Faced just a couple of short years ago with workforce and bus service issues caused by the COVID pandemic, North Carolina’s GoDurham has not only got itself back on track but is now beginning to expand its services, while also increasing its attractiveness to the communities the agency serves.

“We are in a unique position thanks to voters in Durham County, who passed a half-cent sales tax that will fund transit improvements,” explains Brian Fahey, mobility services manager at GoDurham. “We also got back to 100 percent of our pre-COVID service and have already completed one expansion, with a second set to launch very soon. Overall, we plan to expand our service by about 30% over the next 18 months.”

Keys to regrowing that service include a boost in workforce, an ongoing fare-free program, and an overall focus to make GoDurham easier to use, while also being good environmental stewards to residents in the region through its initiative to go zero emissions by 2035.

“Our mission statement, which is critical to our growth here, is to provide and maintain a safe, equitable, inclusive, and sustainable multimodal transportation system with high quality infrastructure to improve mobility and to offer everyone in Durham access to necessities and opportunities,” adds Fahey.

Getting Transit Back on Track

After its previous contract expired, GoDurham partnered with RATP Dev USA for its fixed-route services. The contractor promptly came on board and took stock of the feedback received from ridership as to areas where it can improve, and then, focused on building its operator workforce back up so that it can work on increasing its services, including those that were cut because the agency was experiencing an operator shortage.

In a relatively short time, GoDurham was able to grow its operator workforce to 150 employees after being at about 73% of both full service and staffing levels around 2022.

Fahey says a key in getting potential operators back through the agency’s doors was that GoDurham offers the highest starting driver pay in the region, which now escalates at a more rapid rate, as well as a revamped benefits package that includes tuition reimbursement for continuing education, 401K and pension programs, recruiting and retention bonuses, and improved healthcare packages.

He adds another key has been the return of many drivers who had defected during the pandemic.

“During the pandemic we saw a lot of existing operators and potential applicants that found driving for Amazon and other delivery services more appealing,” he says. “But now, we are starting to see a shift back to public transit and other industries in the region that offer a little bit more stability.”

With GoDurham able to get its operator workforce back on track, the agency was able to slowly begin re-increasing service back to its pre-COVID levels and beyond.

“Part of the reason we reduced service a few years ago was because we wanted to make sure we could operate a reliable service that people could count on, instead of just missing trips,” says Fahey. “Because of that, we were methodical in how we reintroduced service because we wanted to make sure could reliably continue to provide that service once it was implemented.”

With a focus on providing “big city” bus service, GoDurham has been focused on increasing frequencies to every 15 minutes on three of its major corridors.

“What we’re really trying to do is get to 15-minute frequencies on those corridors at any time, seven days a week,” says Fahey. “We’re also building up our frequencies so that the longest anyone will ever have to wait for a bus across our entire system is 30 minutes.”

The agency is also looking to increase its Sunday service to match the service provided Monday through Saturday. GoDurham is also introducing some new crosstown routes and continuing to focus on increasing services based on customer feedback.

“In our upcoming service increases, we are looking at introducing a few crosstown routes that will really make it easier for people to get from one place to another, rather than having to go to our main hub downtown and then transfer,” explains Fahey.

Ongoing Improvements

In addition to boosting its workforce and bus services, GoDurham is also working to improve the customer experience and overall safety.

In July, Durham was awarded $12 million for improvements from the USDOT’s $1.8 billion Rebuilding American Infrastructure with Sustainability and Equity (RAISE) grant program.

The money will pay for new curb ramps, sidewalks, street crossings, and bus stop upgrades, including new shelters, lighting, benches, and bike racks, along Holloway Street, a main transit corridor for GoDurham.

The agency also received $10.8 million from the FTA to update its downtown bus terminal, with construction set to begin this fall.

In addition to the federal funding for infrastructure projects, GoDurham also has a plan and funding in place to improve all of its stops and amenities over the next several years.

“We realize it’s not just the service itself, but also waiting for the service and getting to a bus stop and making that a safe, reliable, and enjoyable experience for our residents,” says Fahey.

Fahey adds another big piece of its recent contract with RATP Dev was for them to be responsible for maintaining and cleaning bus stops, as well as working together with the agency and the city to increase safety on the system.

