Feds continue to send millions to support Triangle’s local bus service
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Federal government grants total $34.6M to Triangle transit agencies.
- GoTriangle receives $2M for to help build Triangle Mobility Hub in RTP.
- Hub will link buses and potential future rail, and support RTP mixed‑use plans.
The Triangle’s two congresswomen, Valerie Foushee and Deborah Ross, handed a big ceremonial check for $2 million to GoTriangle, the regional transit agency, on Thursday.
The money, included in a spending bill signed by President Trump in February, will be used to help build a new bus station that GoTriangle calls the Triangle Mobility Hub. The station, near the corner of N.C. 54 and South Miami Boulevard, will replace the agency’s bare-bones transfer center carved out of a parking lot about a mile and a half away.
The $2 million, which Democrats Foushee and Ross helped ensure was in the bill, is part of a recent windfall for Triangle transit agencies from the federal government.
In February, the Federal Transit Administration awarded grants totalling $32.6 million to three Triangle agencies: GoTriangle, GoDurham and Chapel Hill Transit. That money came from a federal program that helps local agencies buy or rehabilitate buses and build or renovate bus facilities.
The three Triangle grants were the only ones awarded in North Carolina this time around.
- GoTriangle received $17.7 million to help upgrade and expand its operations and maintenance facility in Morrisville.
- Chapel Hill Transit received $8.8 million to help purchase 13 buses and its first training simulator for drivers.
- The city of Durham received $6.1 million to help GoDurham buy new buses.
GoTriangle expects to spend a little over $60 million building its new station on 19 acres owned by the Research Triangle Park Foundation just inside the park. The foundation hopes to build a mix of apartments, restaurants and offices around the station, helping fulfill its vision of turning RTP into more of a 24-hour place, rather than a suburban office park that everyone leaves each afternoon.
The mobility hub will also lie next to the North Carolina Railroad tracks and could serve as a stop for Amtrak or commuter rail in the future.
A $25 million federal grant announced two summers ago got the project started. In addition to the $2 million celebrated Thursday, GoTriangle will also use $5.5 million in federal money awarded to the transportation planning organization for Durham and Orange counties, while the rest will come from the half-cent sales taxes that Wake, Durham and Orange counties collect for transit.
Foushee and Ross said the Triangle will increasingly need good bus and other transit service as more people pour into the region.
“As our area continues to experience rapid growth, accessible and reliable transportation is essential,” Foushee said. “By improving access to jobs, education and health care, the Triangle Mobility Hub will strengthen connectivity and ensure our transit system works for everyone.”
The two Democrats sought more than twice the $2 million that ended up in the spending bill, Ross said. That the Republican-controlled Congress included any money at all indicates that local buses are an essential service worth supporting, she said.
“In a bipartisan way, I think Democrats and Republicans understand what bus service means,” she said. “There’s fights about all sorts of other kinds of transit, but I think people understand fundamentally what bus service means.”
