For years, the light rail tracks running through South End created a problem that anyone who spent time in the neighborhood knew well. The two sides of the corridor, South Boulevard on one end, Hawkins Street on the other, were separated by the tracks, and crossing between them meant a long detour or, as happened constantly, climbing the fence and crossing illegally.
That changed on August 31, 2026. A new pedestrian rail crossing officially opened in South End, connecting the Publix side of the tracks to Hawkins Street for the first time. It's a small piece of infrastructure with a large effect on how the neighborhood functions.
See It Through the Eyes of Someone Who Knows This Corridor.
Legacy partner Monte Ritchey walked this corridor on camera and broke down exactly what’s changing, the crossing, the development around it, and what it means for South Boulevard’s next chapter. Two videos. His read, firsthand.
What Was Built and Why It Matters
The crossing is part of a $30 million light rail station project, the future South End station, currently under construction between the existing East/West Boulevard and New Bern stations along the Blue Line. One of the stated goals of the project was to formalize a crossing that pedestrians had been making on their own, unsafely, for years.
The new station itself features staggered platforms: the northbound platform is positioned adjacent to the Publix, and the southbound platform sits farther north near Hawkins Street across from Atherton Lofts. The pedestrian crossing connects them, and for the first time, gives people on foot a safe, legal route between South Boulevard and Hawkins Street at this point in the neighborhood.
The practical effect runs in both directions. Businesses along Hawkins Street are now more reachable for anyone arriving by transit or parking near South Boulevard. The Publix — a neighborhood anchor — connects more naturally to the walkable stretch of Hawkins. And the foot traffic dynamics that shape retail and office leasing in this corridor shift with it.
The Bigger Picture Along South Boulevard
The crossing didn't happen in isolation. South End has been in a state of near-continuous development since the Blue Line opened in 2007, and the new station project is the latest major public investment in a corridor that has attracted hundreds of millions of dollars in private development alongside it.
One of the most cited examples of what that can look like is Southborough — a transit-oriented mixed-use project developed by The Conformity Corporation in partnership with Lowe's Companies Inc. Completed in 2008, it wraps a 30,280 SF Lowe's flagship store with 69 residential units, office space, restaurant space, and structured parking on a 2.8-acre infill site adjacent to the light rail. It was featured as an Urban Land Institute case study and remains a live example of how transit-oriented development works at this scale in Charlotte.
The corridor is not done growing. CATS has noted that construction in the area will continue through 2028, when the full South End station is targeted to open. Civil and structural work on the station is expected to begin in late spring 2027.
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