Does GoTriangle need a bigger bus? It’s testing a cushier coach on longer express routes.

GoTriangle says some of its long-distance express routes between Triangle cities have gotten so crowded that it might buy bigger buses.

GoTriangle is now test driving a 45-foot-long coach bus that seats 54 people, nearly 20 more than the traditional 40-foot city buses that make up the fleet now. The regional transit agency is using the bus on express routes between Chapel Hill and Raleigh and Durham and Raleigh, and getting feedback from riders.

“If you look at our longer runs between Durham and Raleigh and Chapel Hill and Raleigh, in some cases people are standing today, which can be uncomfortable for that distance,” Pat Stephens, GoTriangle’s director of transit operations, said in a statement. “If we have a bus that allows more people to have a seat on I-40, it might encourage more people to get out of their cars and try the bus on some of our most congested corridors.”

The bus, a prototype made by Motor Coach Industries or MCI of Des Plaines, Ill., looks more like a Greyhound or a tour bus than a traditional city bus. It has bigger, cushier seats, overhead storage bins for bags and easier access for wheelchairs.

Bob Spaziano of Raleigh has ridden the MCI coach twice during his daily commute from Raleigh to downtown Durham, where he works for Duke Clinical Research Institute. Spaziano says the bus has a quieter, smoother ride than traditional ones, making it nicer to work on his laptop during his commute. And he finds the cushioned, contoured seats more comfortable, too, though he said not all of his fellow passengers thought so.

“One larger woman in the group mentioned that for people with larger posteriors the old bus might be better,” he said.

Rider comfort will be just one factor in GoTriangle’s decision whether to go with a coach bus. The MCI coach costs more — between $600,000 and $650,000, depending on features, compared to about $470,000 for a 40-foot bus. But the larger bus is expected to last 14 to 16 years, two to four years longer than the traditional bus, and could allow GoTriangle to use fewer buses on some routes.

“The key question is whether the use of higher-capacity coaches on our routes is something that brings about value for our customers as well as whether it could save us money in the long term,” Stephens said.

The larger coaches would make sense only on GoTriangle’s express routes, which make few stops and spend little time on crowded, narrow city streets.

GoTriangle will be testing the coach through Aug. 20. About 2,000 passengers have ridden it so far, and more than 100 have filled out surveys either on the bus or at publicinput.com/demobus.

This story was originally published July 31, 2018 at 11:56 AM.