Richmond’s Pulse BRT by BeyondDC licensed under Creative Commons.

From record ridership and historic service expansions to COVID-19 and the torching of a bus during this summer’s uprising, the Greater Richmond Transit Company (GRTC) has faced an unprecedented (and all too relatable) string of highs and lows in 2020. A stingy federal relief package and a new regional transportation authority that allowed GRTC’s two biggest funders — the City of Richmond and Henrico County — to slash their contributions by half have only added to the uncertainty. Despite the many headwinds, public transportation in Richmond has seldom been so well poised for growth, and bus rapid transit (BRT) could be a big part of that. What does the future hold for Richmond’s much-lauded Pulse BRT line?

Started from the bottom

To hop on a bus in Richmond four years ago was akin to a crash course in segregation and disinvestment. In 2016, the litany of destinations and opportunities inaccessible by transit was longer than a list of all the stops in GRTC’s bus network: 90% of jobs, the airport, all major community colleges, the main train station, and the vast majority of Central Virginia’s shopping centers were all beyond reach. Few were surprised — least of all riders — when GRTC was ranked the 8th worst public transit system in the nation that year.

This summer Richmonders tore down the city’s many Confederate statues. But another legacy of the Confederacy — segregation — remains, and its effects on public transportation linger to this day. In recent years, however, Richmond has made progress toward dismantling that legacy by investing in public transit. The simultaneous rollout of all new routes — designed by Jarrett Walker’s firm, Human Transit — and the Pulsebus rapid transit (BRT) line two and a half years ago flipped the script on six decades of disinvestment.

The existing Pulse BRT line launched in 2018 runs 7.6 miles along Broad and Main streets, from Rocketts Landing in the east to Willow Lawn in the west. Last year the line won a Bronze Standard rating from the Institute for Transportation and Development Policy — one of just seven BRTs in America to achieve that ranking — thanks to its dedicated lanes downtown and some signal prioritization (which has had mixed results).

That bold action brought Richmond closer to its historic status as a transit leader. GRTC recorded historic 17% annual growth in passenger volumes up until the pandemic, despite still being the worst funded transit system in the country per capita. Even during COVID, ridership on GRTC’s local routes is still at 94% of normal levels and growing — a clear sign of the region’s reliance on transit and the essential workers it serves.

Despite the progress, Richmond is still a long way off from its 2016 fantasy of six BRTs criss-crossing localities. Even the existing Pulse BRT line doesn’t go as far as visionaries hoped. The region still lacks fast, frequent service to the airport or Short Pump — RVA’s shining beacon of mega-mall suburban sprawl. The notion of using public transportation to stitch together a region divided by white flight, arguments over annexation, and competition among jurisdictions remains a dream deferred.

But perhaps not forever. Despite allowing localities to cut their transit funding by half, the Central Virginia Transportation Authority (CVTA) still brought GRTC its first-ever dedicated funding. Just 15% of the projected $170 million in new revenue is directly allocated to GRTC, but there’s nothing stopping localities from investing more in transit from their half of the dollars or the 35% regional portion of the pot if the political will is there.

A map shows the vision for six lines of rapid transit in Richmond. Image by RVA Rapid Transit used with permission.

With the Connect RVA 2045 transportation master plan set to rev up in 2021, Greater Richmond could soon have just the bold, comprehensive vision it needs to convince local leaders to make big investments in transit for the sake of residents’ mobility, long-term growth, and the climate.

“Positives on the horizon”

After the trial by fire of her first year on the job, one might expect GRTC’s CEO, Julie Timm, to have lost a bit of her characteristic optimism; however, her voice still brims with excitement discussing the myriad changes and challenges ahead for Richmond’s only public transit provider.

“There’s this concern that we’re on the verge of a transit death spiral because of the local payment reductions under the CVTA or the transit governance study, but there are more positives on the horizon for us if we lean into our region’s forward motion rather than give into the fear,” Timm said.

Although a portion of GRTC’s new CVTA money will have to be used to replace the transit funding that Richmond and Henrico cut, Timm remains focused on what that leftover cash could mean for the system. “I don’t want to use all of our CVTA money up front so we can bond against it and invest in some of those regional amenities Greater Richmond desperately wants such as a new North-South BRT line,” Timm said. GRTC’s new CFO, John Zinzarella, could prove key to making a second Pulse route possible with his extensive experience in municipal finance.

Putting forward eye-catching plans for a second Pulse route — this time one that crosses county lines — could prove critical if GRTC wants to receive more money from the CVTA than just its current 15% allotment. By proposing a truly regional transit amenity, GRTC stands a better chance of convincing the historically bus-skeptic surrounding counties to contribute funds.

In the immediate future, Timm hopes to deploy the new funding to increase frequency on local routes that have seen high ridership throughout the pandemic in an effort to prevent crowded buses. While there is scant evidence of outbreaks linked to public transportation, GRTC has made quick shifts to zero fares and backdoor boarding to protect the health and safety of its riders and bus operators. A recent spate of delays due to drivers in quarantine show the threat of a system shutdown is all too real if enough operators were to contract COVID-19.

