Seamless Transfer between Rail lines
needed near Pineville
It is unlikely that light rail can be extended down to Fort Mill and Rock Hill anytime soon. The cost of building the required separate right-of-way and overhead power lines is too great in an area of relatively light density. If there is to be rail at all, the answer would seem to be regional/ commuter rail. This being the case, there needs to be an easy transfer point between the two modes which would involve an across the platform transfer. The only logical place for such a transfer is Pineville. The Regional rail will not make most of the stops proposed for light rail and will likely follow the Norfolk Southern tracks to the planned intermodal center in uptown Charlotte.

If the terminus for the South Corridor light rail is somewhere other than the downtown Pineville area, it would break a seamless transfer between these two rail modes. While it may be true that a transfer could be placed at some point further north, such as Arrowood Road, for example, this would require passengers desiring to stop at locations between Pineville and Arrowood to back-track to reach their destination. This would simply not be acceptable to commuters.

Therefore, CEMT believes that the only alignment that works in the South Corridor is one that allows for a transfer in downtown Pineville, or some point a short distance above or below.

A transfer between regional and light rail does not involve a large parking lot and would in no way congest downtown Pineville. It simply involves people getting off one train, walking across a platform, and getting on another train.