The Red Line is a planned commuter rail extension for the LYNX network in Charlotte, North Carolina. The Red Line, or North Corridor, would serve as a commuter rail line between Mount Mourne in southern Iredell County and the proposed Gateway Station in Uptown Charlotte. It would primarily serve the towns of Huntersville, Cornelius and Davidson in northern Mecklenburg County.
It is proposed to follow a northerly path along the existing Norfolk Southern O Line right-of-way, roughly paralleling North Graham Street and North Carolina Highway 115, as it extends through north Mecklenburg County. Currently, it is estimated to be 25 miles (40.2 km) in length and cost $261 million to complete the first phase by 2012 and an additional $112 million to complete phase two by 2019. Additionally, the line would contain 1,200 parking spaces and 10 stations along the corridor.
By 2011, the Lynx Red Line was planned to be built in one phase. Due to less revenue in the transit tax, in January the Metropolitan Transit Commission voted that the Lynx Red Line along with the Blue Line extension were the top two priorities, leaving the streetcar to be funded by the city and postponing further work on the LYNX Silver Line and the Airport corridor until after the Red Line and Blue line projects were completed. The Red Line is projected to be in operation by mid to late 2018.
As of June 2011 the project had been 90% designed and an operating agreement was signed with Norfolk Southern, but the project lacked nearly 80% of the needed funds to begin construction. In October 2012, the Charlotte Observer noted "the Red Line...has little chance of federal funding, and CATS may not have enough money to pay for even a portion of construction costs. The N.C. DOT is working on creative ways to finance the project, but it appears to be years away."
On October 17, 2012, the N.C. DOT, the Red Line Task Force and CATS requested Norfolk Southern to conduct a study of the "Red Line" concept. As the Red Line would utilize the NS O-Line between Charlotte and Mooresville, the study would determine if and how both freight and passenger services could use the same line while allowing normal freight services to continue. It was estimated at a meeting of the task force on October 24 that the study would be initiated by late January 2013 and completed by early 2014, after which further feasibility studies and projections could be made.
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