Charlotte is a winner. Johnson C. Smith University men’s basketball team won the men’s CIAA crown on Saturday. But the Charlotte Area Transit System is a big loser. Of the thousands of people who rode the light rail this week, not many of them paid. Seriously.
So many of the CIAA visitors thought the Lynx Blue Line was free. A friend and I took the train to the Convention Center on Saturday afternoon for the Ford Fan Experience and I suggested that she purchase a student ticket to see if the transit checkers would kick her off. She’s such a good friend. And no one checked her ticket. Mine either, which I paid full price for. The train was packed like a can of sardines. Many of the regular riders were pissed to say the least. Riding the train did afford you a chance to avoid all of the traffic congestion in Uptown last week. So, when it was time to head to the championship game, me and my fellow Smith alumni friends decided to take the train to the arena. We got on the train and no one checked for our tickets.
We left from the Bland station and when we were on the platform waiting to buy tickets, one of the machines was down. Honorable people (like myself heh-heh) walked over to the I-485 platform and purchased a round-trip ticket. And the two of us who did that put $2.60 into CATS’s pocket. I’m pretty sure they lost a whole lot more money. After the championship game, we headed back to the light rail and for the first time all week, there was someone checking for tickets. Not valid ticket, just tickets. And guess what? One of the ticket machines was down again. But since the police and CATS security were on platform, many of the riders had to purchase tickets; I can tell you this, however, not a lot of people bought tickets. And when getting on the train, no one else checked for the tickets. Once again, the train was packed. Here’s hoping that CATS will get it together and figure out how to make money off the light rail when there are huge events in town.
Goodbye CIAA. The tournament’s gone, but the trophy is still where it belongs at JCSU!!!
Full disclosure: If it wasn’t disgustingly obvious, Cheris Hodges is a graduate of JCSU.
This article appears in Feb 27 – Mar 4, 2008.
CBLOG CATS
With all due respect, this is an example of poor journalism. I am certain you do not know for a fact that “Of the thousands of people who rode the light rail this week, not many of them paidâ€. Neither do you know for a fact that “many of the CIAA visitors thought the Lynx Blue Line was freeâ€. I rode the train during the CIAA and witnessed first hand people buying tickets. Sadly, as a Charlotte resident, it appears you were a novice at riding the train. Otherwise, you would know that no one regularly checks tickets. The checks are done randomly. This is similar to the way most light rail services are operated in most cities, and this was reported heavily in the local media. Obliviously, you don’t read the Charlotte news paper or watch the local news. If your gripe is that no one checks tickets regularly on the Lynx, you should have written a feature suggesting CATs, in general, is losing money by running its system the way it does. What you have done unknowingly, and unfairly, is to suggest that CIAA participants failed to educate themselves on how to ride the line. CATS passed out literature on how to ride the line at the arena, many hotels and other locations around town that week.
To People:
I spoke to several people on the platform who said they thought the light rail was free during the CIAA. Some of them were from Charlotte and some of them were visiting.