Another Triangle community now considering bus rapid transit

With dreams of commuter or light rail in the Triangle deferred, local governments are turning to a far cheaper and easier form of mass transit that uses buses.

Durham County is the latest to consider bus rapid transit. The county’s plans get underway this fall with an online survey and a series of public workshops to determine how and where people might use BRT.

The effort is a response to what the county heard as it developed the 2023 Durham Transit Plan, which guides how revenue from the county’s half-cent sales tax for transit should be spent.

“Residents and our governing boards requested that we prioritize quick and reliable bus service,” Ellen Beckmann, the county’s transportation director, said in a written statement. “The BRT Vision Plan will identify the specific projects and corridors that we want to advance using our local sales tax to accomplish this goal.”

BRT is a bus system with some similarities to rail. Passengers board from covered, elevated platforms, as on a train car, and electronic boards show when the next bus is due to arrive. The buses also get priority green lights at intersections and often travel in their own dedicated lanes, to avoid getting slowed by traffic.

Both Raleigh and Chapel Hill have committed to bus rapid transit. Raleigh hopes to begin service on the state’s first BRT line along New Bern Avenue by the summer of 2030 and plans three more BRT lines radiating from downtown. Chapel Hill expects to begin building a line through the heart of town in 2027, connecting the Eubanks Road park-and-ride lot near Interstate 40 with Southern Village.

Meanwhile, the city of Durham is planning what it calls Central Durham Bus Rapid Transit. It will run about 5 miles from Wellons Village through downtown to the Duke University and Veterans Administration medical centers.

Compared to rail, bus rapid transit is much easier to develop and less expensive. GoRaleigh expects to spend $108 million to build the 5.4-mile New Bern Avenue line, or about $20 million per mile. In contrast, planners estimated several years ago that a proposed commuter rail line between Durham and Garner would cost $75 million to $80 million per mile.

GoTriangle completed a feasibility study for the commuter rail line in early 2023, then shelved the project after it became clear the federal government would not help pay for it. An earlier effort to build commuter rail between Durham and Raleigh was also abandoned in 2006 after failing to win federal support or funding.

Meanwhile, GoTriangle gave up on a proposed 18-mile light rail line between Durham and Chapel Hill in 2019, after the Federal Transit Administration said the project was unlikely to qualify for federal funding because of rising costs and uncertainty over acquiring the needed right-of-way.

How to learn more and be heard

To learn more about Durham County’s Bus Rapid Transit Vision Plan, including a link to the survey, go to durhambrtvision.com/. The survey will be live through Nov. 29.

The county also plans three workshops — two in person and one online:

• Thursday, Oct. 30, from 3 to 5 p.m. at the Durham County Main Library, 300 North Roxboro St.
• Thursday, Nov. 6, from 5 to 7 p.m. at Durham Station, 515 West Pettigrew St. (Use Willard Street entrance to avoid construction.)
• Tuesday, Nov. 18, from 11:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. online at kimley-horn.zoom.us/j/98587989690/.