Local

Station to connect Amtrak, CATS in uptown

By Paul Boyd
By Paul Boyd

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — On Friday morning, crews started the next step in building a stop for CATS by breaking ground for the Charlotte Gateway Station.

City, state and federal officials hammered ceremonial stakes into a large rail tie.

The heart of the project spans three city blocks along Graham Street near the Greyhound bus station.

The city of Charlotte shared artist renderings with the media to offer a glimpse of its overall vision for the project.

"We believe this will be contributing to the rebirth of the downtown here in Charlotte." said Jim Trogdon, the secretary of the North Carolina Department of Transportation.

The current Amtrak station sits north of uptown Charlotte on North Tryon Street in an old and outdated building.

The idea is to relocate this regional AMTRAK train stop into the heart of Uptown and create a new transportation hub that will include bus stops, the Gold Line and possibly the proposed Red Line extending north of Charlotte.

One of the big-picture goals for the project is better regional connectivity.

That will mean more passenger trains running to Raleigh and Atlanta right from the heart of Charlotte.

"This new station is representative of exactly what we want to bring to Charlotte and that is a world-class station," said Jason Orthner, the NCDOT rail division director.

Phase one of the Gateway Station tackles all of the infrastructure for the project. Motorists can already see support columns for a new rail bridge along Trade Street.

That will be just one of five new bridges that will carry 2,000 feet of new tracks and signals for the Gateway Station.

The new track will connect with the existing Norfolk Southern line that Amtrak currently runs along. A new Amtrak train platform is also part of phase one.

(Watch the video below for past coverage on the streetcar project.)

Despite the surge of excitement on Friday, patience will be required because the project is not expected to be finished until 2022.

"It does take some time when you have a project in an urban area like this to make sure you do it in a way that doesn't affect all city operations," Orthner said.

The city, state and federal government are splitting the $112 million price tag for the infrastructure portion of the project.

Phase two will be paid for by a private developer and will include the actual station along with retail and residential structures over the nearly 20-acre property. City Council will vote on that developer by the end of the year.

"We could have just built a train station and gone on but we have an opportunity with the accumulation of the property here to really do something iconic," CATS CEO John Lewis said.

Lewis said the private sector will bring creativity and ingenuity to the project.

"This is going to be a fantastic development," he said.

Read more top trending stories on wsoctv.com:

Cox Media Group

Most Read