The story
History
Early years
The City of Durham assumed the operation of the local Duke Power bus system in January 1991, naming it Durham Area Transit Authority (DATA).
1891–1902 – Durham Street Railway Co.
1902–1913 – Durham Traction Co.
1913–1921 – Durham Traction Co. (Cities Service Co.)
1921–1943 – Durham Public Service Co. (Cities Service Co.)
1930 – streetcars discontinued
After 1943 – Duke Power Company
DATA Upgrades
To benefit riders and to replace aging equipment, DATA purchased 31 new Gillig Low Floors in 2002. The first bus arrived on April 16, 2003. The next day on April 17, the bus ran in revenue service on Route 7. The first bus ran through all routes, fare-free. These buses included LED destination signs, longer 40-foot buses, and automated announcements.
Read the full text
Service Expansions
In 2005, DATA collaborated and funded with Capital Area Transit (now GoRaleigh) and Triangle Transit Authority (now GoTriangle) to create a route connecting the DATA Downtown Terminal with the Brier Creek Shopping Center in Raleigh. The new route, designated 15, began in November 2005.
The downtown terminal, located at Great Jones St and W Main St, was relocated to a new transportation center, named Durham Station. This also serves the GoTriangle and Greyhound Lines buses on February 22, 2009. It later served Megabus and FlixBus. The building was designed by the Freelon group. Triangle Transit merged operations with DATA in 2010. As a result, Triangle Transit (now GoTriangle) handled management, planning, and marketing for the transit company. In 2011, DATA, along with GoTriangle began the Designing Better Bus Service project, a project offering the following improvements:
Better on-time performance.
Revamped routes, with new alignments and variants.
Improved bus stops.
These revamped routes debuted in two phases. Phase One, which affected routes 1 (became 1/1A/1B/1N), 6 (became 6/6B), and 11 (became 11/11B) began on September 29, 2012. Phase 2, affecting the rest of the routes began on January 9, 2013.
DATA to GoDurham
In 2015, as part of the GoTransit naming scheme, DATA was renamed GoDurham. Total ridership, for the fiscal year 2015 was almost 6.3 million ridership. To improve service, GoTriangle introduced GoDurham's Short-Range Transit Plan in April 2019. This plan intended to speed up service while the original 2017 and current revision of the Durham Transit Plan were being done. These improvements were:
Further improve on-timer performance
Simplify routes, removing variations to make them easier.
Introduce micro-transit on select areas.
Improve frequencies to reduce wait times, introducing the Frequent Service Network program.
Add more crosstown routes to connect to more places.
They offered the changes GoDurham can in the upcoming years. The plan was done by late 2019 and by January 2020, the new routes began running service. However, the implementation of the plan was slowed and eventually halted due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
COVID-19 Pandemic
During the pandemic, GoDurham service ran normally until March 20. Service was reduced, as service was scheduled to end at 9:30 pm, similar to Sundays. On March 22, fare collections were suspended, and rear-door boarding was allowed. However, on March 30, GoDurham severely reduced service as operators start to drop. The following service changes included reductions of service to hourly or every 2 hours.
In April, bus capacity was reduced to 16 passengers max. Seats were taped off from buses to prioritize social distancing. However, in May, they reduced service to a modified Sunday schedule. This took effect on May 4. This was short-lived as on May 18, some service was restored. By June 29, GoDurham restored all bus service back to pre-COVID service patterns. In October 2020, GoDurham expanded service with the Short-Range Transit Plan, adding 15-minute service to Fayetteville St and adding better weekday evening and weekend service to various routes.
Restoration
On June 29, 2021, service was reduced due to another operator shortage. The following service reductions included, reversing the improvements and suspending certain routes. However, in late 2021, GoDurham slowly restoring service again, adding the 5K and 10B routes back.
2022 brought more restorations. To provide lost service to Croasdaile Crossings previously served by the 1 route, on February 1, 2022, route 6 service was extended to serve Croasdaile Crossings during weekday daytime hours. Major restorations occurred on October 28, when GoDurham restored 15-minute service, discontinuing the 5K route again, minor changes to the 11/11B routes, and restoring the 12B route, servicing RTC.
2023 saw most service return to pre-COVID levels. On February 13, full service returned on route 7. On June 24, routes 2, 8, 11/11B were restored to full frequencies and service. In October, GoDurham plans to get full service restored by early 2024. On November 11, routes 1 and 4 will have restored overnight service, Frequent Service Network on route 5 will be active on Saturdays, and 10/10B will have expanded service. Service was restored to January 2020 levels with the service changes on routes 1/6/12/12B on January 27th, 2024. Route 1 was interlined with route 6, route 6 was restored to 30 minute frequencies, and 12/12B service runs to Saturday.
Service Expansions
After restoring service, GoDurham started to improve existing service with the April 27th service changes, that focused that every route would see 30-minute service. This saw routes 9A/9B and 12B have overnight/Sunday hours and increased night/Sunday frequencies to 30-minutes on routes 6, 7, and 8.
North Durham saw improvements on August 2024, which affected routes 1, 4, 6, and 9. Changes include Route 1 being partially extended to Riverside High School and route 4 being extended to Tom Wilkinson Road. Route 6 is extended past Duke/VA, bringing a new crosstown connection, serving Horton Road and Danube Lane, and route 9 being shortened to Duke Regional Hospital. All routes run every 30-minutes all day.
East and South Durham saw improvements around August to November 2025, which affects routes 3/3B/3C, 5, 8, and 12/12B. Changes include frequency increases on routes 3 and 16 (renamed from 3B), route 5 extending to service NC-54, route 8 extending to serve NC-55, route 12 being shortened to NC-54 and Alston Avenue with route 12B being eliminated, and a new crosstown route connecting Durham Tech, NCCU, and The Village. Improvements on routes 3 and 16 will see Holloway St have a bus arrive better than 15-minutes until 7 pm weekdays, which is a first for GoDurham's history. However, this was since been on hold until further notice.
In May of 2026, route 4 was added to the high frequency network, with the addition of a new route 4B to provide every 15-minute service between Durham Station and Seven Oaks Road, while route 4 continued to end at Northern High School. Route 4B ran between 2pm and 7pm on weekdays until August, when it was extended to all day Monday - Saturday to make route 4 continually every 15 minutes.
2024-2028 Short Range Transit Plan
In the summer of 2023, GoDurham and GoTriangle provided the draft for the new Short-Range Transit Plan., which is planned to improve the bus network in Durham from 2024 to 2028. Funding has been approved for these services, which the changes would happen between 2024 and 2028. These changes include:
Add a crosstown route connecting NCCU, Durham Tech, and The Village Shopping Center
Improve 75 bus stops are scheduled to be improved, with 114 more being planned.
Increase frequency on route 3, 4, 9, and 10 routes to run 15-minute service weekdays and Saturdays.
Create a transportation center in The Village Shopping Center
Increased service on GoTriangle routes in Durham.
From Wikipedia’s article on GoDurham, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.3