[Jonathan]

Great article; thanks for sharing.

[pproteinc]

I do remember we as a forum talking about the exit/entrance being a problem and talked about ideas of ramps going directly from I-77 to the park avoiding Carowinds Blvd altogether and I made a drawing of the exit ramps I felt would work. I just cant locate where or what topic its under, but it was shot down by some saying it would cost to much. My inspiration was from the Busch Gardens interchange. Maybe I'll make another and post it. Now as for the light rail, Charlotte is way behind on this. Maybe being from NYC and living in ATL for a few years have made me appropriate them more. I am more for the heavy rail rapid transit vs light rail, they have more longer cars to hold way more people. I for one think trains should be running to all for corners and sub corners of a city. Ok So they are extendind it to UNCC uh way not take all the way to the race track? That could alleviate traffic during race season anf the on to Concord Mills. A line should be going to the airport and the premium outlets in steelcreek and dare i say Carowinds. I line should head to Pineville to Carolina Place mall. another should go up to Mattews via independence blvd. Anither line should go to Northlake Mall and Mooresville area, I line should head to South Park and the area granted this would prolly have to be underground. Just my thoughts. I know I got way off topic.

[Jonathan]

The Blue Line extension, like the original Blue Line, is using almost entirely existing rail right of way. That corridor branches east toward Harrisburg after UNCC.

Building new rail outside of existing corridors in an already built-up area is very difficult to the time and cost of acquiring property by buyout or eminent domain. It also doesn't make much sense to invest that much in building something to serve a seasonal attraction that is isolated from the city. Even in Europe and Asia there are few parks that are served directly by a rail station. Most do have very good public transit access though with frequent bus feeders between the nearest rail station and the park. I've used rail-to-bus to visit Thorpe Park, Alton Towers, Europa Park, and Parc Asterix. Port Aventura and Disneyland Paris both have rail stations adjacent to the property.

It's probably also worth pointing out that Carowinds is in fact served by transit, the #42 CAT bus connecting to the South Blvd LYNX station. It is infrequent though and primarily used by employees. You just don't have that many people looking to go to Carowinds by public transit since Charlotte is so sprawling and nearly everyone owns a car. Transit investment in Charlotte right now is going to be primarily oriented toward peak hour commuting patterns.

[Sfgacaro91]

I really do hate when guests complain about the employees lack of enthusiasm. These are KIDS who don't care and are there just for a pay check. I'm sure the Carowinds managment team tries their best to get them to cooperate but I imagine they can't win a losing battle. Kids these days are not driven and don't care about anything they don't want to do.

[Capler]

I do remember we as a forum talking about the exit/entrance being a problem and talked about ideas of ramps going directly from I-77 to the park avoiding Carowinds Blvd altogether and I made a drawing of the exit ramps I felt would work. I just cant locate where or what topic its under, but it was shot down by some saying it would cost to much. My inspiration was from the Busch Gardens interchange. Maybe I'll make another and post it. Now as for the light rail, Charlotte is way behind on this. Maybe being from NYC and living in ATL for a few years have made me appropriate them more. I am more for the heavy rail rapid transit vs light rail, they have more longer cars to hold way more people. I for one think trains should be running to all for corners and sub corners of a city. Ok So they are extendind it to UNCC uh way not take all the way to the race track? That could alleviate traffic during race season anf the on to Concord Mills. A line should be going to the airport and the premium outlets in steelcreek and dare i say Carowinds. I line should head to Pineville to Carolina Place mall. another should go up to Mattews via independence blvd. Anither line should go to Northlake Mall and Mooresville area, I line should head to South Park and the area granted this would prolly have to be underground. Just my thoughts. I know I got way off topic.

The way it works is that surrounding counties would be responsible for the extension into their communities. Actually that has been discussed but it likely won't happen for decades. Cabarrus would be responsible for a Concord blue line extension. Heavy rail is planned for 77 north up to Iredell, the rail line is already there. At this point in time Independence East will have a bus lane down the center. Not sure what they have planned for 77 south and out to the airport. I don't feel Charlotte is that far behind for a city it's size. Remember Charlotte has only been a 'big city' for about 20 years, and they have been planning this thing since then. Nashville, which has a population of 600,000 vs 800,000 for Charlotte, is way behind.
We may not live to see all those lines you propose but they will eventually happen.

[arby]

Kids these days are not driven and don't care about anything they don't want to do.

I completely disagree. As a youth counselor, kids today are essentially the same as kids have always been. They are kids. If you care about them and treat them with respect, you will be amazed with what you can learn from them and what they can accomplish.

Our parents said our generation was going down hill. Their parents said the same thing about them, etc, which is not true. The only difference is that each generation is different. Our kids have access to so much more information than we did, which is the same about us versus our parents, etc. It is society that continues to change.

We want kids to be immersed in technology so we don't have to continue to outsource our technology jobs to other countries who are producing more high-tech workers than we are. That is what is sad.

[kirkgun]

Anyone know what factor make roads so expensive to build?

Roads are not that expensive but interstates are. They all have to adhere to the same uniform standard. The first thing is that they pretty much have to follow straight unimpeded level paths, so basically what is in front of them have to be adjusted to make that possible. The ramps, shoulders, spacing of the ramps have to also follow specific specifications. Then there are all the enviromental issues.

