Raleigh staff recommend Midtown alignment six and Capital/Route 1 alignment three as locally preferred alternatives for Northern BRT

Hep Patel, a presenter from Raleigh's Transportation Department, told the City Council work session that staff's Major Investment Study for the Northern Corridor identifies two distinct BRT corridors (Downtown'Midtown and Downtown'Triangle Town Center) and that staff are recommending alignment six for Midtown and alignment three for Triangle Town Center.

Patel said the study evaluated alignments through a fatal-flaw and detailed screening (right-of-way, intersection geometry, railroad crossings, traffic operations), public engagement (fall 2023 and fall 2025) and ridership modeling using the federal STOPS methodology. "We are not asking you to pick one over the other. We are implementing both corridors through the Wake Transit plan," Patel said.

Technical findings: staff reported that alignment six for Midtown best connects designated growth areas, provides some city-controlled right-of-way flexibility on Atlantic Avenue, and offers a linkage to the planned S-Line inner-city rail at Atlantic and Six Forks. For Triangle Town Center, the Capital Boulevard/Route 1 alignment (alignment three) produced the strongest ridership and the fastest travel time in modeling and was judged likely to be most competitive in federal grant competition.

FTA criteria and implications: Patel explained that FTA grant competitiveness typically assumes a project can provide roughly 50% dedicated bus lanes; where that threshold cannot be met (as in parts of Midtown), the corridor may operate as "BRT light" ' retaining stations, signal priority and other BRT elements while running in mixed traffic on constrained segments.

Community input and concerns: staff said public engagement prioritized speed and reliability; Midtown respondents favored alignment six in the outreach (50% of a small in-person sample). Council members raised technical concerns about right-of-way availability (state DOT control on some segments such as Wake Forest and Six Forks), potential property acquisition costs, and the need to set realistic public expectations about where dedicated lanes are feasible. One council member asked whether the city could pursue local-only implementation to avoid federal grant timelines; staff said federal grants can leverage local dollars to do more but that local-only funding is a trade-off.

Timeline and next steps: Patel said the Raleigh Transit Authority unanimously endorsed the two locally preferred alternatives on April 9, 2026. The next steps are City Council endorsement (to be placed on a future agenda), CAMPO Metropolitan Transportation Plan adoption, issuance of an RFQ for preliminary engineering and environmental documentation, and entry into the FTA project development pipeline. Patel noted Wake Transit currently programs local match toward these corridors in the out years (2033'2035), and staff said advancing design could create opportunities to request schedule changes through Wake Transit and CAMPO.

Ending: staff will bring a formal endorsement action to Council and then proceed with the CAMPO adoption and next-phase procurement once local direction is given.