“Service expansions depend on how quickly we can hire more operators,” Timm said. “If I can hire the additional operators we need by July 1, then we can deploy these new monies really quickly to grow.” In order to boost equity within GRTC’s existing network, local advocates have been calling on city leaders and the CVTA to accelerate plans for higher frequency service, especially for hourly Route 87 and the half-hourly Route 20 which are critical connections for the long-neglected Southside.

Beyond dropping underperforming commuter routes, so far GRTC’s greatest change during the pandemic has been the retooling of Route 75 to become the brand new 77, connecting the city’s two biggest universities via the Fan — one of Richmond’s most transit-starved neighborhoods. The 2018-2028 Transit Development Plan approved by GRTC’s board highlights a host of similarly equitable expansions in service, but lacking new funding it’s far easier to rejigger existing service than to extend it.

The system’s next coverage expansions will likely take a page out of the Greater RVA Transit Vision Plan. “Of the five different routes DRPT and Plan RVA suggested in Phase II such as extending Route 2 to Midlothian or the 1 to Reynolds Community College all of those make sense to me but the airport one,” Timm said, highlighting RIC’s current low flight volumes. “This is moving GRTC from a company that has historically just put buses on the street to a true strategic regional transit authority that can help tie Greater Richmond closer together.”

Big plans to expand

Just in the next year alone Timm says riders should keep an eye out for improvements and developments. The conceptual work behind the much sought after second Pulse route has already begun, including strategic conversations about how a new downtown transfer center could serve at the center of that new service. Timm’s team hopes to have a formal feasibility study on the books by the end of 2021.

After President Donald Trump’s administration killed the TIGER grant program which largely paid for the Pulse, the region hasn’t had high hopes of federal funding to make a second BRT route a reality. With President-elect Joe Biden headed to the White House and calls to fund transit and highways equally growing louder, getting a North-South Pulse shovel ready seems a more solid bet.

Articulated buses — extra-long buses with a joint in the middle — for the existing East-West Pulse as well as a few local routes are also in the offing. The biggest hurdle is the need to retrofit stations and stops to accommodate the larger vehicles safely. Timm hopes GRTC will be able to scope out that work with engineering firms in the coming months. “It might not be within a year,” she added, “but people should see articulated buses on the road in Richmond within two years.”

New year, new GRTC

Beyond talk of new routes and bigger buses, the biggest change for GRTC could come from a transit governance study expected to be completed by the end of the fiscal year on June 30th. Currently GRTC is legally a private but government-held company, with ownership split equally between the City of Richmond and Chesterfield County to its south. With the nine localities under Plan RVA now all contributing towards GRTC’s funding via the CVTA, there have been questions about whether the system’s current board make-up still makes sense.

“People get tied up in this idea of who owns GRTC, but what they really need to be focused on is who is making the decisions,” said Timm. “The current board is making good policy decisions based on the needs of the region and of the riders, not the politics of the localities that appoint them. To have better representation from different life experiences, mindsets, and backgrounds would be good, but our governance needs to be defined by regional needs, not political boundaries.”

The biggest test of local leaders’ commitment to increasing transit access may come next summer when GRTC’s board will have to decide whether to extend their current zero fare policy or make riders — many of them much-lauded essential workers — pay again. One might assume replacing the $6-7 million GRTC generates from fares with a slice of the $170 million CVTA pie would be a no-brainer, but it’s hard to gauge the regional will to make public transportation free in RVA. During this year’s Richmond mayoral campaign all three top candidates committed to keeping GRTC fare free, including the incumbent, Levar Stoney.

Timm, personally, is ready for that discussion. “As a region we will have conversations on whether this system will be a zero fare or an account based system going forward,” she said. “We have the data to show how investments in high-quality transit increase property value and attract new businesses. Either choice can lead us to a growth spiral that benefits riders, the community, and the health of the region.”

With commuting now in question due to COVID, GRTC’s greatest tension could come from finding the right balance between serving regional riders and throwing more resources into the core service that essential workers rely upon. “We have to be sure we are balancing the needs of all of our riders in an equitable way,” said Timm.

Thanks to the engagement of local leaders, she feels confident GRTC can navigate these troubled times and even bounce back stronger than where the system was at pre-pandemic: “If we backslide into the negative thoughts of letting the perfect project be the enemy of the good or who pays for what, we won’t go anywhere. I’m very hopeful this region is moving in the right direction, and we will get there in the next 5-10 years if everyone keeps focused on what is best for Central Virginia, both its riders and our long-term growth. The future of transit in Richmond is positive.”

Author’s note:

To all my GGW readers, thank you for your support over the past year and a half. It has been my pleasure as the Virginia Correspondent to provide you with regular insights into the many community conversations and policy discussions your southern neighbors are leading on transportation, housing, and urbanism. If you’re interested in following my work and what’s going on in the Commonwealth, please check out my work covering these issues for the Virginia Mercury.

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Tagged: bus priority, bus rapid transit, buses, richmond, transit, virginia

Wyatt Gordon is the senior policy manager for land use and transportation at the Virginia Conservation Network, and an adjunct professor at Virginia Commonwealth University's Department of Urban Planning. He's a born-and-raised Richmonder with a master's in Urban Planning from the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa and a bachelor's in International Political Economy from American University.