News

Here is a brief weekly update from the RTA business coalition – the voice of the regional business community on transportation.

August 11, 2022 was a very big day for transit in the Triangle

Congressman David Price and Congresswoman Deborah Ross jointly announced this week that the Federal Transit Administration has awarded the City of Raleigh $35 million in federal funding to build bus rapid transit in Raleigh. The federal investment will be focused on the implementation of the New Bern Avenue corridor in the Wake BRT system.

The $35 million in funding is the first federal full funding grant agreement for bus rapid transit in North Carolina — and the region’s first federal full funding grant agreement for *any* mode of transit.

RTA has been a strong supporter of considering, promoting, and accelerating the implementation of BRT in our region for more than a decade, and we are very pleased to see the region and state’s first BRT ready for construction over the next several months. We applaud our entire federal delegation for their support of enhanced transit and multimodal transportation options in our region. More about this week’s announcement in our weekly RTA blog.

Implications for our region

BRT will be a very high frequency, quality service for current and new transit patrons alike, with dedicated lanes for large portions of all five of our proposed core BRT corridors in Wake and Orange counties. With the first corridor opening in just a few years, and others soon thereafter, the regional business community sometimes refers to BRT as our emerging “backbone rapid transit” network.

Given the quality of the transit experience our region will have upon implementation and expansion of BRT in Raleigh, Cary, Chapel Hill, Garner, and other area communities over the next few years, we believe that BRT might soon stand for “buses resembling trains”.

RTA looks forward to the implementation of BRT across our region, and as we said in last week’s briefing, we are also looking forward to, and supporting, the continued development and activation of our regional/commuter rail spines across our metropolitan area. We will need an effective and accelerated “both/and” transit solution if our growing region will continue to be successful from a mobility, quality of life, and economic mobility standpoint.

Thank you for your ongoing dedication to regional business leadership on transportation.

Let’s get moving,
Joe

Joe Milazzo II, PE
RTA Executive Director

Click here for prior RTA Member Briefings and RTA Blogs.