines Policies with

proposed adjustments. SUBMITTED AND RECOMMENDED BY:



Subject/Title: Travel Markets Policy Number: MTC-05 Approved by: Metropolitan Transit Commission Date Approved: TBD Responsible Division: CATS Operations Page Number: 1 of 2

Public Transportation cannot realistically serve all person trips made within a metropolitan area. The flexibility of the automobile combined with existing land use patterns and cost considerations make it impossible for transit to compete for all trips. However, transit can compete effectively for market share in many situations. To guide decisions on resource allocation and to provide a basis for measuring performance over time, CATS has identified those markets where it will seek to be competitive. The selected local travel markets are consistent with the CATS Mission and will support attainment of the CATS Vision and the goals of the 203025 Integrated Transit Corridor System/Land Use Plan. The local travel markets for public transit have been organized into two categories to help delineate their priority and to define “transit competitive trips” as utilized in the CATS Vision statement. The two categories are defined as follows: PRIMARY MARKETS These markets must be well served to achieve the goals of the adopted Centers, and Corridors and Wedges Growth Framework Land Use Vision and the 2030 Transit Corridor System Plan and for CATS to achieve its Mission and Vision. The primary markets for CATS listed in priority order are:

1. All trips/all purposes by those individuals who do not have access to or cannot utilize private transportation and require public transit for mobility.

2. Existing customers from existing service areas. 3. All trips/all purposes to, from and within one of the five original corridors and major

employment and activity centers and the connections between them. 4. All trips/all purposes to/from Activity Centers and Transit Oriented Developments (TOD)

in the “wedges” between the original five corridors. 5. Commuter trips in congested travel corridors outside the original five corridors within the

“wedges.” 6. Commuter trips to/from surrounding counties in one of the original five corridors.

SECONDARY MARKETS Lesser (or secondary) priority markets are those that will only be served when it is cost-effective to do so and when it will not detract from CATS’ ability to serve its Primary Markets. Examples of Secondary Markets are:

• Trips to/from non-TOD developments and areas regardless of location. • Local trips totally outside Mecklenburg County. • Inter-county trips outside of the original five corridors.

The Primary Markets delineated above are the markets where CATS will strive to achieve an increasing share of the trips made each day. Therefore, these are the markets where transit will compete and thereby define what is meant by “transit competitive trips”. Summary of Changes

Entire Document: Changed 2025 Integrated Transit Land Use Plan to 2030 Transit Corridor System Plan throughout document.

Subject/Title: Travel Markets Policy Number: MTC-05 Approved by: Metropolitan Transit Commission Date Approved: TBD Responsible Division: CATS Operations Page Number: 2 of 2

Primary Markets: Added reference to Wedges Growth Framework. Added reference to Activity Centers.

Previous Revision: August 25, 2010September 25, 2013

Subject/Title: Transit Service Guidelines Policy Number: MTC-06 Approved by: Metropolitan Transit Commission Date Approved: TBD Responsible Division: CATS Operations Page Number: 1 of 9

1.0 PURPOSE

The Transit Service Guidelines outline principles designed to provide services that are comfortable, convenient and easy to use for customers, and to ensure that services are designed to be reliable, timely, safe and efficient. The guidelines define the conditions that require action when standards are not met, but allow flexibility to respond to varied customer needs and community expectations in an accountable, equitable and efficient manner. Due to the sustaining and projected growth in the Charlotte region, markets and customer expectations are ever changing and growing. Thus, CATS must be responsive to these changes in order to retain current customers and achieve and sustain ridership growth.

2.0 CATS SERVICE GUIDELINES

The adopted service guidelines are in the following areas:

• Travel Markets • Transit Coverage • Transit Access • Bus Stop Spacing and Amenities • Bus Route Monitoring System • New Transit Services • Load Standards

• On-time Performance • Duplication of Service • Route Directness • Route Patterns • Service Frequency and Span • Vehicle Assignment

The service guidelines are intended to be applied to two primary areas of focus: the evaluation of existing services and the evaluation of proposals for new service. As an example, the service guidelines can be applied in the following situations: restructuring service to eliminate lower-productivity segments or branches or adjusting service frequency to better reflect the demand for service. Routes that do not meet standards are not automatically eliminated. These guidelines call for the elimination of unproductive routes only as a last resort when it has been determined that no cost-effective actions are available to improve the productivity of the service. The guidelines for evaluation of existing routes are not intended to preclude changes to routes that meet these minimum standards. In many cases, it may be possible to improve the productivity of routes that meet the minimum standards by making changes to headways or trip times. These guidelines should not be used to prevent changes to improve the efficiency of existing routes, as long as the changes meet the route design standards. The evaluation of new service proposals will take place as proposals are received or needs identified. New service proposals will be evaluated based on the most recent information available regarding system standards. Decisions regarding implementation of new routes will be made through the service planning process and by the Service Development Review Committee, in consultation with the Transit Services Advisory Committee.


