Carrboro Now Has Express Bus Service to Durham! Here’s How to Use It

Route 405 Arrives In Carrboro (Photo Courtesy of Alicia Stemper Photography)

Route 405 Arrives In Carrboro (Photo Courtesy of Alicia Stemper Photography)

Monday, August 8th was an exciting day- for the first time ever, we now have direct regional bus service to and from Downtown Carrboro!  GoTriangle Route 405, which currently runs between Chapel Hill and Durham, will be extended into Carrboro and will provide service during rush hour between Carrboro and Durham.  A big crowd was on hand Monday morning to greet the new buses. Here are the key things to know about the new Route 405:

  • There will be seven departures from Carrboro to Durham every morning, with the earliest at 5:45 AM and the latest one at 8:41 AM. There will be seven return trips in the evening with departures from Durham to Carrboro between 3:30 pm and 6:30 pm.
  • GoTriangle buses will make two stops in Carrboro: one at Collins Crossing/Abbey Ct, and the other at the Weaver St Realty/Jade Palace pair of bus stops downtown.
  • Route 405 will provide a direct, one-seat ride to the Duke West campus and Duke Hospital area along Erwin Rd, the American Tobacco Campus, and to downtown Durham.
  • The regular cash fare for the bus is $2.25 for a one-way trip. Discounted multi-ride tickets are available, and employees at Duke, American Tobacco (read far down page), and other major employers are eligible for a prepaid GoPass from their employer.

 

The Schedule as of August 2016:

Carrboro to Durham (morning)

Carrboro to Durham Schedule on Route 405

 

Durham to Carrboro (afternoon)

Durham to Carrboro 405 ScheduleThings Carrboro Residents Can Do With Route 405, Part I – Catch the Early Amtrak Train to Charlotte

Prior to Route 405’s extension, the only way to get to Durham by transit in the morning from Carrboro was riding Chapel Hill Transit and then catching Route 405 into Durham. However, the morning train to Charlotte (Piedmont #73) leaves Durham at 7:19 am, and the F, J, and CW routes all don’t start early enough to connect with the 405 in Chapel Hill to make the connection. With 405 beginning in Carrboro, there are now TWO departures from the Jones Ferry/Collins Crossing stop at 5:45 and 6:15 am which both will get you to Durham Station in time to catch the early train. The same two trips also pick up in Downtown Carrboro at Weaver St Realty at 5:48 and 6:18 am, respectively.

Things Carrboro Residents Can Do With Route 405, Part II – Grab Breakfast in Downtown Carrboro and Ride To Duke/Durham With Ease

A trip I have tried to make many times in the past but was too challenging goes like this: I would be headed to Downtown Durham for work, and thus need to transfer from a Chapel Hill Transit bus from my neighborhood in Carrboro to GoTriangle. SInce this switch needed to occur in downtown Chapel Hill, if I wanted to grab breakfast at Weaver St, Neal’s, or anywhere else downtown- I would need to catch three buses to make it work:

  • Bus 1: Neighborhood to Downtown Carrboro
  • Bus 2: CHT bus from Downtown Carrboro to Downtown Chapel Hill
  • Bus 3: GoTriangle bus to Durham

 

The CHT buses that you can take to make the second trip (CW, J, and F) sometimes have big enough gaps between them between 7 and 8 am that with the old schedules/routes, you’d be rolling the dice that you’ll miss your connection and be late to work in Durham. Route 405 stopping in Carrboro solves this dilemma neatly by eliminating that middle bus trip.

Imagine you live up North Greensboro St near the intersection with Hillsborough Rd, and work at the American Tobacco Campus. The F route leaves N Greensboro at Morningside Drive at 7:38 am and reaches the Century Center stop (across the street from WSM) at 7:42 am. You can take the F bus, and have 30 minutes to get coffee or breakfast on the WSM lawn and then stroll over to the Weaver St Realty stop at 8:10 or so. At 8:14, GoTriangle 405 comes by and reaches Durham Station at 8:55 am, and you walk right into American Tobacco by 9:00 am.

Prefer breakfast in downtown Chapel Hill? Don’t worry, that still works too. Just keep riding any CHT route to Franklin St, get food there, and board 405 at the Carolina Coffee Shop Stop.

Things Carrboro Residents Can Do With Route 405, Part III – Get a Beer With Friends After Work in Downtown Durham

With departures on the half hour from 5:00 pm to 6:30 pm, if you work in Downtown Durham, it’s easy to stop by the lawn at Bull McCabe’s, West End Wine bar, or even Bull City Burger or the Pinhook as long as you plan your walking time well.  What if everyone wants to go to Fullsteam? No problem. You can catch GoDurham Route 4 right by Fullsteam & MotorCo at 6:17 pm, which will bring you to Durham Station with 5 minutes to spare to switch to GoTriangle 405. You’ll be back at Jade Palace in downtown Carrboro by 7:13 pm.

What About Getting To/From Carrboro By Regional Bus Outside of Rush Hour?

While Route 405 now provides direct access to Carrboro during morning and evening rush hour, you can still travel between Carrboro and Durham during the midday and evening by transferring between Chapel Hill Transit Routes J, CW, F, CPX, or CM- and GoTriangle Route 400.  Route 400 covers all of the same stops as Route 405, but makes a few extra stops in Durham near the Patterson Place shopping center. Route 400 was also upgraded this week as midday service went from once an hour to once every 30 minutes. After 7:00 pm, Route 400 runs hourly until the last departure leaves Durham Station at 10:00 pm, getting to the Varsity Theater in Chapel Hill at 10:33 pm.

Route 400 runs every half hour on Saturdays between 7:00 am and 6:00 pm and once every hour on Sundays. Additional Hourly service is provided Saturday evenings between 6:00 and 10:00 pm. View the Route 400 Schedule here.

