Charlotte Area Transit System recently hosted 25 middle school aged students from the Elizabeth City area of North Carolina to tour the system, talk to transit professionals and inspire the next generation towards careers in STEM via transportation.
The students came to Charlotte on Wednesday as a part of a summer program through Elizabeth City State University that was partially funded by the North Carolina Department of Transportation. The tour started with riding the LYNX Blue Line light rail system then touring the Vehicle Maintenance Facility led by CATS’ Director of Rail Operations, Allen Smith III. Smith spoke with students about the several different variations of engineering that is needed to operate, maintain and manage a rail system and gave them an up close look at CATS’ operations control centers and light rail maintenance facilities.
Following the tour of the rail facilities, students were able to get up close and personal with Bus Operations and Maintenance with a tour led by Assistant General Manager of Bus Operations, Reggie Arrington. Arrington also spoke to students about the apprenticeship opportunities available with CATS Bus Operations.
Finally, students rode CATS’ bus services to the Charlotte Government Center where they met with CEO John Lewis who encouraged students to keep their minds open to different careers as they navigate the job landscape.
“Growing up, I always thought I was going to be a lawyer, then one day while working on Capitol Hill, I fell in love with infrastructure and transit and began pursuing those dreams,” Lewis shared with the group.
Some students shared that this was their first time in a city as large as Charlotte and expressed gratitude to be able to have the experience. Several students enjoyed learning about Charlotte’s CityLYNX Gold Line streetcar service and questioned Lewis about the Overhead Catenary System that powers the vehicles. Lewis shared that with Phase 2 of the streetcar, new technology would be utilized that would allow streetcar vehicles to go off-wire and be powered by battery for short periods throughout the segment.
“At this point, a battery hasn’t been invented that is strong enough to allow streetcar vehicles to go off-wire for the entire streetcar alignment. Maybe one of you can invent something that would allow that to occur someday,” Lewis urged students.
