One of the new GRTC Pulse buses stops at Willow Lawn, the western end of the route. (Photo by Sarah King)
Construction crews are putting the finishing touches on the GRTC Pulse bus stations — installing the last of the glass backdrops sporting a sleek map of the city bus routes, ticket vending machines and handicap-accessible on- and off-ramps — dotting the 7.6-mile landscape from Rocketts Landing to Willow Lawn as the countdown to launch enters its final stretch.
At 6 a.m. this Sunday, the long-anticipated GRTC Pulse bus rapid transit service will launch with a week of free rides on the new, local route network as well as the Pulse, from June 24 to 30. Travel time between the east to west ends of the Pulse route is expected to be nearly cut in half — from approximately 1 hour and 15 minutes currently, to about 40 minutes on the rapid transit line, for the same $1.50 rate as a regular bus ride.
The nearly $65 million project concludes a week before the contractual construction deadline of June 30. The federal government contributed $24.9 million, while the Virginia Department of Transportation, the city of Richmond and Henrico County contributed $32 million, $7.6 million and $400,000, respectively, to the overall project budget.
“We're sharing the lanes just like you would in a normal bus ride, but we're not stopping as often, so that means we're getting that speed and time savings that a regular bus would not,” says Carrie Rose Pace, GRTC communications director.
Carrie Rose Pace, the GRTC Transit System's communications director, offers a preview look at the new Pulse bus rapid transit service. (Photo by Sarah King)
Pulse buses will, for the majority of the route, travel in designated bus-only lanes to expedite travel times, and new state-of-the-art ticket vending machines now take credit and debit cards as well as dispense change for customers.
At peak times, Pace anticipates that roughly eight of the Pulse fleet’s 10 buses will be working the route, making stops every 10 to 15 minutes. Each stop is calculated to last less than a minute, and in the event that there is a delay, the 53 traffic signals along the way are equipped to “communicate” with the buses to make up for lost time.
“Let's pretend there were two mobility devices and three bikes that we needed to load or unload — that's going to take longer than our projected 15 to 30 seconds at each platform,” Pace says. “So this bus can holler ahead to the light and say, 'Hey, I'm running about five minutes behind — can you give me some greens?' Now, we can't make a red light turn green, but we can make a green light stay green, and the benefit is if you're riding along beside us, you get the green, too.”
Pace is quick to point out that motorists have three signals to merge over if they accidentally find themselves in the bus-only lanes: white hash marks and “bus only” markings on the road pair with signage as drivers approach traffic signals and turning lanes.
“There are multiple reminders — ‘Hey, there's a bus-only lane ahead. In case you missed it: Bus-only lane ahead,’ and then the third warning is an overhead sign as well as lane markings,” Pace says. “If you're in an automobile and you've missed the first two warnings, it's OK. You can still safely merge out of the bus-only lane.”
She says that Henrico, Richmond and VCU police will be enforcing the new lane operations. “It depends on how they decide to handle the situation, but my understanding is ticketing,” she says of cars traveling, parked or loading in the bus-only travel lanes.
The new bus service introduces other perks for commuters, too. Each Pulse station features four seats, three Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA)-friendly mobility device spaces and four “lean rails” for riders. Security cameras and flush fluorescent lighting speckle the overhead perimeter of the stations, and a digital read-out overhead alerts waiting passengers of the next bus arrival time.
And the glass map serves as more than a pretty backdrop: Each stop on the map is paired with a corresponding Quick Response code, which riders can scan with their smartphones to get a real-time look at local service via web or mobile app.
The ticket vending machines now accept credit and debit cards, as well as dispense change — features unavailable at local stops. The machines are Spanish-speaker and ADA friendly, and Pace says they will soon be equipped to accept Apple Pay and Google Wallet. The cost of a fare is still $1.50 per ride, or 70 cents for the discounted rate. Day passes are available for $3.50; seven-day passes cost about $17 and 30-day unlimited passes can be purchased for $60. At this time, the discounted fare only applies to single-ride passes.
Beginning in the fall, Richmond Public Schools high schoolers can ride the buses for free, thanks to funding proposed by Mayor Levar Stoney and approved by City Council this spring. University of Richmond students can also obtain an unlimited “U-Ride” pass, included in their tuition and fees, from the parking and transportation office; VCU students have access to a discounted rate of unlimited rides for $40 per semester and Pace says GRTC is “in communication with” Virginia Union University about arranging a similar pass.
“We expect the busiest stops to be VCU, VUU, Willow Lawn — inevitably, because it's a key connection point for many of the West End routes, the government center, Main and 25th in Shockoe Bottom [also serving Church Hill] and Scott's Addition,” Pace says. “And then this one — VCU Medical Center. We know today a lot of riders are either employees of the VCU Medical Center or are going to doctors’ appointments.”
Each bus is equipped to carry three bicycles on the front of the vehicle, and operators are trained to assist with strapping in riders using mobility devices. Freshly marked crosswalks to and from the median stations are new additions to some of the city’s busiest streets and intersections, too. The median and curbside stations also feature ADA-accessible ramps and bike-docking stations, as well as a specialized on- and off-boarding ramp onto either of the buses’ two doors for cyclists to safely enter the median.
Each of GRTC’s 260 bus operators have been trained on the new routes and Pulse buses, and the Richmond and VCU police departments have met with GRTC and run multiple training exercises in anticipation of this weekend’s launch and the new traffic patterns that will emerge with it.
Tabitha Benjamin is one of the 260 GRTC operators who have been trained on the new routes and Pulse buses. (Photo by Sarah King)
“It was pretty easy for me [to learn the new routes], personally,” says GRTC operator Tabitha Benjamin, who will have been working for GRTC one year this month. “To me, it's just a straight shot ... it pretty much doesn't get any simpler than that.”
Benjamin’s observation is in line with what GRTC and city officials hoped to accomplish with the new transit service: faster, more efficient travel across the city accomplished through a new network of local routes, many spouting directly off the Pulse stops. She also notes a concern shared among other drivers, GRTC officials and police: cars turning or stopping in the bus-only lanes.
“It's a concern, but we're also trained on what to do in situations like that,” Benjamin says. “We have emergency management that will be on standby so if anything happens, we just buzz them and they take care of the situation.”
She notes that a bigger collective sigh of relief came for GRTC-employed drivers and maintenance workers this week, too. After eight months of negotiations between GRTC and the Amalgamated Transit Union’s 1,220 local workers, a new contract was inked into place on Tuesday, retroactive to October 2017 and continuing through September 2020.
Prior to the agreement, GRTC drivers had begun sporting buttons on their uniforms reading “No Contract, No Pulse,” insinuating workers were ready to strike just days before the anticipated Pulse launch date.
I'm glad it's over,” Benjamin says, laughing. “No contract was in place since October — they continued negotiating and everything was up in the air … it really is stressful,” she says. “The contract affects us, the drivers, so there were a lot of things we couldn't move forward with and we had some holdbacks because of the situation with the contract, so for the most part, I think we're all pretty happy.”
The public is invited to an official ribbon-cutting to celebrate the Pulse launch on Monday, June 25, at 10 a.m. at Maggie Walker Plaza. Stoney and Gov. Ralph Northam are among the confirmed speakers at the event.