Biking to Route 405, and Bringing Bikes On Route 405

Bike Rack on GoTriangle Bus

Bike Rack on GoTriangle Bus

Like all GoTriangle buses, the Route 405 vehicles have a bike rack that can hold two bikes on the front of each bus.  If you’ve never tried to use a bike rack on a bus before, I recommend viewing this 2-minute video from AC Transit in California. The rack they use is exactly the same style as the ones found on GoTriangle and Chapel Hill Transit buses, and the camera angles are really good at showing how it works.

If you find that the bus you want to ride already has two bikes in the rack, and you can’t wait for the next bus, it’s best to lock up your bike and pick it up later in the day. There are lots of convenient bike parking locations in downtown Carrboro- zoom in on the intersection of E Main St and E Weaver St in the map below for bike parking convenient to the Weaver St Realty Bus Stop.

Real-Time Information

Another tool you can use to make using Route 405 and Chapel Hill Transit even easier to use is the real-time bus locator app made by Transloc, which works on IPhone and Android phones, and can track all seven transit systems in the Triangle.

To learn more about Transloc, check out this video:

Good Luck!

Happy riding! That’s all the tips and pointers I have for now. Have questions about some aspect of the service I didn’t cover? Tried planning a trip and aren’t entirely sure that you have the best trip for you? Add a comment below or drop me an email; I’ll see what I can do to help.

Key Take-away From Summer Streets: It’s Time For Autumn Streets

Sunday, July 19th, from 8:00 am to 2:00 pm, Carrboro held its second “Summer Streets” (Herald Sun article) event, in which the block of Weaver St between Main St and North Greensboro St was opened to people and closed to cars. For the umpteenth time in the decade and a half I’ve lived here, the Town closed this portion of Weaver Street with no visible negative impacts to traffic or downtown in general.

As usual, people came out and enjoyed a calm public space, kids drew with chalk, and everyone generally had a grand time relaxing, even with 100-degree heat index temperatures.  People did yoga, hung out in folding chairs just talking, and one of our Aldermen even held “office hours” for the second time during such an event.

What does opening a street to people do for a town?  Stuff like this:

Kurt Stolka and his 3-year-old son walked around Weaver Street after playing a game of soccer in the street.

He said when there is traffic on Weaver Street, “I just can’t feel calm letting my kids play. You have to constantly keep an eye on them.”

But the Summer Streets program helps parents like him relax, he said.

Safe, Happy Kids Dancing on Yellow Lines

Carrboro Summer Streets: Safe, Happy Kids Dancing on Yellow Lines

Kurt is absolutely correct. I took the picture to the right at the 2012 Carrboro Music Festival. I was able to take this photo because I did not have to hold DC’s hand in a vise grip in downtown Carrboro to provide protection from the greatest danger to children, cars. Why is this so important? Sure, I can take DC to Wilson Park, Carrboro Elementary School, McDougle School, or MLK Park and take advantage of any of the stuff there in the same way, but none of those places have the amenities of downtown in terms of food, commerce, and culture.

Back in May, WCHL reported that the Town was only going to hold three Summer Streets events, and to end them at 2:00 pm each time. This was due to concerns from “…local business owners inside Carr Mill Mall who don’t love the idea. They worry the street closures will keep shoppers away from the mall.”

Given the people-attracting quality a street closure can provide, I was baffled by these concerns. Fortunately, the latest Herald-Sun article reports:

“…[Carrboro Economic Development Director Annette] Stone said that after last month’s event, she sent out an email to business owners. She said she didn’t receive any negative responses and several businesses expressed support for the program.

Seeing as there appears to be broad agreement that there’s not problem here, let’s not take any more half-measures in managing what could be one of our community’s marquee public spaces- let’s set up an “Autumn Streets” program that starts the first Sunday in September and runs EVERY SUNDAY until the Sunday before Thanksgiving, from 8:00 am to 9:00 or 10:00 pm.

That would be twelve glorious autumn days to come downtown and relax, and twelve other great opportunities to try ways to program the block to engage residents. There are plenty of tourism co-promotion opportunities between UNC football games, 2nd Friday Art Walks, etc to take advantage of as well to engage visitors.

If you think this is a good idea, please email the Carrboro Board of Aldermen and let them know “I support weekly Autumn Streets!”

Transit Tourism Opportunity on Sunday 9/28: Carrboro Music Festival!

Carrboro Music Festival

Carrboro Music Festival

Well, it’s decorative gourd season, friends, and the weather looks perfect this weekend, AND the Carrboro Music Festival is Sunday.  I expect to be over there by foot/bike/wagon or some combination thereof, but for Durhamites who feel like Carrboro is a long drive to hang out with 10,000 other music lovers taking in 180 local bands for free, then good news!  For the first time ever, you can take Triangle Transit to get you to the festival, as long as you’re willing to do a little walking.

Route 400 leaves Durham Station every hour from 7:00 am to 6:00 pm on Sundays now, and drops you off on Franklin St in Chapel Hill at the Varsity Theater.  Just walk due west down Franklin along maybe the nicest stretch of city street in NC, and you’ll arrive in the middle of all the music in about 15 minutes or so.

Buses head back to Durham from the Carolina Coffee Shop (directly across from the Varsity, where you got off) a little after the hour, with the final bus leaving at 6:12 pm.

Here’s a link to the Route 400 bus schedule.  Download the Transloc App (Iphone or Android) to track buses in real time and locate stops.

Music starts at 1:00 p.m. so you can easily catch 4-4.5 hours of music before needing to walk back to Chapel Hill to bus it home.  Have a great weekend!