News

This week, the Regional Transportation Alliance business coalition is spearheading a delegation of 60+ Triangle area leaders as we tour transit options in central and northern Virginia.

This 36-hour regional business community-led briefing and tour — RTA is conducting this in concert with the Greater Durham Chamber of Commerce and The Chamber For a Greater Chapel Hill-Carrboro — will inform the next steps for transit after Durham-Orange light rail.

We will be in Richmond on Thursday, June 20, and then Alexandria and Arlington on Friday, June 21. RTA and chamber members and partners will gather first-hand knowledge from professional staff serving Richmond, Alexandria, and Arlington, Virginia. The tour will also include presentations from the Federal Transit Administration, Montgomery County, Md., and the Virginia Railway Express commuter rail.

I expect that the 2019 RTA tour will provide new findings, insights, and perspectives as our region prepares to implement multiple bus rapid transit lines, initiate commuter rail, and update transit plans in Durham and Orange counties. To the extent that our efforts can help inspire and advance a regionwide BRT network here, the tour and follow-up conversations will have been a success.

Here are a couple of quotes from our partner chamber executives that speak to the opportunity that the tour presents our community.

“I am more optimistic than ever about the future of regional transit. The goal of the regional business community for the visit is to inspire vision and action for accelerating enhanced transit in the western Triangle and across our region.”– Geoff Durham, President and CEO, Greater Durham Chamber of Commerce

“My view is that we need less patience and more optimism about our mobility future. There is great freedom and the opportunity to plan entirely differently now, and I think bus rapid transit is the way to go to connect us more flexibly. We will learn from best practices in Virginia and Maryland, and the business community has a responsibility to lead.”  – Aaron Nelson, President and CEO, The Chamber For a Greater Chapel Hill-Carrboro

We stated earlier this spring that we have found ourselves with a transit opportunity and that the regional business community had a responsibility to lead. This tour is one example of that leadership, and it will not be the last.

You can follow along with the tour via Twitter using @RTATriangle or @JoeMilazzoII and #RTATour19. For more information, including the tour agenda, speakers, participants, visit: letsgetmoving.org/tour.

Let’s get moving,

Joe Milazzo II, PE
RTA Executive Director

post reference: th3.2019.25

RTA is the voice of the regional business community on transportation

www.letsgetmoving.org