GRTC opens RVA’s first transfer plaza Sunday
Over 20 routes will be altered for the city’s first transportation center. The big step is likely the first of several to come.
Richmond will have its first transfer plaza for public transportation when the GRTC opens a temporary one on April 20th, affecting 21 routes within the GRTC system.
“It’s a completely new concept in Richmond,” said David Green, CEO of GRTC. “There’s never been a transfer plaza, or a transfer center, related to public transportation in Richmond.”
The new plaza will make it easier for riders to transfer between buses by creating 13 curbside bus bays along 9th Street between Marshall and Leigh streets. Currently, the only way to transfer between buses is “to get off a bus on a street corner and then walk down another corner to another bus stop and wait for whatever the next bus that’s coming and getting on that,” Green said. Beginning Sunday, the 21 routes affected “are going to converge at this one, central location.”
GRTC Transfer Plaza map (click to enlarge – PDF)
Since last September, GRTC–which carries roughly nine million riders each year–has worked to minimally alter those 21 routes to serve the transfer plaza. “It’s not just where the routes go, it’s the times that each bus on each route stops, and making sure they come together at the same time,” Green said. “It was an enormous undertaking. It’s been the number one, most important project we’ve been working on.” GRTC estimates that 5,000 to 8,000 riders will use the transfer plaza daily, and that the plaza will accommodate 90 buses per peak hour.
Green cautioned that the 21 routes haven’t been overhauled. “The entire routes were not redesigned. It was just the portion of the routes that go through the core downtown area. So there are definitely changes to 21 routes, but not all of them resulted in significant changes.”
Riders can preview updated schedules and routes here.
The GRTC has searched for a location to build a permanent transfer center for several years. Green said GRTC requires at least one acre of land to construct such a center, which must also be “strategically situated” where routes operate. “We just can’t put it anywhere. Operationally, it has to make sense,” Green said. Otherwise miles could be added to the system, which would burden riders and increase fuel use. Finding a location that matches GRTC’s criteria has thus far proved insurmountable.
But despite the challenges in creating a permanent transfer center, Green’s optimistic GRTC will make one in coming years. “Ultimately, we still intend to do that, and we hope to be successful within the next, possibly, two to three years,” he said. The temporary plaza that opens Sunday will serve as a stopgap until a permanent plaza exists.
Despite making route changes available online ahead of the transfer plaza’s opening, as well as providing advanced notice to riders of changing routes via fliers, Green admits the change will take getting used to. “There probably will be a lot of questions and some confusion, so we are planning to have employees out there at the plaza during the first week of operation just to help riders navigate the plaza and to help answer their questions…” he said.
A major forward step for GRTC, the new temporary transfer plaza is just one piece of the plan to improve transportation in Richmond. “I’m thinking that within the next five years we’ll have bus rapid transit as part of our system,” Green said.
He also hopes a permanent transfer center will service that bus rapid transit, as well as bike-sharing opportunities, among other options. “We want to make it more of a multi-modal center,” he said.
The temporary transfer plaza opens on Sunday, April 20th. You can preview updated schedules and routes online.
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Nathan Cushing
Nathan Cushing is a writer, journalist, and RVANews Editor.
Notice: Comments that are not conducive to an interesting and thoughtful conversation may be removed at the editor’s discretion.
A good first step. Glad to see an attempt to make this system more usable.
An important step towards making RVA a vibrant, functional city!
I wonder why GRTC doesn’t have a month-long pass similar to what other cities’ mass transit systems use? The “GO” cards here provide no special benefit, other than preventing the need to carry cash and change. I wonder if ridership would change (increase?) if one could purchase a monthly pass for $50 or some such thing? It would seem to me that if one could afford a pass like that, one might hop on and off the bus for shorter trips, which now all cost the same $1.50.
Also–will future plans include some sort of meaningful mass transit to the airport or to the Staples Mill train station?
I’ll we want to know is when the old GRTC building off Robinson is going to become anything. Old my fair city can sit and watch it collect dust. ( minus the artwork). Such a shame.
This is great and all, but until you can actually go from, say, Forest Hill to Carytown without going downtown first, ridership’s gonna be a hard sell.
I agree, I would love to use the system but it would take me over 2 hours to go what takes me half an hour by car…..45 minutes I’d think about but commuting 4 hours is not an option. I live near the Forest Hill Ave/Food Lion stop, would commute out to Darbytown nearer the airport. They should also look at what are the most driven routes into the city and offer an alternative.
I can’t help but wonder how much of this is really about improving efficiency, and how much is about moving buses off of Broad Street. The changes to the routes need to be for the benefit of the riders, and not for those who find bus riders along Broad street to be an unattractive view. Has Mr. Green ever ridden a bus? Some of the routes did not require you to walk to a bus stop. It really depended upon where you were going. A huge move toward increasing rider ship and improving the experience would be to get Chesterfield county out of the decision making process. Buy them out, and recognize public and state streets for public use.
I usef to be able to walk to a bus stop and catch a bus that would take me directly to work. Now I have to leave my house earlier, pay extra money for a transfer, and hopefully the bus I need will be there when they drop me off at the station. This is just more frustrating and a bigger inconvenience than before.
Victoria is on to something. Here’s what GRTC’s Temporary Transfer Plaza did:
1. Re-routes buses that normally have no business taking a detour off of Broad, and puts them at a poorly constructed transfer plaza (just lines painted on the street) so they can sit for an extra 7 minutes and then get routed back to where they were supposed to go…which is Broad street (or whatever).
2. Dumps tons of buses and people all in one spot that’s not really constructed in a manner that’s enjoyable…total mess.
This is not a good thing IMO. I hate to say it, but Richmond will not be serious about transit 50 years from now. The metro at large is too autocentric, and GRTC is ill-equiped to make the situation any better.
Riding the bus this week has been a tough one. The concept of the plaza does not benefit the riders of GRTC. The new time schedule, new bus routes, and removal of some bus stops has made commuting difficult. I don’t think GRTC considered what the public would want to make this a smooth transition. I hope that the idea of the permanent transfer plaza will include what is best for the public as well as reducing the bus traffic
So…..you essentially just took 9th Street out of service for automobile traffic… Hmm what could go wrong? Oh 6,000 employees at MCV, plus thousands of VCU med students, J Sarge students, Altria, Biotech employees daily commutes run through there? Oh, That’s right. Nice job.
I work and 9th and Main. I take the 1 or 2 bus to work. I now have ride away from where I am going and walk twice the distance to work. Anyone work in the business district is now farther from work and LESS motivated to use the bus system. I do not drive and if I did I could not afford the 90 a month to park. GRTC moved the buses because they wanted to get them off Broad St. The transfer center is not the answer. I get off work at 10:30 pm and have only 3 or bus options to get me home that late. The earliest of which is 11:15. I have doubt of the safety of where the put the plaza. All I see is a gimick to get the buses off Broad Street so the people in City Hall are happy, it had does nothing for riders. Oh and the fact that someone going from Willow Lawn to Church Hill now has to transfer and pay and extra .25 cents is pretty messed up.