The new Metropolitan Public Transportation Authority is brainstorming ways to extend the proposed Silver Line light rail farther into east Charlotte and Matthews, but a consultant said this week a new sales tax is likely needed to finish the project.
The MPTA will take over Charlotte’s transit operations this summer, when a new one-cent sales tax for transportation is levied. Forty percent of that money will go to roads, and 60% will be directed to the MPTA for trains and buses.
The authority’s board this week looked at ways to extend the Silver Line, which is slated to go from the airport to Bojangles Coliseum. Extending the light rail line to Sharon Amity Road would cost $400 million, and bringing the train to Central Piedmont Community College in Matthews would cost an additional $2.4 billion…