2.1 Travel Markets

Public Transportation cannot reasonably serve all person trips within a region. However, transit can compete effectively for market share in many situations. To guide decisions on resource allocation and to provide a basis for measuring performance over time, CATS has identified those markets where it will seek to be competitive. The selected local travel markets are consistent with the CATS Mission and will support attainment of the CATS Vision and the goals of the 2030 Transit Corridor SystemIntegrated Transit/Land Use Plan (as updated). • Travel Markets: CATS will identify and consider the Metropolitan Transit

Commission Travel Markets Policy when service changes or reductions are proposed.

2.2 Transit Coverage

The purpose of these guidelines is to provide convenient access to transit service in all areas exceeding a minimum density. It is very difficult to provide effective transit services in low-density areas. This guideline supports the land-use goal of encouraging higher densities in coordination with transit services. Census block group and Traffic Analysis Zone (TAZ) data will be used to measure residential and employment density. The coverage area will be one-halfquarter mile(about a 10 minute walk) around the bus routedesired pick-up area.

• Residential and Employment Density: In order for an area within Mecklenburg

County to be considered for CATS fixed route services, the area must meet a residential density of at least three persons per acre and/or an employment density of three employees per acre.

• Suburban Areas: In outlying suburban areas served primarily by express bus routes,

park and ride lots will be sited in areas likely to attract good ridership and in locations where they can effectively intercept potential riders.

2.3 Transit Access

Buses can do substantial damage to parking lots and roadways that are not built to accommodate the weight of a bus. This needs to be taken into account in the planning for bus services. • Road Condition: Transit service will only be provided on paved roadways that have

sufficient strength to accommodate repetitive bus axle loads. The roadways must be in good condition and buses must safely be able to maneuver.


2.4 Bus Stop Spacing and Amenities

It is recognized that bus stops and amenities help customers access CATS services and make their riding experience more comfortable, safe and friendly. Amenities include bus shelters, benches, trash cans, and static/electronic travel information signs. • Bus Stop Spacing: Factors that should be considered in determining bus stop

locations/spacing are as follows:

1. Provide stops at major generators (For example: employment centers, residential areas with 500+ units, retail centers, public education centers, major medical facilities).

2. Provide bus stops at transfer locations. 3. To the extent possible, provide bus stops at signalized intersections where

there are designated crossings. 4. Provide intermediate stops based on the density of the areadistance a person

has to travel to arrive at a bus stop: - Central Business Districts or Major Commercial District: Minimum 500 feet - High to medium density areas: 750 to 900 feet - Medium to low density areas: 900 to 1,300 feet - Low density to rural areas and areas served by microtransit: as needed, no

more frequent than 1,500 to 2,500 feet • Amenities: Placement of amenities should be based upon factors that consider

equity in distribution throughout the service area, and factors that consider the benefit to the user and site-related constraints. Greater consideration should be given to stops on key bus routes due to a generally higher level of demand. Stop locations that have boardings greater than 25 people per day will be given priority. Other factors that should be considered in determining the priority for amenities at stops are: – Lengthy wait times between buses (beyond 30 minutes), – High percentage of transfer passengers (more than 25 percent), and – High percentage of seniors or individuals with disabilitesdisabled persons using

the stop (more than 25 percent).

The necessary infrastructure (such as sidewalks) must be in place in order to consider an installation. The integration of the necessary infrastructure and amenities in newly developed or redeveloped areas should be coordinated with the development. CATS should work with private land owners and developers, to the extent practicable, to leverage the construction or the monies to offset the construction costs of necessary infrastructure and bus stop amenities.

• Accessibility: All of When establishing new bus stops, CATS strives to select

locations that are accessible to all customers, including customers who use mobility devices. CATS will work with the jurisdiction that is responsible for the street and/or sidewalk (if applicable) to include accessibility improvements to the stop within the


jurisdiction’s ADA transition plan. When installing amenities at existing bus stops, the amenities will be accessible to individuals with disabilities in accordance withservices and passenger facilities will be accessible to people with disabilities in accordance with the rules of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) of 1990 as amended.

