Charlotte, North Carolina:
The Charlotte Trolley

Description and History

The Charlotte Trolley was a heritage trolley service that operated from 1996 to 2010 over part of the route of the Lynx Blue Line light rail. It was created several years before the light rail project, and helped to stimulate support for light rail, as a limited foretaste of what light rail could do.

It began as a weekend-only service in 1996, over a section of abandoned Norfolk Southern railroad track, between Atherton Mill and about the location of the current Stonewall station, in the corner of a large parking lot which later became the site for the Westin hotel. It was operated by Charlotte Trolley, Inc., a non-profit organization staffed with volunteers, using a single car. This car, #85, was built in 1927 in Charlotte, and was the very last Charlotte streetcar to run in regular service in 1938. It ended up being used as a house in Huntersville, North Carolina, was "rescued" in 1989, and was restored to its former condition. Until 2004, it operated on electricity provided by a towed diesel generator.

In the fall of 1999, Charlotte voters approved a 0.5% sales tax for mass-transit improvements, including light rail, commuter rail and bus rapid transit along several corridors. The South Corridor, which included the Charlotte Trolley route, was designated for light rail. Modern light rail vehicles would run the full length of the corridor, and the Charlotte Trolley would share its tracks.

As the first step towards joint trolley / light rail operation, the trolley's route was rebuilt with welded rail and concrete ties during spring and summer 2001. During this period, the trolley ran southward from Atherton Mill about a mile, past the site of the current light rail maintenance center, to just past Clanton Road.

During 2001-03 new track and overhead was installed along the former Norfolk Southern right of way through uptown Charlotte to 9th Street. In fall 2002, construction began on a connecting segment through the Charlotte Convention Center and alongside the new Westin hotel to the south. An engineering mistake forced rebuilding of the track base that runs past the hotel, so this connecting segment was not finished until March 2004.

On 28 June 2004, the extension finally opened, and car #85 started to use the overhead wire instead of the diesel generator. Service increased from weekends only to daily, and the Charlotte Area Transit System (CATS) took over operation, using paid employees as operators. The single car now had to cover a route twice as long, so it could run only one round trip per hour, instead of two. This led to overcrowding, as more people came to try out the new service. CATS had ordered three new replica trolleys from Gomaco Trolley Company for the extended service, but these were not ready yet, so as a stopgap measure they leased an open-sided trolley (#1976) from Gomaco, which went into service on 29 July 2004.

The new cars (#91-93) arrived from Gomaco during fall 2004, and went into service on 15 October, allowing half-hourly service every day. Car #85 also saw occasional service. Car #1976 is now running on Tampa, Florida's heritage streetcar line.

On 6 February 2006, Charlotte Trolley service was suspended so that the line could be rebuilt again for the Lynx Blue Line light rail, which had been under construction along the rest of its route since February 2005. The line was converted from single track to double track, and new stations were built with both high and low platforms.

About five months after light rail service began, Charlottte Trolley service resumed on 20 April 2008, on weekends only. A single car made one round trip per hour, in addition to the regular light rail schedule.

The recession which began in fall 2008 affected CATS severely because of reduced revenue from the transit sales tax. This led to service cutbacks which finally included the Charlotte Trolley. It made its last run on 28 June 2010.

Nevertheless, the city of Charlotte is proceeding with plans for an initial 1.5 mile streetcar line along Trade and Elizabeth Streets from the transit center to Presbyterian Hospital. With the help of a federal grant announced in July 2010, funding for construction is in place, and construction should start sometime during the next 18 months, with operation possibly starting in 2014. This is intended as the first phase of a line which would eventually extend across Charlotte for a distance of about ten mines.