A BETTER PLAN

WHAT IS A BETTER PLAN THAT BENEFITS ALL?

We need to stop the train and get back to a plan featuring practical bus and commuter rail. similar to what Wake County did. 

Back in 2015 Wake County pulled the plug on light rail,  finding it too costly a project.  We can do what they’ve done: listen carefully to transit needs and design a system with high frequency bus, bus rapid transit and commuter rail. It could feature bus rapid transit as the backbone of the Chapel Hill system.  Transit dollars would pay for Hillsborough circulator. Think what could be done with 3+billion dollars.

  • Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) on All our Major Corridors

A cost effective technology is available!  Chapel Hill proactively planned for a Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) on the MLK corridor between Eubanks Rd near I-40 and Southern Village. On Nov. 21, 2016, the Federal Transit Administration (FTA) admitted this proposed project into Small Starts Project Development. See cost information below.

There is a funding gap of 6 – 10 million dollars for this project.  One reason for the funding gap is that the DOLRT project has absorbed the state funds originally intended for the project.

Assuming the funding gap can be filled, Chapel Hill BRT will deliver mass public transit 7 years sooner at a fraction of the cost. In fact, FREE BRT service would be cheaper for riders (and taxpayers), while providing better service, sooner than DOLRT!

For the cost of a single DOLRT mile, you could build an entire BRT system like Chapel Hill. For $2.5 BILLION, you could build 166 miles of BRT (vs 17 miles of DOLRT). Now that would be mass public transit!

Watch this video to imagine how bus rapid transit would help move people in our community. It would be the first phase of a much larger system that would extent to Hillborough and south to Chatham. This technology costs a fraction of the Durham Orange Light Rail, moves the people along our major corridors, is more flexible, but faces a funding gap. See how it works here:

  • Frequent Bus Service

People use transit when high frequency bus service is available.

  • Hillsborough Circulator

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  • Comfortable Bus Shelters

  • Future transit modes:  Increasing use of Uber, Lyft, and other Forms of Transportation like Electric Scooters

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  • What would be the cost of a better plan?

Chapel Hill is building NS-BRT for $125 million (YOE) or 8.2 miles @ $15 million per mile, with service in 2022 and $3.4 million operating cost. http://nscstudy.org/

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