Portal:Trains/Selected article/Week 26, 2013

Lynx Rapid Transit Services (styled corporately as LYNX Rapid Transit Services) comprises a 9.6 mi light rail line serviced by the Charlotte Area Transit System (CATS) in Charlotte, North Carolina, United States. It commenced service on November 24, 2007, and runs through Uptown and South End, before paralleling South Boulevard to its southern terminus just north of Interstate 485 at the Pineville city limits. There are 15 stations in the system, which carries an average of over 15,900 passenger trips every day. Despite the name, Lynx is a light rail, not a rapid transit service. A Charlotte light rail system was proposed in the mid-1980s, with Mecklenburg voters approving a one-half cent sales tax to finance its construction in 1998. The construction of Lynx resulted in controversy regarding its costs and benefits with an unsuccessful 2007 referendum to repeal the transit tax. Future expansion includes plans for light rail, commuter rail, streetcars and bus rapid transit along the five corridors in the 2030 Transit Corridor System Plan adopted in 2006 by Metropolitan Transit Commission (MTC). Build-out of the entire system is estimated for completion by 2034.