RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK (JAN. 22, 2020) -- After public meetings and a comment period, transit planners have added even more improvements to a list of GoDurham service changes proposed in August and set to be implemented Jan. 25.
The plan already added 30-minute service on nights and Sundays to routes along Holloway Street, Main Street and Erwin Road. Now the routes along Chapel Hill Road to South Square and Fayetteville Road to MLK Jr. Pkwy will get 30-minute service as well. Find more details about all the changes here.
The plan also adds 15-minute service along Main Street and Erwin Road, served by Routes 11 and 11B to the west and Routes 2, 12 and 12B to the east. GoDurham already has three corridors where buses arrive every 15 minutes during the day Monday through Saturday: one along Chapel Hill Road, one along Fayetteville Street and one along Holloway Street.
“We’re happy that we’re going to be able to add frequency at nights and on weekends to five important GoDurham routes starting this month,” says Jenny Green, transit service planner. “The goal of all of the new service is to improve the reliability, on-time performance and passenger experience on GoDurham routes. Riders have told us in surveys and in meetings that having buses be on time is their most important goal.”
In addition, a new pilot program in East Durham will start Feb. 8 that allows residents to take on-demand rides free between their homes and nearby shopping centers and bus stops, where customers can easily catch those high-frequency buses.
The East Durham Connect pilot program will replace the fixed-route service that GoDurham Route 3C now provides between N.C. 98 and U.S. 70 on Wedgedale Avenue and Ivywood Lane. With East Durham Connect, customers will be able to use their smart phones and a code to take a free on-demand ride between 6 a.m. and 7 p.m. all day Monday through Saturday within a zone along Holloway Street.
The code will need to be loaded onto a customer’s on-demand app only once and will be good for the duration of the pilot program.
Between Jan. 25 and Feb. 7, GoDurham will continue to provide bus service to all stops on the existing Route 3C. Customers will board the bus marked SPECIAL at Gate G for service to Rummel Street, Wedgedale Avenue and Iveywood Lane.
Bull City Connector resources reallocated
Due in part to Duke University’s terminating its financial contribution to the Bull City Connector, GoDurham will end the circulator and use the money to help provide these improvements riders have asked for.
“The Bull City Connector’s vehicles, hours and operators will be reallocated to other routes along Main Street and Erwin Road to provide more frequent service and allow for transfers to other GoDurham routes at Durham Station,” says Erik Landfried, transit service planning supervisor at GoTriangle.
Among other changes, Routes 2 and 15 will be combined into one route that provides service to Brier Creek every 30 minutes on weekdays and Saturdays, and Route 12 will be restructured to provide connections from East Durham to Research Triangle Park and the Regional Transit Center, where connections to GoTriangle routes can be made.
Since Durham County voters approved a half-cent sales tax devoted to transit investments in 2011, GoDurham added more than 114,000 new service hours, more than 1,300 paratransit hours and more than 36,000 Durham ACCESS trips through June 30, 2019.
Together with Orange and Wake counties, Durham County is working to create a unified regional transit network that provides alternatives to driving on increasingly congested roads and opens up access to more job, education and health care opportunities for everyone.