Training for the big one: Chapel Hill Transit driver Mike Schuster takes a training ride on the system’s new articulated buses. The new buses are 20 feet longer than the system’s regular rides and bend around curves. Photo by Isaac Sandlin
By Kirk Ross
Staff Writer
There are a lot of things that mark the end of summer — Labor Day, putting away your white bucks, cheaper hotel rooms at the beach.
But around here, the end of summer, or at least the vacation part of it, is punctuated by an exponential increase in the drone of bus engines as they haul students and employees by the thousands to the heart of campus.
The university kicks back into gear next week with classes starting on Wednesday, and the bus system changes from a light summer schedule to the academic year’s full-throttle mission on the Monday prior.
This year, keeping up with an ever-increasing demand on a growing campus with shrinking parking, Chapel Hill Transit has a little more help. Make that big help, thanks to the purchase of three “articulated†buses.
“Articulated,†explained transit director Stephen Spade, because they are divided into two sections and actually bend around corners.
The new buses will run heavier routes starting with two on the North-South run, from the Eubanks Road Park and Ride to the Southern Village Park and Ride, and the CPX route, from downtown to the Carrboro Plaza Park and Ride.
They are 60 feet long, about 20 feet longer than the standard 38-foot buses used by the transit system. They also can pack in a lot more folks. A standard size bus has room for about 35 passengers in the seats and another 20 standing. Spade says the new buses can seat 60 passengers and has standing room for another 40 to 50.
To get used to the feel of them and prepare for their maiden runs, the buses have been on training sorties up and down Martin Luther King Boulevard.
Tom Mills, a 29-year CH Transit vet and the man who trains the drivers to operate the new buses, said they’ve drawn quite an interest.
“The high-seniority drivers are leaving their regular routes to get into one of these,†he said during a recent training run.
The articulated buses aren’t the only new ones in the system. Spade said that there are 19 new buses in all. Some are replacements for the older parts of the fleet. but some will help expand the fleet from 86 to 99 buses.
“We have 26 more buses in need of replacement,†he said. “We have a pretty old fleet.â€
Spade said the hope is that the system can expand its capacity and its service. After large leaps in ridership following the conversion to a fare-free system in 2002, ridership has leveled off. Upgrading and expanding the fleet is a necessary step in increasing use, he said.
One of the new articulated buses. Photo by Isaac Sandlin
Chapel Hill Transit is also expanding its Nextbus system, which allows riders to log on to a real-time website that tracks where buses are and when they are expected at the stops. The system also has automated signs at 14 stops. Slade said three new automated signs will be added along Martin Luther King Blvd. and three more later this fall once officials settle on the locations.
Spade said that while Chapel Hill Transit is one of the smaller systems to use Nextbus system, its website is the second-most hit, with about 2,000 visitors a day in peak season.
You can keep up with the buses at nextbus.com/predictor/publicMap.shtml?a=chapel-hill
Routes, maps and schedules and other bus information is available on the transit systems site at townofchapelhill.org/index.asp?NID=397