Can’t wait until they build the tower part of this project.
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government mandates don’t work
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Oh buddy, I love your spirit lol - who’s gonna break some hearts, here?
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Interesting little tidbit: today’s GoTriangle Board Meeting includes a Capital Projects Status Report, which notes the following:
All regional and express routes in downtown Raleigh will serve RUS Bus beginning in August
2025, with some routes serving both RUS Bus and GoRaleigh station.
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2 posts were merged into an existing topic: Pictures and Videos of Downtown Raleigh
Coming along little by little. I actually like the brick with various grays (might have to zoom in) and how the building is actually incorporating the original brick façade that they preserved.
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Another point for Raleigh over Durham… at least our new bus station will be more urban and mixed-use.
Here’s the Durham Transit Station renovation plan:
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I wouldn’t say, “Raleigh over Durham”, as much each city having its own style?
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Eh, tbf, Durham’s station is surrounded by lots of housing, including two new affordable housing developments and a 12 story office tower, and it’s really close to the core of downtown. There’s no density immediately above the bus shelters (the city studied it and it didn’t make sense right now), but lots of opportunity to continue to densify the surroundings.
Also totally biased here since our office designed the original and this new expansion, but I think it’ll be a pretty cool user experience.
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2 blocks from their new 27-story building… which I was told… well nevermind. It’s just a bus station not a big deal. 
Would 100% take even our scaled-down 23-story apartment building above the station!
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I’m curious what the user experience is going to be at RUSbus, are we just recreating the Moore Square Station that (even though it’s fairly open) feels dark and claustrophobic? The Durham renderings above look nice, bright and airy (if perhaps a little wet in the rain).
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On my one visit to Nashville pre-pandemic, we took the bus from the airport to the Central bus station and I feel like RUSbus is going to mimic this. The experience was fine but lighting will be key.
Last image from: Your Move, Nashville: A Passenger Princess’s Guide to Taking WeGo
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I like the openness, and actually prefer this to interior stations that always are dark.
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For Durham… I want them to put the rail line on a viaduct, and put the bus station underneath it.
All those grade crossings and substandard clearances in downtown Durham… sooner or later, they’re going to have to do something about it.
Why not:
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That’s a no-go because Capital Broadcasting Company would raise holy hell, again, about about it disrupting the viewing angle of the the Old Bull Building. CBC owns and run as an apartment for side income alongside WRAL, but it’s also a registered National Historic Landmark.
I remember that this was one of the big, ugly fighting points for the Durham-Orange light rail project. GoTriangle originally wanted to build a rail viaduct there, but that idea got shot down during environmental reviews because CBC et al. thought it would hurt the historic value of the building*. That made the idea of building a new viaduct into a non-starter - even though at-grade light rail tracks would’ve obviously been unreasonable, and digging underground would’ve required compromises that would’ve disrupted rail and road traffic. CBC, NCRR, and GoTriangle could never agree on this issue - and it ultimately acted as ammunition for CBC and Duke to rescind their support of that rail project, which was one of the last nails in the coffin before the whole project got canceled.
*=I personally think that’s a pile of rotten baloney, but I’m sure historic preservationists would’ve handed GoTriangle an embarrassing L in court had they tried to litigate this point.
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…and smelly with exhaust fumes.
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Maybe hot take but this is… fine. It’s a bus station. Doesn’t need to look like a public art project.
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The owner of a historic property does not automatically get to run the table during environmental review.
GoTriangle was also operating from an exceedingly weak position, with tepid and collapsing political and public support, a shoestring budget, and rapidly escalating cost projections.
In contrast, NCDOT and FRA are able to negotiate from a much stronger position. Recall the process to get the “NC5” route certified and included in the EIS for the SEHSR entry into downtown Raleigh from the north, which includes a large viaduct along West Street.
What was proposed back then in Durham was a dirt-fill embankment with a few bridges for the streets, which opponents correctly called out as a bad idea for Durham - a Berlin Wall of sorts.
In contrast, a viaduct (a continuous, 1+ mile long elevated bridge) is open beneath and can easily preserve views across to the other side of the corridor, if built properly, and built high enough (by resisting the impluse to make it as low as possible to “reduce impacts!”)
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They shouldn’t get to. But we’re also talking about a corporate landlord that’s the largest independent local news agency in America, so I think they would try to, anyways.
They have the capital, real estate interests, and history of 
astroturfing galore to chime in in bad faith to push their interests. Specifically I think it’s reasonable for them to play the “you’re destroying Durham’s local businesses, history, and ChArAcTeR” card, and I’m having a hard time believing that the Durham city council and county commissioners (especially their chair Nida Allam) would see through the BS.
Very true. …and while we’re on it, it’s a shame that, if you ask me, they never really did much to recover from this.
Oh right, thanks; I forgot that they never took a viaduct approach seriously, and just tossed out the baby with the bathwater. Yeah, I think a viaduct may stand a chance - and like you said, a tall viaduct would ironically cause less impact than a short one.
I feel like we’d just need the S-line project to go well, though, before the state is likely to feel like prioritizing more corridor updates for Durham 
so I wonder how likely this would be to happen. (With that said, I’m also in a cafe, right now, that’s overlooking the still-not-yet-groundbroken Durham Rail Trail, so maybe I’m primed to be more skeptical here)
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I know. I hope we’re not too far away from a majority electric bus fleet which would keep GoRaleigh less smelling like fumes and sounding like being inside an engine. Those electric buses would improve on both of those aspects. 
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