According to this fact sheet the N-S BRT is still in the design phase, and an Environmental Review Document should be published for review this fall.
Based on that infographic, sounds like the Feds want to make them do more NEPA work than they think is necessary. That’s a common stall tactic to try and screw any kind of major capital project (California NIMBYs are notorious for gaming their version of NEPA, CEQA, to kill all types of projects). Not a deal-breaker by any stretch, but it does add time + money.
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The FTA Quick Starts application is still active without much to see at the Federal level.
Chapel Hill Transit (CHT) proposes to implement bus rapid transit (BRT) in an 8.2 mile corridor in the Town of Chapel Hill, North Carolina. The proposed North-South BRT will include 16 stations, 12 vehicles, and dedicated lanes along 85 percent of the alignment. CHT believes the project will provide improved mobility and accessibility in the corridor while accommodating anticipated growth in travel
demand by students and seniors. Both of these groups have high rates of transit ridership.
The project’s current capital cost estimate is between $96.8 million and $105.9 million. CHT expects to seek between $77.4 million and $84.7 million dollars in Small Starts funding. CHT selected a locally preferred alternative on April 27, 2016, and it was adopted into the region’s fiscally constrained longrange transportation plan on October 19, 2016. CHT expects to complete the environmental review process by the spring of 2018, receive a Small Starts Grant Agreement by early 2019, and begin revenue service in 2020.
So, they’ve missed that deadline.
The FTA’s FY20 Capital Improvement Grant showed the project as ‘Not Rated’
This project has not been rated because it entered PD under the MAP-21 and FAST procedures, which do not require a rating to be assigned upon entry into PD.
The FY21 Annual Report is due out next month. So, there may be something more definitive reported at that time.
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Oooh! Something I can definitely say things about!
Chapel Hill’s totally behind on their plans for a FFGA yeah, but that’s mainly for two reasons as far as I’m aware: environmental study holdups, plus interference from Hillsborough.
Living off the land. or… not.
Chapel Hill Transit expected to get a Categorical Exclusion from the NEPA, but the FTA forced them to prepare an Environmental Assessment. This meant CHT had to put in more time/money/work than they expected (as @Kevin alluded to), which is why that got delayed.
(To be fair, just about every segment of the NSBRT outside of UNC is planned to involve constructing/converting bus-only lanes. This includes widening a major arterial road right next to floodzones and eroded hills, so the added environmental studies aren’t exactly unreasonable.)
Almost the entire right-of-way for Chapel Hill’s BRT is on a state-owned road (and NCDoT is trying to make major traffic changes, themselves, right next to the northern terminus), which is making the entire design process a pain in the butt.
Chapel Hill’s also getting ready for a total overhaul of their bus routes this August, with their new Short Range Transit Plan coming under final public comments right now. Because this plan is also dragging on longer than planned, I have a feeling it’s also impacting the BRT’s traffic study woes.
Speaking of which, Chapel Hill’s town council had a meeting last week where there was a brief update about this:
EDIT: there’s apparently an update for this project planned later this month. I’ll probably comment on it on this thread, if there’s something worth knowing for y’all Raleigh people.
tfw you waste your time on what you knew was a bad idea.
From what I found from tracing back Chapel Hill’s Town Council/transportation committee meetings, I noticed that there was about a year-long period where Orange County made CHT seriously consider extending the NSBRT to the Orange County campus of Durham Tech -or even to downtown Hillsborough.
I’m like 70% sure this was more of a really petty power move than a serious consideration, because even the relatively barren parts of the Chapel Hill-only route still has like double or triple the density of potential BRT stations than any Hillsborough extension. But they spent extra time and money looking into it anyways, and proved beyond a shadow of a doubt that such an extension would sap away valuable transit funds without being worth it.
(btw, that prediction was before Durham/Orange light rail got canceled, so you can imagine how much worse it would be today)
…so it seems to me like the state DoT is dragging their feet with budget/management issues. Hopefully it’ll resolve soon, because I really want to try going on this BRT before I finish grad school…
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Again, it seems like elected officials are sticking their noses into plans that have already been studied ad nauseum at a technical level, thus blowing up project timelines. Then they start complaining about how they don’t see any construction happening. I’m very supportive of the new Raleigh council, but part of me is worried that they will pick apart the BRT plans, too.
BTW, studying a BRT extension to Hillsborough is about the dumbest thing I’ve heard in a minute. There is absolutely nothing between Chapel Hill and Hillsborough, and Hillsborough itself is more a small town than anything that warrants a frequent high-capacity transit corridor.
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In case anyone missed this, a great episode about the beauty of buses:
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A really great read! Thank you! 
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Interesting read. I thought the above quoted point seemed salient to the abolishing of the CACs by the council.
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99% Invisible is my favorite podcast - hadn’t listened to the new episode yet so thanks for reminding me to do so! Definitely recommend 99% Invisible to anybody interested in various elements of urban design.
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Speaking of outrageous bus problems, I ran into this article:
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Completely agree with this.
Also this from the article:
In his book, Higashide writes about how in U.S. media, there’s this real class valence to buses. In the FX show, Atlanta, one of the early scenes is the main protagonist on the bus complaining that his life hasn’t gone the way that he wanted it to. We associate the bus with being down and out. When you look at popular media in Asia or Europe that’s just not true. There are a lot of scenes with buses that don’t seem to have any special significance because the bus is just part of the ordinary fabric of life and it doesn’t have some broader connotation.
And just as the bus is associated with being down and out, private car ownership is a strong status symbol for people up and down the socio-economic spectrum. For many their car is a marker of success, a way of telling the world they’ve made it, they have arrived.
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Ridiculous commercials like this Ford Escape ad certainly don’t help. What bus is going to be that packed on a virtually empty street?
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Yeah, I’ve seen that ad. For one thing, buses are never that crowded in the U.S. And conveniently left out of the ad are the fact that roads had to be closed to traffic for filming, or maybe it’s not a real city at all, maybe just a set.
And how come car ads never include a detailed analysis of the loan amortization schedule? Or total life-cycle cost (purchase, sales tax, insurance, fuel, maintenance, registration, property taxes, opportunity cost)?
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The wolfline certainly got that crowded from time to time when I was a student (not that long ago, okay it was 15 years, but still…)
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I’ll grant you that. It helps that it’s fare free and open to the public. I love the Wolfline.
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Is this old or new news?
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It’s new. They just found out this week I believe. City Council work session going on now:
In related news - apparently the BRT southern route being on S. Wilmington street is not a done deal. S. Saunders may still be in play.
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They’re going to cycle track for this street. Given that New Bern is a high speed road I’m okay with this for now.
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Article from the City’s website:
The New Bern Avenue project received an overall project rating of “Medium-High”. The project rating does not provide funding for the project but it does clear the way for future federal participation in the corridor. The project submittal requested approximately 50 percent in federal Small Starts funding for the estimated $71.5 million project.
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Finally, a good response from the FTA to one of our transit plans!! 
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