The Shortcut Behind Publix Is South End's Biggest Fall Change
October 8, 2026
October 8, 2026
"It's like four minutes to get to Club West instead of maybe 10 minutes," Glenn Eastwood told Queen City News the night the new South End rail crossing opened. "It's awesome. It's a game changer."
Eastwood lives in South End and said he had waited about two years for the crossing. Most of Charlotte's attention has gone to the I-277 pedestrian bridge, the large arched project meant to finally link the Rail Trail to uptown. This fall, though, the change people will actually use is much smaller. A short crossing behind the Publix on South Boulevard now lets walkers go straight across the Blue Line tracks. It opened Aug. 31, 2026, and it changes how a South End Saturday fits together years before the station it was built for exists.
The crossing sits between Publix and the Cortland South End apartments near South Boulevard. Queen City News described the old routine plainly. To reach the other side of the Rail Trail, you walked about five minutes toward uptown or toward Lower South End, then doubled back. Now you look both ways and cross the tracks.
The crossing also solves a safety problem. WBTV reported that it is meant to stop people from jumping fences and crossing the tracks illegally. Rya Hollaran, a South End resident, told Queen City News she had "seen plenty of people jump the railing to go over from one side to the other." The new crossing has signs telling walkers and bikers to look both ways.
Getting here took most of the spring and summer. Starting Sunday, April 19, sections of the trail around the station site closed. Detours ran through July, and sections reopened in phases. Axios named Stable Hand and the acai-bowl shop SPOONS by Remount as businesses in the affected area, which ran from Tremont Avenue, just past The Line, to Remount Road. Before construction started, Savi Provisions owner Manav Amin told WSOC he expected the station to pay off over time. With the trail open again, those businesses are back on the direct walking route.
The crossing is the first visible piece of a larger project. CATS is building a new Blue Line station between Remount Road and Tremont Drive. The work also includes a new Rail Trail section behind Autobell and Cannon Pharmacy. WBTV put the total station project at $30 million.
On Sept. 28, CATS announced the station's name at the new crossing itself: Atherton Mill Station. The agency says the station is still under active construction and is expected to open in 2028.
So South End will have this crossing for roughly two years before trains stop next to it. For now, its job is getting people across on foot. CATS's project page says track and systems work runs from spring 2026 into spring 2027 and is scheduled around planned rail shutdowns. The first came in April. As of Sept. 30, CATS had not posted dates for another South End shutdown. Before planning a fall trip that depends on the train, check the CATS rider alerts.
The new station's name points to the anchor of a South End weekend. The South End Farmers Market at Atherton Mill runs every Saturday along the Rail Trail from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m., rain or shine, all year. The market, the future station and the crossing are all within the same few blocks. Errands that used to involve a detour can now be one walk: produce from the market, then across to Publix for whatever the market didn't have. One Queen City News interviewee, Jason Newton, said that living on the other side of the rail stop, "having convenience to be able to go to the grocery store is really nice."
Two more dates on South End's own calendar fit the same walk:
Atherton and the Design Center are on the stretch the crossing just shortened. The Saturday after Thanksgiving will be the first time a Shop Small route there has a direct way across the tracks.
Fall restaurant coverage of South End has mixed restaurants that are open with ones that are only announced. As of the last week of September, each one below sits at a different stage.
Open now: Raíces, 1422 S. Tryon St., Ste. 140. Amalia Macias and Alfonso Bravo opened their Oaxacan restaurant on Sept. 12, according to Unpretentious Palate. The couple describe it as darker, moodier and more elevated than the five restaurants they opened before. Its website lists dinner Tuesday through Saturday, 5 to 10 p.m. Late-summer coverage disagreed about whether it had opened yet. The Sept. 12 date settles that.
Close, with no date yet: Lady Funari, 222 E. Bland St. This Italian pasta bar is taking over the former Futo Buta space. An August report from WhatNow put the target at October, depending on whether the restaurant gets its occupancy permit. WCCB's Sept. 24 segment still said "fall." It described dinner Wednesday through Sunday, plus daytime espresso, pastries and lighter bites. The restaurant's own website still reads "Coming Fall 2026."
This winter: The Iberian Pig, 110 East Blvd. Atlanta-based Castellucci Hospitality Group is bringing its Spanish tapas restaurant to the 110 East tower. Its signs face the East/West Boulevard light rail station, and construction was still underway inside as of Sept. 24. Owner Federico Castellucci III told CharlotteFive that features like the Rail Trail drew him to the site.
Late 2026: Roe & Olivia's, 3531 Dewitt Lane. Axios reported in August that this contemporary American restaurant in Lower South End is planned for late 2026. No opening day has been announced.
That leaves one confirmed new dinner spot this fall, and it is on South Tryon, a short walk west of the trail. Each of the others is either waiting on paperwork or planned for later in the season.
The crossing opened on schedule. The bridge at the trail's north end is a different story. The Rail Trail still dead-ends beneath the East Morehead Street bridge, north of Carson Street. For about 18 years, people on foot or bike heading uptown have left the trail there for a narrow path and a shared roadway bridge over I-277. The planned bridge would connect that dead end to Brooklyn Village Station. It will be 280 feet long, with a 16-foot-wide concrete path.
The bridge's timeline has slipped more than once. In 2019, the city estimated $11 million and completion by 2023. In April 2026, the Observer reported about $16.4 million and a mid-2028 finish. The city's project page now lists a $23.8 million budget. That figure covers design, right-of-way, utilities, construction and landscaping. The page lists Blythe Construction as the contractor and gives no completion date. Spectrum News reported in August that the overall completion date was still to be determined.
For now, the bridge work mostly affects drivers. The I-277 South off-ramp at Exit 1E to College Street closed on Aug. 17 and is expected to stay closed until late 2027. The city's detour goes from the South Boulevard/Caldwell Street ramp to South Caldwell Street, then left on Brooklyn Village Avenue to College. The city has not announced any closure on the existing trail as part of that work.
The two projects started from the same need, and in practice they are on very different timelines. For the next two years at least, the crossing behind Publix is the South End connection that is actually finished.
If you'd like help picking a home based on how you'd walk to the market, the trail, or wherever else you go most often, LaRay Hampton knows these South End blocks well and is glad to walk them with you. Let's Connect.
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