There’s trouble in the windy city—or at least, in the elevated and underground subways. Mass transit is a large industry and is the catalyst for the growth of many cities, though negative growth hinders that process.
Chicago, Illinois is experiencing backlash and may lead to lost jobs within the Chicago transit authority. As many know, Charlotte has taken the first steps to build and run an expansive mass transit rail system, but during such turbulent times, there is always a risk. With a large city such as Chicago teetering financially, it would be no surprise if other cities such as Atlanta, Philadelphia and Los Angeles follow suit with their transit systems. Charlotte, however, is on another end of the spectrum.
Instead of trying to stay running, Charlotte is trying to grow their system with the current line serving mostly from south uptown to Trade Street and Tryon Street. If running costs exceed the revenues like Chicago’s system, Charlotte may have its system back-peddling. Though of course, Charlotte’s Lynx rail system really isn’t Chicago’s subway and elevated train system yet. Metro rail systems are a great addition to any city, in that it provides a transportation service everyone can and will want to use. Losing employees cuts production, and lack of production causes decreased revenue from consumers. Metro rails become a great convenience to have, even in the Sunbelt cities where the cities are far more spread out than northern cities.
With Charlotte’s continued aspiration and reality of growth, a decrease in production would slow that growth. With 700,000 residents, a strong public transit system would help cut down on gas consumption, increase tourism in certain areas, make parts of the city more accessible and generate interest for travelers. Uptown Charlotte would be the biggest gainer from a transit system. Parking in uptown is not fun, and surely enough, it can be a turn-off for the younger crowd when it comes to life uptown. Bring in a good railway system and you bring life and vibrancy to your city, which also bring tourism, which also brings money.
Charlotte is an ever-growing city, so it has to do something to help keep that growth alive.
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