NC: When does the next bus come? GoTriangle reduces wait time on its busiest routes

GoTriangle will cut in half the amount of time riders must wait between buses on its busiest routes starting Monday, Aug. 4.

GoTriangle buses between downtown Durham and downtown Chapel Hill will run every 15 minutes weekdays between 5:45 a.m. and 7 p.m. The route includes stops at Patterson Place, South Square and the Duke and Veterans Administration medical centers.

It’s the first time GoTriangle has offered 15-minute service. It accomplished it in part by realigning Routes 400 and 405 to more closely follow U.S. 15-501 between Durham and Chapel Hill.

The agency wants to make the bus more convenient for current riders and more attractive for people who don’t ride now, said Brian Smith, president and CEO. Riders won’t have to be as mindful about the schedule as they do for buses that run every half hour or hour, Smith said.

“What is seen really around the country is that commuters can be confident that if you miss the bus for whatever reason, you know that another one is coming in 15 minutes,” he said in an interview. “That is sort of the standard for quality public transportation.” GoTriangle joins other bus systems with frequent service

GoRaleigh and GoDurham both have 15-minute service on several routes, and both say they saw an increase in ridership as a result.

GoDurham offered its first 15-minute route in 2013 and now has five high-frequency corridors radiating from Durham Station downtown, according to spokeswoman Brenda Jones. One benefit is that it eases transfers to other buses, Jones said.

“It improves reliability because if a bus transfer is missed due to traffic, there is another bus coming soon,” she wrote in an email.

GoRaleigh’s first 15-minute bus was Route 1 along Capital Boulevard, starting around 2010. GoRaleigh now offers 15-minute service at least 12 hours each weekday on nine routes, covering more than 120 miles, according to spokeswoman Andrea Epstein.

Cutting the wait times between buses from 30 to 15 minutes had “a clear and measurable impact” on ridership, Epstein said. For example, after the change was made on Route 6 along Glenwood Avenue, ridership more than doubled to 47,286 in June 2025 compared to a year earlier, Epstein said.

“Our nine high-frequency routes have seen a growth rate of 89 percent in ridership looking at our June 2025 numbers compared to June 2024,” she wrote in an email. “That is an exceptional growth rate and no doubt shows that increasing frequencies can help drive ridership.”

GoRaleigh plans to further increase the frequency on two routes, No. 1 Capital Boulevard and No. 21 Caraleigh. Both should be operating every 10 minutes on weekdays by the end of the year, Epstein said.

GoTriangle also plans to increase frequency on two additional routes next spring, Smith said. The 700 bus, between downtown Durham and the regional transit center near Research Triangle Park, and the 100 bus between the transit center and downtown Raleigh, will both offer 15-minute service, he said.

For more information about changes to GoTriangle routes and times, go to gotriangle.org/service-changes.

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