Passenger Trains > "Charlotte [NC] Lynx LRT gathers momentum"

Dec. 3 news from RAILWAY AGE Magazine:
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Charlotte Lynx light rail gathers momentum

Local news media kept a close eye on Charlotte, N.C.'s first week of Lynx light rail operations, noting revenue ridership of 6,700 trips on Nov. 26 and 8,000 Nov. 27. Charlotte Area Transit System officials project 9,100 weekday trips in the new line's first year.

"We're very pleased with the ridership," said Ron Tober, CATS chief executive. "It's greater in the first week than I anticipated." Tober told the Charlotte Observer that off-peak ridership was higher than expected, prompting news stories to wonder if peak-hour commutation was therefore lower than projected. The week's most prominent problem, however, was the repeated malfunction of several ticket machines at various stations along the the line.

They had a pretty bad open to the public start-up. Way over subscribed. They offered free rides on the Saturday after Tgiving and the lines were horrendous. Looks like a nice service, though.