One year after Iryna Zarutska’s killing, what has changed on Charlotte’s light rail?

CHARLOTTE — A year after the deadly stabbing that rocked Charlotte’s public transit system, what changes have been made to improve security and the perception of safety on board the city’s trains and buses?

“August 22nd and Iryna Zarutska’s murder was a heinous act, and it shook our community,” said Interim Charlotte Area Transit System CEO Brent Cagle.

Cagle reflected on the most notable tragedy on board Charlotte’s light rail system and told Channel 9’s Hunter Sáenz that it prompted the agency to take action.

“Safety of our passengers, of our operators, has always been number one, but it really underscores that and it added a sense of urgency for us to focus on it every day,” Cagle told Sáenz.

Cagle rode along with Channel 9 and David Howard, the chairman of the newly minted Metropolitan Public Transportation Authority.

“It’s just had to believe that anybody, any place, let alone Charlotte, actually could do anything like that,” Howard said.

We asked what the most significant safety changes have been when it comes to CATS in the past year.

“Immediately after this, we realized that our 4,500 cameras were actually not feeding into the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department’s Real Time Crime Center. We corrected that immediately,” Cagle said. “We immediately worked with CMPD to fund and create an off-duty contingent of police officers who work the Blue Line and our bus system. We have over 1,400, 1,500 hours roughly a week in off-duty officers who are dedicated to transit, making it safer.”

CATS has also added more security guards who are now using bike patrols and utility task vehicles along the Rail Trail. But what about the conversation about the dedicated police force?

“We’re studying this concept of what it would take, how much it would cost, what kind of laws we need changed,” Howard said.

We saw those security guards on the platforms, but no guards were on the car as Howard and Cagle rode with Channel 9. It’s not every train, but you should see them moving through the system. So you may not have your ticket checked every ride, every day, but you should have an expectation that it’s the norm and not the exception.

To help with that, CATS will roll out about 60 fare ambassadors in a month. Their sole job will be to check tickets.

It’s notable because Zarutska’s alleged killer, DeCarlos Brown, didn’t have a ticket for the Blue Line train.

CATS is also working with a vendor to put out ticket validators at all platforms, a tap-and-go for riders. It would be a small scanner device -- you walk up, scan your ticket, and it beeps if it’s valid.

Sáenz asked about why turnstiles aren’t on the Blue Line and if that’s something the agency is looking at for the Red Line.

“It’s not something that we’re looking at right now, just because of the way FTA’s invested in transit right now. If you look at most of the systems that are coming on right now, unless you’re LA, you’re not getting an enclosed subway station,” Howard said.

Cagle said he recognizes that there’s a desire for more quick action in the city.

“I think most folks, and I’ve worked in government my whole life, say government moves slow. And there’s reasons for that, but it can be very frustrating,” Cagle said. “But we are never done with security, and it will always be our top priority, because really, one incident in transit, one terrible crime, murder, is too many.”

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