GoTriangle has a new leader as it embarks on another big regional transit project
A man overseeing development of a $5.6 billion light rail system in suburban Maryland has been chosen to head GoTriangle, the regional transportation agency that is planning a commuter rail line across the Triangle.
Charles Lattuca will leave his job as executive director of transit development and delivery for the Maryland Department of Transportation to join GoTriangle next month. The agency’s board announced Wednesday that it had chosen Lattuca after a nationwide search.
GoTriangle runs regional buses that carry about 6,000 passengers a day in Orange, Durham and Wake counties. The agency is leading the planning and design work on a 37-mile commuter train route between Durham and Garner, with a possible extension east into Johnston County.
GoTriangle also led the planning for the Durham-Orange Light Rail project, the $2.7 billion transit line that the agency ended last spring in the face of several challenges, including opposition from Duke University and concerns raised by N.C. Railroad, which owned part of the right of way. GoTriangle had spent more than $158 million developing the project.
The failure of light rail shook public confidence in GoTriangle, according to a report commissioned by the agency’s former CEO Jeff Mann before he resigned last June. That has led to changes in the way commuter rail will be developed to include memos of understanding between all of the agencies, county governments and the N.C. Railroad that spell out their roles, responsibilities and financial contributions to the project.
Lattuca has been head of transit development for MDOT since 2015 and has overseen planning and early construction of the Purple Line, a 16.2-mile light-rail system across the Maryland suburbs of Washington, D.C. When it opens in 2023, the Purple Line will serve Bethesda, Silver Spring, College Park and New Carrollton, connecting with several Washington Metro lines along the way.
Lattuca has also done transportation planning for the City of Baltimore and Montgomery County, Maryland, where he oversaw planning and engineering studies for the county’s 102-mile bus rapid transit plan. Local transit agencies in Raleigh and Chapel Hill are developing their own BRT projects.
After six years in the Navy, Lattuca began his career in state government in New York and later worked as a private consultant, all related to transportation.
“I’ve been in transportation in one form or another for 28 or 29 years, and what I love about it is that it’s about jobs,” he said in a written statement. “Whatever the investment is, whether it’s building and planning or operating the system, it gives people jobs and then it helps people get to their jobs. I love that.”
This story was originally published March 11, 2020 at 2:53 PM.