Exactly. And not only do interstates require massive earth-moving to make them level and straight, it gets even worse. The real cost of making interstates is that they can't have "intersections" with other roads. That means that every other road that the interstate crosses has to have either an overpass or underpass (even if no ramps are built for exiting and merging). And it's not just roads either. It's railroads too. It's every little creek, stream, and drainage ditch. That's a whole lot of bridges. Bridges take immense amounts of steel. Bridges take massive amounts of people, working for long periods of time. In other words, bridges are very very expensive. Interstate construction is an exercise in mass production of bridges, but with each one custom designed and built to that particular location.

Here's the new intersection of 85 and 485. 18 separate new bridges built.

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[pproteinc]

Ahh ok thanks Jonathan for the info and thanks Capler. I do agree I'd prolly never see it I don't plan on being in Charlotte that long into the future lol. I for sure thought they were talking about changing the 2 center lanes that are supposedly used for bus and ER transit now into express toll lanes after the completion of the current expansion they're doing. Ok nevermind so off topic now.

I think if the each supervisor pump up their employees or team they would be happy. Lead by example. The supervisors at times look as if they dont want to be there as well. I mean when I was an employee there I did a lot and I mean a lot of crowd participation and be hype to do it. It seems now when they do it feel mandated so they sound dry and empty. If I was to come back and operate screamweaver like I did, I'd have to pull Mike to the side and request music for when the ride is in operation, a light package and fog machines lol. This is one thing a can say I love about fair rides

[TheCoasterMan1]

I have a mini-rant, the only reason I am saying this is because next season I will be 16 and I plan on applying for a job at the park.
Ms.Eunice must love her job because she is there every time I go and that is quite often. Although she is either assigning seats or helping out with line control at the entrance to Fury, she is definitely a top notch employee who always has great enthusiasm about her job.
I wish all Carowinds staff would be like her but sadly where they allow people to work with no passion for the industry or any type of people skills at all then we get sub-par workers with awful attitudes who ruin the day at the park for many guest. I will say that Carowinds has stepped up their game somewhat with hiring workers like Ms.Eunice, but there is still a lot of work to be done when it comes to hiring the right people for the right types of jobs. Let the unsocial and bad attitude people who only want to be there for a paycheck be janitors, not the people who are scanning your ticket/season pass when you enter the park!

[Capler]

Is Ms. Eunice the older black lady at Fury assigning seats?

[pproteinc]

^ Yes she is. A joy to speak with at best in the park. I met her 2yrs ago on Intimidator. She saw at that time I was at the park nearly daily as I am now she knows me by name lol.

[RollerBee]

She was checking lapbars when I rode on Season Pass Night, she can move just as fast as the younger employees.

[aoriole19]

I really do hate when guests complain about the employees lack of enthusiasm. These are KIDS who don't care and are there just for a pay check. I'm sure the Carowinds managment team tries their best to get them to cooperate but I imagine they can't win a losing battle. Kids these days are not driven and don't care about anything they don't want to do.

No. If they don't do a good job, they can be fired. If the park is short on employees, maybe Carowinds should advertise more about hiring. There are plenty of people who are great at customer service, and/or passionate about the theme park industry, OR they don't care and are only there for the paycheck BUT they will be adults about it and know that the paycheck doesn't come free and that they have to put in their best effort to do their job quickly and be friendly and at least act like they care about the park and the guests. Those who will not put in any effort should be let go and they will soon learn that no job wants an unmotivated lazy worker and they will hopefully learn some kind of work ethic.

As a part of the group you call "kids these days" I dislike these employees as much as everyone else. But young people are no worse now than they have ever been.I just don't think you should make a generalization and I don't think Carowinds or any company should give up finding good workers. Hold your employees to a certain standard and enforce it. Honestly, a ton of people I knew during high school and even now in college find it hard to find a job over the summer, because so many kids all want Summer jobs. I'm sure if Carowinds made an effort to reach out to kids (and adults!) that they were hiring, they would get way more applicants than they could hire. Choose the best ones. Let the apathetic ones sit at home and be lazy instead of working in your park and being lazy.

Thus concludes MY mini rant.

[kirkgun]

No. If they don't do a good job, they can be fired. If the park is short on employees, maybe Carowinds should advertise more about hiring...

I don't want to argue, but I do have to say that is completely not true. If Carowinds fired all their employees who don't do a good job, they would have hundreds of "wrongful termination" lawsuits on their hands (and Carowinds would lose them all too, not to mention Carowind's unemployment insurance rates would shoot straight through the roof). That's the reality of the labor market today. "Not having passion or enthusiasm for the theme park industry" is not a justifiable reason for termination.

Then they'd have to deal with a massive shortage of employees. Pretty much every employer is always looking for and hiring good people. Good employees are more valuable to them than gold, and they are well aware of that.

I truly understand your point (and I also wish employers had more freedom to do those things) but the reality of lawsuits in this country really ties an employer's hands when it comes to firing bad employees.

A few people have mentioned the problem of poor managers/supervisors/trainers. That certainly is the monkey on Carowind's back. And that monkey is not going away for one big reason: Carowinds is a seasonal job. Anybody who is good at those management positions, probably would never want to work at Carowinds. It's a temporary job. In a few weeks everyone of them will be cut back to part-time. And a few weeks past that, they won't have any job, period. Anybody who does those jobs, will always choose to do those things somewhere else (Chic-Fil-A, Subway, Target, Harris Teeter, etc) where they won't automatically lose their job after a few months, and where they can work year-round. Theme parks that are open year-round (Florida, Southern California, etc) allow the possibility of people making genuine careers of working at those parks. At seasonal theme parks like Carowinds, those are temp jobs, even for the managers. So if you are good at managing and motivating the young employees at Carowinds, you will quit immediately when the opportunity to do the same thing at Target is available.

[RollerBee]