2.5 Bus Route Monitoring System

CATS will utilize a Route Monitoring System that uses a performance index based upon Passengers per Revenue Hour and Subsidy per Passenger. An index score is calculated by taking the ratio of a given route’s performance on a specific measure to the average of all routes in the service category. A score of 1.0 represents average performance within the given service category. A score above 1.0 is better than average, and for scores above 1.0, the score itself indicates how much better the route is performing above the average (1.5 is 50 percent above average, 2.0 is 100 percent, and so forth). A score below 1.0 represents below-average performance. A route with a score of 0.5 is at only 50 percent of the category. • Bus Monitoring System: CATS will monitor routes with an overall index score

between 0.75 and 0.99, and make changes to the service as needed. Routes falling between 0.50 and 0.74 should be subject to a more detailed analysis that examines performance by route segment and time of day and makes appropriate recommendations. Routes falling below 0.50 need immediate analysis and action.

2.6 New Transit Services

Proposals for new service come from a variety of sources including: the 5-YearCountywide Transit Service Plan (updated every five years), customers, employees, and reviews of system performance. New service proposals are reviewed during the service change process and are implemented based upon customer need and resource availability. • Performance Evaluation: All new services will be subject to performance

evaluations and will be expected to meet the performance standards for their service type within two years of implementation.

New services will be expected to meet a performance monitoring score of 0.5 or better after one year. If this does not occur, CATS will review the service and look for ways to improve its performance. If the service performance slips to below 0.5 after two years, the route will be a candidate for discontinuation.

• New Employment Shuttles: New shuttle services in employment areas may require a financial contribution from business community stakeholders of up to 104 percent of the marginal operating cost.

• Bus Services Outside of Mecklenburg County: CATS will follow the Metropolitan

Transit Commission Financial Policies (MTC-01) regarding financial contribution for bus services outside of Mecklenburg County.


2.7 Load Standards

The objective of load standards is to balance passenger comfort and safety with operating cost. • Load Standards: CATS standard load factors for its bus services in regular service

are: – 115% of seated capacity for express services – 130% of seated capacity for local and shuttle services

CATS will not exceed its standard load factors for more than 20 minutes on a regular basis per trip on a given route. If a service is consistently above the seated capacity, then CATS will make adjustments that may include, not limited to adding additional service at the next scheduled service change, if funding is available. If the standing load compromises safety in any way, CATS will implement additional service to meet the demand.

Rail Vehicle Loading Standards

Vehicle Load Standard

Load Factor* Passengers Per Vehicle

Acceptable Application

Service Standard 221% 150 Peak Hour Service Maximum 285% 194 Special Events

* Load factor as percent of seated capacity

CityLYNX Gold Line Vehicle Loading Standards

Vehicle Load Standard

Load Factor* Passengers Per Vehicle

Acceptable Application

Service Standard 242% 131 Peak Hour Service Maximum 317% 171 Special Events

* Load factor as percent of seated capacity

• Wheelchair Boardings: CATS will analyze wheelchair boardings annually, and make necessary schedule adjustments. Trippers will be utilized if particular trips continually are not able to provide service to all wheelchair boardings on a given fixed route services.

2.8 On-Time Performance

To ensure that transit riders have confidence that the service will perform reliably in accordance with the public timetables prepared and distributed by CATS, on-time performance standards have been established. A vehicle is considered “late” when it arrives five minutes or more after the scheduled time. A vehicle is considered “early” if it


departs one minute or more prior to the scheduled time. All other trips are considered “on time”. • On-Time Performance: CATS bus routes that achieve an on-time performance

score of 80 percent or less over a course of two service changes will be reviewed and remedial action to improve performance will be put in place at the next service change.

CATS will monitor the Light Rail service for on-time performance. Any trips that are consistently early or late will be identified and schedule adjustments will be made at the next service change.


2.9 Duplication of Service

Service duplication occurs when two or more bus routes serve the same roadway. Duplication of service can sometimes be needed or unavoidable due to the presence of activity centers or the lack of alternate routing options. When services share the same street segment CATS will do the following: • Duplication of Service: If two services use the same street, schedules should be

adjusted to maximize frequency on the shared alignment.

