While I was waiting for Kelly to pick me up at the airport, I decided to explore the public transit options from Raleigh-Durham International Airport into downtown Raleigh. I’m a bus-and-bike kind of guy now, so I figured someone would’ve made it simple to get from a major transportation point like the airport to another major transportation point, Raleigh’s Moore Square Station.
Conclusion? Not worth the trouble.
Triangle Transit serves the airport with a shuttle (route “747“) that runs every 30 minutes but the shuttle only dumps you off at the RTP transfer station. From there you could wait up to an hour for the route 105 or route 301 buses. Once you’re finally seated on the bus, count on another 40 minutes to an hour to go from the Transfer Center to downtown Raleigh.
Thus, it could potentially take you 2.5 hours to travel 14.5 miles by bus. Since one could walk there in 3 hours, what kind of idiot would take the bus?
Flying back into town on Sunday? Or are you a guest arriving Sunday for a Monday morning meeting? Either way, forget taking the bus: Triangle Transit does not operate on Sundays!
I’ve never understood why Triangle Transit can’t put its Triangle Transit Center out at the airport. The airport is centrally located, it frequently has acres of available parking, its already a multi-governmental entity with all the Transit partners already represented, it has far more ingress and egress options serving it, and the airport is a destination in itself. On the other hand, today’s transit center sits in the middle of nowhere: a nondescript strip mall deep in the heart of RTP. The only reason to go there is to get somewhere else. There is nothing anywhere near it worth a trip in itself (unless you work at the small handful of nearby RTP companies – most are too far away).
Sometimes I think some politicians gleefully underfund public transit, simply so they can use it as an example of government mismanagement of business. Amtrak is intentionally hobbled, in my opinion. I don’t think Triangle Transit fits this description today, but I think it may have been a favorite whipping boy of previous local politicians. The service is desperately underfunded at a time when ridership is climbing in step with fuel prices.
If we want this area to meet its potential we need to begin thinking in the long-term. That means making hard decisions, forging cooperation, and planning to solve now the problems we will face in the future. It would thrill me to have the airport and the transit authority working together to put our best foot forward for the guests to our area.
Get Raleigh an express bus from the airport to downtown. Really, y’all. It’s embarrassing.
well, the 105 has departures every 15 minutes during the morning and afternoon schedule. Around lunchtime it runs every hour.
the 747 runs every half hour and since most buses wait a few minutes at the major stops your trip you should be able to catch the 105 as you arive and the whole trip should take less than an hour and half. Not great but not bad if you need a ride.
While I agree with you about an express bus, I felt like the facts needed some ironing out.
Also, with regards to Amtrak being hobbled and underfunded, that’s why it shouldn’t be handled by the government in the first place! Its someones pet project and another hates it so they battle over money. Thus, the project gets underfunded, over-administered and suffers.
105 would be fine if it always ran every 15 minutes, but the hourly schedule in the middle of the day makes it unusable for airport travelers.
As for Amtrak, it does well with what it has. My trip to Chicago on the Hiawatha train was great. In light of the sorry condition of our nation’s bridges and roads, one could make the argument that the government shouldn’t be in the road-building business!
I think America should build a world-class passenger rail system. It will go a long way towards energy independence.
I think I heard that the airport was the one opposing putting the transit center there, but that was a few years ago.
The most amusing thing I’ve seen with that was when I tried to get their online route scheduler to give me a route from home to work and it told me to get off the bus at the shopping center where Wade Ave goes from being freeway to not (don’t remember the name right now) and then WALK back to the Harrison Ave exit on I-40. Yes, I kid you not. It told me to walk on the freeway. Pathetic…