Month: June 2019

Chapel Hill Transit Makes August Service Adjustments

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Chapel Hill Transit will implement service adjustments that will take effect on Monday, Aug. 12, 2019, to increase reliability, meet ridership demands and improve connections to employment and retail centers. The increased service is being funded by the Orange County Transit Plan, which has been providing funding for transit service improvements for Chapel Hill Transit since 2013.

More Service: 

NS Route – adding AM peak trips (7 a.m.–9 a.m.) between Eubanks Park and Ride and UNC Hospital, to ease overcrowding and increase travel options.

CM and CW Routes — extending all evening trips (7 p.m.–9:30 p.m.) on both routes to operate in both directions between Chapel Hill, Campus and Carrboro.

HS Route — new routing will serve Rogers Road, High School Road and Homestead and extend to serve the University, UNC Hospital, Campus, Smith Level Road and Culbreth Road, to provide better access to employment, community facilities and schools along the route. The route will operate weekdays from 6 a.m. to 7:45 p.m., 60-minute frequency. Route will not serve Seawell School Road between Estes Drive and High School Road. The last day of service for the two stops on Seawell School Road will be Friday, Aug. 9, 2019. 

Chapel Hill Transit will also implement some schedule and route adjustments effective Monday, Aug. 12, 2019. Chapel Hill Transit generally makes changes to its schedules in January, May and August, in response to ridership trends, changing traffic patterns and growth in the area.

Service Adjustments:

A Limited — will be eliminated due to lower ridership demand on Hillsborough Street and increased service on the NS route. The A, NU and HS routes will serve Hillsborough Street.

D Route — to improve frequency and eliminate overcrowding in a high‐ridership corridor, the route will terminate at UNC Hospitals starting Aug. 12, 2019. This improvement will allow for additional D trips serving the University, UNC Hospital, Franklin Street, Elliott Road and Blue Hill District between 6:30 a.m. to 9:30 p.m. The route will not serve Culbreth Road (served by extension of new HS route) and Smith Level Road (served by J route and new HS route extension). Last day of D route service on Culbreth Road will be Friday, Aug. 9, 2019. 

 NU Route — weekday and weekend service will resume on Monday, Aug. 12, 2019.

 U Route — weekend service will resume on Saturday, Aug. 17, 2019.

Bus Stops — the stops on Hillsborough Street at Midtown Market (Hunam Chinese) and between the Mobil gas station and Lloyd Tire (#3246 & #3247) will be eliminated due to safety concerns, very low usage and the availability of several surrounding stops. The stop at Pittsboro Street and University Drive (#3224) will not be served by the CW route (weekday and weekend) due to safety concerns, however other routes will continue to serve this stop.

Safe Rides — Service will resume on Thursday, Aug. 22, 2019, and will operate on Thursday, Friday and Saturday evenings when the University is in session.

EZ Rider — will operate Monday-Friday from 5 a.m. to 11:17 p.m., Saturdays from 8:15 a.m. to 11:17 p.m. and Sundays from 10:38 a.m. until 11:17 p.m. (Premium Service will operate on a space-available basis from 9:30 a.m. to 4 p.m.).

August schedules are available at chtransit.org and printed schedules will be available on buses by the week of Aug. 5, 2019.

Updating the Bus Fleet

With investments from our funding partners (Town of Chapel Hill, Town of Carrboro and University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill), Orange County Transit Plan funds and federal/state grants we have purchased 36 new low-floor buses over the past three years, retiring some of the oldest buses in our fleet. We will also place an order for three electric buses this fall and will also continue to seek funding to expand our electric bus purchases.

Bus Stop Improvements 

Sidewalk, shelter and other improvements for 18 stops will be undertaken over the summer and fall to ensure stops meet Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) requirements and to improve the customer experience. An additional 20 stops will be reviewed for sidewalk and shelter improvements this fall. We will also be testing some new shelter styles and new solar powered real-time bus information signs at stops throughout the system

Please contact a Customer Service Representative at 919.485.7433 or chtransit@townofchapehill.org with any questions.