2.10 Route Directness

CATS will design bus routes to operate as directly as possible to and from major destinations in order to minimize passenger travel time. Routes shall operate on major arterial streets as much as possible. When a deviation exists or is being considered, the gain in convenience to those passengers who are boarding or alighting during the deviation must be balanced against the additional travel time for the passengers traveling through. • Directness:

1. To the extent possible, bi-directional service shall be provided on the same street.

2. Express service shall be routed in the most direct manner possible. 3. Deviations from the basic route alignment to serve activity centers will be

made only when they have the potential to attract new riders equal to or exceeding the route performance evaluation standard for the corresponding route category.

4. Additional time to operate route deviations should not exceed five minutes (one-way) or 10 percent of the one-way run time, whichever is less.

5. No mid-route loops shall be operated. 6. Terminal loops shall not exceed 25 percent of a route’s total length for routes

that exceed 30 minutes in one-way travel time.

2.11 Route Patterns

It is sometimes more efficient to provide service to a certain area with one route having several branches than to operate several different routes. In addition, some bus trips on a route may not go to the end of the line due to very low ridership in that area at a particular time of day, also known as a turnback. These service designs can result in a route network that is difficult for current and potential customers to understand and utilize. Therefore, to provide a user-friendly service and to encourage maximum use of the system by all current and potential riders, standards for branches and turnbacks shall be set.


• Route Patterns: – No route shall have more than two distinct branches. – No route shall have more than one turn around on a given branch.

When two routes are interlined, each route shall be treated as a separate route for the application of this standard.

2.12 Service Frequency and Span

Service frequency is established to provide a sufficient number of vehicles to accommodate passenger volume at the most crowded location(s), during a given time period. On high ridership routes, the frequency of service provided is a function of demand and peak period loads. Service span refers to the hours that service is provided and defines the minimum period of time that service will operate at any point in the system. • Headways/ Frequency: The policy headway for CATS local and neighborhood

shuttle bus routes will be 60 minutes or better. In peak periods, CATS will strive to provide at least 15 minute service on core routes and at least 30 minute service on common local routes30-minute headways will be the norm on local routes unless low demand warrants less frequent service. Express and Regional Express services will have a minimum of three trips in each peak direction.

CATS light rail services will operate at a frequency of 10 minutes or better duringin the peak periods and at least 30 minutes duringin the off-peak periods.

• Service Span: CATS Fixed Route Bus, Special Transportation Service and Light Rail services will operate between 5:00 a.m. and 1:30 a.m.

Exceptions will be based on ridership and productivity.

2.13 Vehicle Assignment

CATS vehicles shall be assigned to specific service types according to the following guidelines. Exceptions to this may take place based upon operational and scheduling practices to maintain optimal efficiency. • Vehicle Assignment: Fleet types should be assigned based on the service type it is

intended to serve when feasible. – Express Service = 40-foot suburban and MCI coach buses – Local Service = 40-foot low floor – Neighborhood Shuttle Service = 30-foot low floor

Gold Rush Service = Rubber tired trolley


Definition of Density

• Low Density – Three to 10 residents or employees per acre • Medium Density – 10 to 20 residents or employees per acre • High Density – More than 20 residents or employees per acre

Summary of Changes

2.1 Changed 2030 Integrated Transit/Land Use Plan to 2030 Transit Corridor System Plan.

2.2 Revised to specify the coverage area will be one-half mile around the bus route pick-up area (previously one-quarter mile around the desired pick-up area).

2.4 Item 4: Revised to specify intermediate stops should be provided based on the density of the area.” Revised to specify low density to rural areas and areas served by microtransit will have stops as needed.

Accessibility: Revised to specify CATS adheres to the rules of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) with regard to accessibility.

2.6 Changed the Countywide Transit Service Plan to the 5-Year Transit Service Plan.

2.7 Revised to specify CATS will not exceed its standard load factors for more than 20 minutes on a regular basis per trip on a given route. Added CityLYNX Gold Line standards.

2.12 Headways/Frequency: Revised to specify in peak periods, CATS will strive to provide at least 15 minute service on core routes and at least 30 minute service on common local routes.

