Charlotte Area Transit System Charlotte started work in

Funded in part through a half-cent sales tax, the system runs along both active and abandoned sections of railroad right-of-way and connects the city’s central business district with Interstate 485 to the south. The city began planning the system in 1988 to protect irreplaceable rail corridors .

Parsons Transportation Group, Pasadena, Calif., designed 15 stations and a 92,000-sq-ft vehicle maintenance facility, as well as $50 million of road, intersection and drainage improvements. Archer Western Contractors, Atlanta, completed its $170-million roadbed and $50-million station contracts on time, as did Mass. Electric Construction Co., Boston, with a $50-million signaling, communication, train-control and power package. Edifice Inc., Charlotte, built the $30-million vehicle-maintenance facility.

Charlotte Area Transit System is now researching funding for a planned $260-million, 30-mile, diesel-powered north-corridor commuter rail line and has just received approval from the Federal Transit Administration to begin preliminary engineering for a $740.5-million light-rail expansion to the northeast. It also plans a bus rapid-transit line to the southeast and two center-city streetcar lines. All are part of CATS’s 2030 Transit Corridor System Plan.