Despite many town services and meetings being canceled for the upcoming weeks due to COVID-19, Chapel Hill Transit is still going strong. The transit system recently adopted its new Short Range Transit Plan, which updates the bus routes for the next decade.
The Chapel Hill Town Council recently approved the Short Range Transit Plan, which will be implemented later in the year, after hearing a presentation during its February 26 meeting.
Brian Litchfield, Director of Chapel Hill Transit, told the council the plan is not a total overhaul, but instead works to improve the majority of existing routes and services.
“Coverage is very similar,” he said. “Where we see improvements is in the high-frequency corridors and then there’s some adjustments to simplify routes.”
The changes come after two years of gathering public input about what improvements would be most beneficial to the community. The most requested changes to come from the study were a higher frequency of buses coming by busier stops during peak travel hours and expanded service on the weekends.
According to Litchfield, that’s exactly what the community will get.
“The benefits to the system are we’re getting increased frequency in those corridors,” said Litchfield, “and we’re also getting community service on Saturdays and Sundays that we don’t have today.
While the Short Range Transit Plan will replace six routes due to some expansions and the new weekend service, Litchfield said wider changes were not made due to the budgets of all the transit partners. The Chapel Hill Town Council’s approval came after recent endorsements of the plan from the Town of Carrboro, UNC and the Chapel Hill Transit Partners. Litchfield described the plan as largely “budget neutral,” saying the goal was not to embark on a project that altered the existing allocations from all the groups.
“There are significant improvements,” he said, “but understanding none of the partners had any additional resources, beyond what is currently in the budget, we don’t have any route extensions or significant expansions.”
According to the Town of Chapel Hill website, the new routes and schedules in the Short Range Transit Plan will be implemented August 2020. It is unclear whether the ongoing spread of COVID-19 will affect these planned changes.
Photo via Town of Chapel Hill.
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