2.13 Vehicle Assignment: Added reference to MCI coach buses. Deleted “Gold Rush Service=Rubber tired trolley.”

Previous Revision: January 26, 2011May 27, 2015

METROPOLITAN TRANSIT COMMISSION INFORMATION ITEM ACTION SUMMARY

SUBJECT: Proposed North Mecklenburg Express Services DATE: November 28, 2018 1.0 PURPOSE/SCOPE: To request approval of the Metropolitan Transit Commission for

proposed service adjustments to the North Mecklenburg Express routes scheduled to be implemented in March 2019.

2.0 BACKGROUND/JUSTIFICATION: Federal Transit Administration (FTA) requirements

call for board approval for any major service adjustment, defined as any adjustment that affects more than 25% of a bus route or 25% of the passengers on that bus route.

CATS staff is recommending major service adjustments to the North Mecklenburg Express Services: 48X Huntersville Express, 53X Northlake Express, 77X North Meck Express, and the new 78X Cornelius Express.

Service will be adjusted to take advantage of the new express lanes on I-77, resulting in a reliable travel time for customers. One new express route will be introduced, with the goal to reduce travel time for customers.

3.0 PROCUREMENT BACKGROUND: Not Applicable 4.0 POLICY IMPACT: Not Applicable 5.0 ECONOMIC IMPACT: The express enhancements call for 2,782 new hours of service

for FY2019 and are included in the FY2019 budget. 6.0 ALTERNATIVES:

(1) Approve service with adjustments as recommended. (2) Do not approve adjustments to North Mecklenburg Express services. (3) Approve alternative adjustments to North Mecklenburg Express services.

7.0 RECOMMENDATION: Approve service with adjustments as recommended. 8.0 ATTACHMENT(S): Not Applicable




METROPOLITAN TRANSIT COMMISSION INFORMATION ITEM STAFF SUMMARY

SUBJECT: Regional Transit Plan Update DATE: November 28, 2018 1.0 PURPOSE/SCOPE: Update the Metropolitan Transit Commission on the recent work that

will inform the development of a Regional Transit Plan. 2.0 BACKGROUND/JUSTIFICATION:

• During calendar year 2017, CATS and the Centralina Council of Governments

collaborated on an extensive public engagement process as part of the Regional Transit Engagement Series (RTES).

• The public engagement process included Mecklenburg and the surrounding counties of Union, Cabarrus, Iredell, Gaston, Lincoln, York SC, and Lancaster SC.

• The RTES culminated in a Transit Summit held May 16, 2018 at UNC Charlotte. A key takeaway from the Summit was the consensus need for a Regional Transit Plan.

• CATS and the CCOG are currently collaborating on the next phase of project outreach.

• Meetings have been held in November with regional stakeholders representing the following Interest Group Audiences:

o Economic: Chambers of Commerce staff, economic development staff, workforce development boards, local innovators, research and development firms, major employers, etc.

o Opportunity: Caregivers, community based organizations such as AARP, Goodwill Industries, Salvation Army, Crisis Assistance Ministry and similar agencies, agencies that serve people with mobility needs, area hospitals and healthcare providers, seniors, veterans, faith community representatives, etc.

o Planning & Community: Cooperative Extension staff, habitat for Humanity, NCDOT/SCDOT, organizations focused on environmental issues, active living space, place making, walking and biking, farming and farmers, housing choice, different generational perspectives, etc.

3.0 PROCUREMENT BACKGROUND: Not Applicable 4.0 POLICY IMPACT: Informs 2030 Transit Corridor System Plan 5.0 ECONOMIC IMPACT: Not Applicable 6.0 ALTERNATIVES: Not Applicable

7.0 RECOMMENDATION: Not Applicable

8.0 ATTACHMENT(S): Not Applicable




CATS Sales Tax Report FY2019

November 2018 Summary and Forecast

Sales Tax Collections and Distribution – August 2018▪ August 2018 receipts of $9,621,386 were $1,873,591 (24.2%) above the

budget target for the month▪ August 2018 receipts were $1,184,426 (14.0%) above August of 2017

Sales Tax Budget Data▪ The model projects FY2019 year-end receipts of $105,530,167, which is

$7,318,226 (7.5%) above the budget target▪ FY2019 sales tax budget is $98,211,941▪ FY2018 actual sales tax was $103,021,757

Local Government Sales and Use Tax Distribution▪ Source: North Carolina Department of Revenue Sales & Use Distribution

Report for the month ending September 30, 2018▪ Published by Secretary of Revenue on 11/9/2018▪ Total sales tax receipts are Mecklenburg County Article 43 retail sales▪ Report covers actual receipts through August 2018

