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

• Printable R-Line Map (.pdf)
• Small JPG map
• Large JPG map