Blue Line ridership plunges after August light rail killing

true story's uncovered on Instagram: "On August 22, 2025, in Charlotte, North Carolina, a 23-year-old Ukrainian refugee🇺🇦, Iryna Zarutska, fleeing the horrors of war in her native country, died in a place that was supposed to be safe and peaceful: a Lynx Blue Line light rail system train. Sitting peacefully, without threat or provocation, she was attacked by a man, Decarlos Dejuan Brown Jr., 34, a repeat offender with a history of violence and mental illness, whom the justice system had left a

Blue Line ridership plunges after August light rail killing

Blue Line ridership plunges after August light rail killing

In the month after the stabbing of Iryna Zarutska on the LYNX Blue Line, fewer people rode the city's light rail, especially around South End on nights and weekends, new public records obtained by WCNC Charlotte revealed. The latest ridership numbers show 493,021 people rode the Blue Line in September 2025 compared to 549,083 in September 2024, which is a more than 10% decrease. For comparison, in August 2025, the month of Zarutska's killing, 539,697 people rode the Blue Line. "During September,