Monthly Sales Tax Receipts for FY2015 – FY2019

FY2019 Budget Target and Year-over-Year Comparison

$0

$10

$20

$30

$40

$50

$60

$70

$80

$90

$100

$110

$120

Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Jan Feb Mar Apr May JunCum

ulat

ive

Mon

thly

Rec

eipt

s/Es

timat

es ($

MM

)

Sales Tax Receipts Forecast (FY2019)

FY2019 Receipts through August

Budget Trendline (Year-End Target = $98,211,941)

FY2018 Actual Receipts

FY2019 Forecast Target

FY2019 Year-End Forecasted Range: $97,111,871 to $115,546,390

Jul 18actuals

Aug 18actuals

Sep 18accrual

Oct 18accrual

Nov 18 Dec 18 Jan 19 Feb 19 Mar 19 Apr 19 May 19 June 19 Total

Charlotte 830,258 40.5% 3,128,556$ 3,904,914$ 3,526,784$ 3,279,092$ -$ -$ -$ -$ -$ -$ -$ -$ 13,839,346$ Cornelius 30,207 1.5% 112,497 140,413 126,816 117,910 - - - - - - - - 497,637 Davidson 12,572 0.6% 47,218 58,935 53,228 49,490 - - - - - - - - 208,872 Huntersville 57,145 2.8% 212,533 265,273 239,586 222,759 - - - - - - - - 940,152 Matthew s 30,849 1.5% 116,044 144,841 130,815 121,628 - - - - - - - - 513,328 Mint Hill 26,690 1.3% 99,810 124,579 112,515 104,613 - - - - - - - - 441,517 Pineville 8,873 0.4% 33,350 41,626 37,596 34,955 - - - - - - - - 147,527 Mecklenburg County 1,053,545 51.4% 3,958,494 4,940,804 4,462,363 4,148,964 - - - - - - - - 17,510,625

Total 2,050,139 100.0% 7,708,503$ 9,621,386$ 8,689,703$ 8,079,412$ 34,099,004$

Population % of Total

Fiscal Year 2019

Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Jan Feb Mar Apr May June Total8,147,197$ 8,436,960$ 8,784,051$ 7,883,713$ 8,884,437$ 9,324,267$ 6,897,695$ 7,842,800$ 9,303,951$ 8,539,748$ 9,277,676$ 9,699,263$ 103,021,757$ 6,706,169 8,123,310 8,099,598 6,984,259 8,275,157 9,927,120 5,142,666 7,510,515 9,105,261 7,459,176 6,747,425 8,520,759 92,601,412 7,470,371 6,971,746 7,551,677 6,188,499 6,607,520 9,383,261 6,142,552 6,944,204 7,858,189 7,952,022 7,781,259 8,765,518 89,616,819 6,087,774 6,938,945 5,932,063 7,114,003 6,853,209 8,378,347 5,947,801 5,641,898 6,914,523 6,057,389 7,522,357 7,762,101 81,150,409

FY2017FY2016FY2015

FY2018

Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Jan Feb Mar Apr May June YTD Total8,079,462$ 7,747,794$ 7,725,621$ 7,814,127$ 7,201,246$ 10,297,775$ 6,971,686$ 7,624,864$ 8,920,485$ 8,081,597$ 8,353,234$ 9,394,050$ 98,211,941

7.8% 17.6% 26.5% 34.7% 34.7% 34.7% 34.7% 34.7% 34.7% 34.7% 34.7% 34.7% 34.7%-5.4% 14.0% -1.1% 2.5% 3%

% of Budget Achieved Year-over-Year Comparison

FY2019 Budget Target

Mode / Service Percent YTD YTD Percent Avg Daily Ridership per MonthOct-18 Oct-17 Increase/Decrease FY 2019 FY 2018 Increase/Decrease WeekDay Saturday Sunday

