Rural revamp of bus system approved in Orange County

Eco-friendly Orange County just got a little greener after commissioners approved a five-year bus expansion program to begin in early spring.

The program, which was approved at Tuesday’s Orange County Board of Commissioners meeting, will offer residents in rural parts of the county additional bus services.

Bret Martin, transportation planner for Orange Public Transportation, said the commissioners’ endorsement has set the program’s next step into action.

“Now that the commissioners have endorsed it, we’re moving forward with the implementation,” Martin said. “That will involve marketing, more detailed service design such as the exact stop locations, timing and scheduling.”

In addition to providing more shuttles to senior centers in the county, boosting the Hillsborough Circulator Bus and providing more rides between Hillsborough and Chapel Hill, the program will offer new fixed routes throughout Orange County, except in the areas already covered by Chapel Hill Transit.

Another major portion of the program will comprise supplementing Triangle Transit’s midday service on U.S. 70 between Mebane, Efland and Hillsborough.

The program is expected to cost the county about $1.1 million over the next five years.

Martin said the program’s costs would be covered by the half-cent transit sales tax that went into effect in the county in April 2013. The tax was designed to give money to the $1.4 billion light rail system, with additional revenue going to Chapel Hill Transit, Triangle Transit and Orange Public Transportation.

“It was decided a couple of years ago that OPT would get 12 percent of that revenue,” Martin said. “That revenue is there, but we’re just not using it yet.”

In addition to tax revenues, the program’s expenses will be funded through various federal grants.

Commissioner Earl McKee, who lives in rural Orange County, said the new bus service is important because it is finally giving back to an underserved area of the county.

“Expansion of service is the most important thing,” McKee said. “We’ve got a fairly significant number of people that are underserved, either because of a lack of dependable transportation of their own or a lack of the service that’s available.”

Commissioner Penny Rich said she believes the program’s success hinges on how well the county can educate rural community members about what the new system has to offer.

“We had a lot of public input through public meetings, and folks that are really interested in public bus service came,” Rich said.

“However, it’s the other folks that we need to get to. It’s the people who don’t think they’re interested, so you really need to try and dig into the community.”

Rich said although the program might have some bumps along the way, she is excited to see yet another way Orange County can cut back on its environmental impact.

“I am really happy about this, because any time we can get people out of their cars and onto public transportation is not only always good for the environment, but also good for folks who need extra help sometimes.”

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