It’s been over two years since the ground breaking ceremony but the New Bern Avenue Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) project has finally started. Yes, New Bern Avenue has cones all over it and crews are starting some infrastructure work. Package 1 is underway with the subsequent packages planned for later this year. Below, you should watch the latest update given to the Raleigh Transit Authority in February 2026 which gives a nice overview of BRT in general.
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The long wait for construction to begin on the New Bern Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) corridor may finally be over. The “groundbreaking” ceremony happened back in November 2023, and now, almost two years later, transit fans like you and me are still waiting for something to happen. There’s plenty written about the challenges of finding contractors who could do the work within budget, but the city has finally found a path forward. This fall, construction should kick off on the first package of project deliverables. Let’s go through what we might expect over the next few years.
Continue reading →In July 2025, the ribbon was cut on the new bus station at Raleigh Union Station. There’s a rumor, or hope, that it gets a better name in the future but at least the IRL stuff is very nice. In August, bus service started running out of the station and just this week, the signature piece of art was installed. All that’s left is for a blog post on this website to cap off this project (kidding) so let’s get into it with some photos to compliment the video from GoTriangle, embedded above. (YouTube link)
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A new bus route, the #9 Hillsborough, started service in September of this year, offering 15-minute frequency between downtown and NC State seven days a week. This got me thinking about other bus routes that operate every 15 minutes—our definition of “high frequency” here in Raleigh.
I’m guessing you probably didn’t hear about this new route as you don’t use GoRaleigh. I feel confident with the claim as it’s estimated that only 2% of the Raleigh population uses the GoRaleigh bus system. (I may be off by a few percentage points but the point is, it’s pretty low) However, as Bus Rapid Transit grabs headlines these days, it’s the small details that are going unnoticed and there’s a case to reconsider GoRaleigh as part of your mobility toolkit.
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Rezoning case Z-92-22, or better The New Bern Avenue Transit-Oriented Development (TOD) case, is now in the books. Or “on the map” as I prefer to see these things. The final votes took place in July and I wanted to kind of wrap up these changes as the city council has been working it since January of this year. Above is a screen grab from iMaps where you can see the applied TOD zoning in East Raleigh.
Continue reading →Embedded above (direct link here) is the video from the June 4, 2024 Raleigh City Council meeting where the latest updates and discussion took place related to the Transit-Oriented Development (TOD) rezoning case for the New Bern Avenue corridor. We’ve been following this for awhile now and the rezoning case here, which sets to change the zoning for over 700 properties on or near the upcoming Bus Rapid Transit line for New Bern Avenue, is being worked on in phases. I wanted to share my notes and provide a summary of the latest.
Feel free to dive right into the video above, as it opens with a nice summary, and check out these resources on the city’s website:
Continue reading →Above is the video for the March 5, 2024 City Council evening session where council revisits the topic of rezoning properties along New Bern Avenue in an attempt to support the now under construction Bus Rapid Transit route. It’s actually a more manageable 40 or so minutes to watch so I encourage anyone to check it out or watch it directly on YouTube here.
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In November 2023, the first of four bus-rapid transit (BRT) routes, years in the making, broke ground. The first route out the gate will be the eastern route. This one services the New Bern Avenue corridor between downtown, WakeMed, and parts around New Hope Road. We just might be riding around in articulated buses some time in 2025.
The increase in bus service is finally happening, kickstarted back in 2016, after Wake County voters decided to increase the sales tax in order to fund expanded transit. The second half of the transit journey comes with the accompanying land use and I think 2024 will be the year Transit-Oriented Development (TOD) becomes a household phrase. (or at least to all you readers out there)
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