Local BOD Local 1,119,388 1,158,429 -3.4 % 4,080,818 4,433,524 -8.0 % 41,614 26,935 19,746 Subtotal 1,119,388 1,158,429 -3.4 % 4,080,818 4,433,524 -8.0 % 41,614 26,935 19,746Local Express Arboretum Express 4,335 4,579 -5.3 % 15,720 16,710 -5.9 % 191 - - Carmel Road Express - 1,572 n/a 3,654 5,617 -34.9 % - - - Harrisburg Road Express 2,865 3,723 -23.0 % 10,443 14,936 -30.1 % 126 - - Huntersville Express 10,022 9,922 1.0 % 35,092 36,200 -3.1 % 441 - - Idlewild Road Express 2,704 2,980 -9.3 % 9,619 11,935 -19.4 % 119 - - Independence Blvd Express 5,351 5,262 1.7 % 18,226 19,073 -4.4 % 235 - - Lawyers Road Express 3,315 3,498 -5.2 % 12,044 13,909 -13.4 % 146 - - Matthews Express 4,407 4,520 -2.5 % 14,870 17,577 -15.4 % 194 - - Mountain Island Express 1,477 1,700 -13.1 % 4,865 5,521 -11.9 % 65 - - Northlake Express 7,622 6,256 21.8 % 27,040 23,393 15.6 % 335 - - North Mecklenburg Express 14,521 14,447 0.5 % 54,606 55,178 -1.0 % 638 - - Rea Road Express 3,978 2,598 53.1 % 11,243 10,498 7.1 % 175 - - Steele Creek Express 1,847 1,898 -2.7 % 7,340 8,407 -12.7 % 81 - - University Research Park Express - 11,928 n/a - 43,122 n/a - - - Huntersville Greenhouse Express 267 - n/a 1,311 - n/a 23 - - Airport Connector - Northlake - 5,649 n/a 14,282 23,429 -39.0 % - - - Subtotal 62,711 80,532 -22.1 % 240,355 305,505 -21.3 % 2,769 -Regional Express Concord Express - 3,077 n/a - 10,270 n/a - - - Gastonia Express 3,801 3,194 19.0 % 13,856 11,714 18.3 % 167 - - Rock Hill Express 3,300 2,485 32.8 % 11,225 10,289 9.1 % 145 - - Union County Express 2,603 2,828 -8.0 % 9,525 10,555 -9.8 % 114 - - Subtotal 9,704 11,584 -16.2 % 34,606 42,828 -19.2 % 426 -Community Circulator Neighborhood Shuttles 34,198 49,518 -30.9 % 138,567 194,272 -28.7 % 1,272 867 458 Beatties Ford Neighborhood Shuttle - 15,437 n/a - 58,673 n/a - - - Eastland Neighborhood Shuttle 19,705 19,140 3.0 % 75,603 74,879 1.0 % 702 525 417 Pineville-Matthews Road 3,803 4,022 -5.4 % 13,773 15,653 -12.0 % 153 75 8 Village Rider 7,536 7,735 -2.6 % 26,888 28,357 -5.2 % 280 176 118 Subtotal 65,242 95,852 -31.9 % 254,831 371,834 -31.5 % 2,407 1,643 1,001Activity Center Circulators Gold Rush - - n/a - 23,831 n/a - - - Subtotal - - n/a - 23,831 n/a - -


Charlotte Area Transit System Ridership Report

Oct-18

Mode / Service Percent YTD YTD Percent Avg Daily Ridership per MonthOct-18 Oct-17 Increase/Decrease FY 2019 FY 2018 Increase/Decrease WeekDay Saturday Sunday

Human Services Transportation Special Transportation Services 23,664 23,010 2.8 % 88,031 87,241 0.9 % 932 324 232 DSS 357 504 -29.2 % 1,425 1,956 -27.1 % 15 - - Subtotal 24,021 23,514 2.2 % 89,456 89,197 0.3 % 947 324 232Rideshare Services Vanpool 12,096 12,672 -4.5 % 44,667 50,568 -11.7 % 526 - - Subtotal 12,096 12,672 -4.5 % 44,667 50,568 -11.7 % 526 -Rail LYNX Blue Line 548,588 429,347 27.8 % 2,603,013 1,691,028 53.9 % 19,964 12,212 10,144 CityLynx Gold Line 16,294 37,804 -56.9 % 87,409 145,143 -39.8 % 657 206 93 Subtotal 564,882 467,151 20.9 % 2,690,422 1,836,171 46.5 % 20,621 12,418 10,237

Total 1,858,044 1,849,734 0.4 % 7,435,155 7,153,458 3.9 % 69,310 41,320 31,216


Charlotte Area Transit System Ridership Report

Oct-18

Metropolitan Transit Commission Agenda Package/MTC... · The MTC will use this to guide their...

Documents

Transcript of Metropolitan Transit Commission Agenda Package/MTC... · The MTC will use this to guide their...