R-Line Offers Easy, Cheap Downtown Movement
Last week the city unveiled a free downtown circulating bus line. The “R-Line” includes 20 stops in the the Glenwood South, Convention Center, City Market, and state government areas on a frequent rotation with comfortable, clean buses.
The buses purchased for the route are BRT hybrid powered and large. There are about 35 seats with plenty of standing room, space for the handicapped, and a bicycle rack on the front. If anything, the buses are too long, struggling to negotiate some of downtown’s tighter curves. The paint job is tactfully eye-catching, and includes the service’s characteristic “R” logo. There is no display ad space at this point inside the buses, but there are two mounted video screens which will certainly run advertising loops in the future.
The twenty stops are well-placed; within 3 blocks of just about every downtown location. The buses run heads-up announcements of upcoming stops, much like those heard on rail transit lines. The announcements are prompted by a GPS system, however when I rode the line, only about half of the stops were announced. One important stop, “State Capitol”, was not announced.
Hours
- Mon-Wed (7 am-11 pm)
- Thurs-Sat (7 am-2:15 am)
- Sun (1 pm-8 pm)
Quirks
- The 40’ buses cannot pass under the railroad overpass on Peace Street, so the buses to not service the Mellow Mushroom corner. Rather, walk a couple of blocks down the hill to the stop across from the Red Room.
- The route only runs counter-clockwise, and takes 20-30 minutes to complete the one-way loop. If your destination is a 10-minutes bus ride away, allow 10-20 minutes for your return trip.
- The route only serves City Market and the Humble Pie areas after 6:30. During the day the route proceeds straight up Wilmington and straight down Dawson. Compare the routes before 6:30 pm to after 6:30.
- NCSU Students can now enjoy the Wolfprowl Service, which connects the northern campus to western downtown. Wolfprowl riders can transfer to the R-Line at two places: Flying Saucer, and The Dawson. Wolfprowl also has a stop at Snoopy’s, but it is not a transfer point to the R-Line. Wolfprowl map (.pdf)
Maps
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February 21st, 2009 at 11:37 pm
Designers of the routes made a spelling error. Stop R1 is called “State Capital”. Presumably it was named this because it is diagonally across from the famous building, the State CapitOl.
http://www.godowntownraleigh.com/go/r1-state-capital
February 22nd, 2009 at 6:28 pm
It’s a great start…the route serves most of the main points in downtown. However I’m sure in time there may be some “tweaks”.
A big problem I saw was how the Warehouse District streets could barely hold the big bus. I think the city needs to modify the on-street parking and no-parking zones to better accommadate the bus’s turn radius….it was particularly bad at the Depot block.
February 23rd, 2009 at 2:09 pm
As I mentioned to them on twitter, education is going to be key. I had a large group at the Sheraton on Saturday evening wanting to head to the Warehouse District. The concierge informed them that the R-Line did not run after 6:30pm (not true on Saturdays, in fact, 6:30 is when service begins TO the Warehouse District). They still didn’t use the service because of the 40+ minute wait for a bus to arrive at the Civic Center/Sheraton area (confirmed by calling the number on the info flyer).
February 23rd, 2009 at 3:46 pm
I think another reason they don’t serve the corner of Glenwood and Peace is you can’t make a left turn there onto Glenwood.
I have taken it a couple of times at night and have had a pleasant experience everytime. I haven’t had to wait long at all for the bus. I do however understand the problem in the Warehouse Dist. and noticed that the buses have a hard time making those turns. I do have a feeling that things will have to be tweaked a little as always.
I really hope it works, I think it is a great way to get around downtown if you don’t have a car or don’t really want to have to move it if you plan on more than one thing downtown. It is a great start though!