What can Durham County residents expect from transit investments? Here’s a handy list

After weeks of public comment, the Durham County Board of Commissioners, the Durham-Chapel Hill-Carrboro Metropolitan Planning Organization and the GoTriangle Board of Trustees approved updated county transit plans in April. Here’s a look at improvements already made using the half-cent transit tax that Durham voters approved in 2011 and at upcoming projects.

IMPROVEMENTS COMING IN FISCAL YEAR 2018

• 30-minute midday service on Route 800 among Re­gional Transit Center, Southpoint and UNC and on Route 700 between Durham Station and RTC 6 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday through Friday and 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. on Saturday
• 7,896 annual trips for Durham County ACCESS
• Start work on upgrading 70 high-priority bus stops in Durham County
• Planning for transit center at Wellons Village

BETTER FACILITIES, MORE BUSES (through 2045)

• $7.6 million in bus stop improvements, including providing shelters, benches, trash cans and accessibility improvements at 200 stops
• $1.5 million in improvements to transit emphasis corridors, including Holloway Street in East Durham along Route 3 and Fayetteville Street along Route 5
• $948,000 in improvements to park-and-ride lots
• $928,000 in improvements to transit centers
• $23.2 million set aside in year of expenditure dollars for six buses already ordered, three GoTriangle buses to support Durham service and seven vehicles for Durham Access to support additional demand-response trips and their future replacements

EXPANDED BUS SERVICE

GoDurham since 2013

• 15-minute service during peak hours among downtown Durham, NCCU and MLK Jr. Parkway on Route 5 and among downtown Durham, Lakewood Shopping Center and South Square on Route 10
• 30-minute service on the Durham-Raleigh Express during peak periods
• Extended Sunday service
• Additional evening and Sunday trips between downtown Durham and East Durham on Route 3
• Additional early weekday trip between Southpoint and NC 55 on Route 14
• Additional service between downtown and Brier Creek on Route 15 and among downtown, NCCU and NC 54 on Route 12
• New service among Woodcroft, South Square and Duke on Route 20
• Systemwide New Year’s Eve service until midnight

GoTriangle since 2013

• Additional peak service between Southpoint in Durham and UNC in Chapel Hill on Route 800S
• Service between Mebane and Hillsborough in Orange County and Duke/VA Medical Centers and downtown Durham on the Orange-Durham Express
• More Saturday and new Sunday service between the Regional Transit Center and Southpoint and UNC on Route 800
• More Saturday and new Sunday service between the Re­gional Transit Center and downtown Durham on Route 700
• New Sunday and expanded weekday and Saturday ser­vice between downtown and Duke/VA Medical Centers and Chapel Hill on Route 400
• More peak service between Duke/VA Medical Centers and Raleigh on Durham-Raleigh Express
• Extended Route 405 to Carrboro, providing peak-hour service among downtown Durham, Duke/VA Medical Cen­ters, UNC and downtown Carrboro

INVESTMENTS IN RAIL

The Durham-Orange light-rail project

• $2.5 billion Engineering and construction costs
• $738.4 million Durham’s expected local share in year of expenditure dollars
• $149.5 million Orange Coun­ty’s local share
• 17.7 miles Length with 18 stations between UNC Hospitals in Chapel Hill and NC Central University in Durham
• 2020 Expected construction start date
• 2028 Expected date service will begin
• 50,000 Annual hours of additional transit service in Durham and Orange counties once the service starts
• 18 The num­ber of service hours a day Monday through Friday, with 10-minute headways at peak times and 20-minute head­ways the rest of the day
• 20 The percentage of Orange County residents who commute to work in Durham Coun­ty or more than 14,300 people
• 9.5 The percentage of Durham residents who commute to Orange County for work or 17,606 people

The Wake-Durham commuter rail project

• $850,000 What Durham has budgeted in Fiscal Year 2018 on a major investment study for the project with Wake County Transit Plan partners
• 37 miles The length of the route that runs among Garner, downtown Raleigh, NC State University, Cary, Morrisville, RTP and Durham to Duke University
• 8 The presumed number of trips that will run in each direction during peak hours
• $887 million The preliminary cost estimate for the project

For a printable pdf of this information, click here.