“Our contractor works well with our Durham Police and utilizing off-duty officers through that program to do some patrol, hitting high impact areas in addition to patrolling our downtown station,” says Fahey.

He adds to improve the passenger experience, the agency is also constantly looking for new opportunities on the technological front, including a shift in how it provides real-time passenger information within the next year or so.

“We’re really looking at new technologies that will help us communicate with our riders, especially when there are major impacts to service,” Fahey explains. “We are exploring installing digital signage at our high-boarding locations, which represents just a portion of our bus stops. From there, we plan on ensuring over the next several years that we continue to build out so that real-time information is available at all of our stops and locations.”

Improving Accessibility, Equity

With the agency experiencing decreased multi-passenger capacity due to social distancing rules, while also facing increased demand for ADA paratransit service and a decreased driving pool, GoDurham Access and WeDriveU contracted with UZURV in July 2022 to help fill that need.

The decision helped increase the driver pool for that service, as well as providing more door-to-door paratransit and on-demand services than were previously offered.

Now a couple of years into that partnership, GoDurham is looking to expand the program to include microtransit corridors in areas where there are transit deserts, or demand is too low to run a typical 40-foot bus.

“We’re switching our platform to Spare, which we’re testing now and hoping will help us provide commingled service using one platform, while hopefully being able to use multiple providers to deliver three or four different microtransit services,” explains Fahey. “Those services will essentially serve to connect people to major connection points within our existing fixed-route system.”

After moving to fare-free service because of the pandemic in 2020, GoDurham continues to increase transit equity in the region by continuing to run fare free through at least June 2025.

Fahey says continuing to run fare free is an option the agency continues to monitor moving forward.

“There will definitely be discussions over the next year, however, investment in fare free service supports equity,” says Fahey, who adds that according to GoDurham data nearly 90% of its riders’ annual household income is below $35,000.

Building A Sustainable Future

With a goal for its fleet to be 100% zero emissions by 2035, GoDurham took delivery of its first two battery-electric buses on Earth Day 2022.

While initially experiencing some challenges with those battery-electric buses, including range issues, GoDurham has continued to work with its bus supplier, GILLIG, to solve them.

“Because we try to provide peak service all day, we have very little layover time, which does not allow us to utilize fast charging — our charging has to occur at the depot, therefore, the range of our buses has to be relatively high,” says Fahey. “We’ve spent the last several years working with GILLIG to help solve these issues, resulting in GoDurham taking delivery of their new Battery Electric Bus model.”

The agency added six new GILLIG’s with new battery technology in November, which supplies 686 kilowatts of power, providing much greater range than their predecessors.

“We need to see at least 220 miles on an 85 percent charge, and we are consistently seeing that with these buses, which has been a real game changer for us,” says Fahey.

In December, the agency placed an order for 18 more electric buses from GILLIG that will ideally be online by late 2025 and push GoDurham’s fleet to 40% zero emissions.

Fahey adds another hurdle GoDurham faces along its path to be zero emissions by 2035 is getting the necessary infrastructure built out, including the ability to charge its entire fleet in about three hours.

“Whether we can get there by 2035 is still a question, I think by 2040 could be much more realistic,” says Fahey about the agency’s sustainability goals.

With the GILLIGs now offering more range, Fahey adds with about nine months of data now collected, the agency is seeing significantly reduced maintenance costs, which he believes will help extend the life of the buses to the agency’s 15-year target.

“We look at the usable life of a bus as 15 years — that’s what we do in our program planning, so it’s imperative that we can keep them in shape for at least that long because they can really take a beating,” he says. “Having fewer moving components and electric software will definitely help us keep on track in being able to hit that mark.”

As the technology continues to evolve, Fahey says it’s possible GoDurham explores other options, including hydrogen fuel cell buses. As it trudges along the road, though, he credits a strong relationship with the agency’s bus OEM for having the confidence to move forward toward its zero emissions goal.

“As a smaller agency, we are not placing orders for 10s upon hundreds of buses at a time, but GILLIG has been willing to help us troubleshoot issues, quickly,” he explains. “They also provide much needed support to our technicians, especially with the new electric buses, and have been key in helping us keep our vehicles on the road. It’s been a great partnership.”