…What will WSP USA – formerly known as WSP/Parsons Brinckerhoff —-recommend?

Whatever it is—a Red line and/or a Silver line to go along with the Blue line running up to UNCC (which is expected to open in March 2018)–they’re talking billions. (I don’t even know why I highlighted “billions” as if it should come as a surprise.) The question is where connect all the lines so that the Queen city doesn’t end up with, well, what it has now:

The decision to hire WSP rankled Charlotte urban planner and consultant Michael Gallis, who helped design the city’s original transit plan. Gallis is affiliated with HNTB, one of the firms that wasn’t selected.

Gallis said the city should have focused on building light rail in multiple corridors, as envisioned in the 1990s, instead of what he calls today’s “screwball” transit system. He said it doesn’t make sense to have a streetcar instead of light rail, and that Charlotte needs a central terminal uptown to connect all the lines.

The current plan calls for some rail lines to meet at the Gateway Station near BB&T Ballpark, with the streetcar connecting those passengers to the Lynx Blue Line near the Spectrum Center.

“We ended up with a bunch of disconnected lines,” he said.

With that in mind, it’s worth noting that WSP USA’s hire represents –as the Uptown Paper of Record duly notes—a “back to the future” moment for Charlotte Area Transit System:

In its proposal, one of the firm’s key figures is Ron Tober, who led CATS from 1999 to 2007 and was in charge when the first light-rail line was being built. Tober, who lives in Charlotte, is a strategic adviser for WSP.

Another key player for WSP is David Carol, a former CATS planner who spent years working on the north corridor Red Line that hasn’t been built.

And of course the question is where to find the billions required to to make this ongoing dream come true. As the Charlotte Business Journal reports, “much of the talk now” is a “funding proposal” that would appear on the 2020 ballot. As if emotions won’t be running high enough.