The story
Early days
Previous to the GoRaleigh system, Carolina Power & Light Company provided public transit to the city, starting in 1886 with mule-drawn vehicles and covering routes in 1 square mile (3 km2) of central Raleigh. In 1891, the mule-drawn service came to an end, and the electric streetcar service began. The streetcars served several routes, covering about 2 square miles (5 km2) of the city. Due to rapid advances in automotive technology at that time, in 1933 all electric streetcar services ended, replaced by gasoline-powered buses. Ridership remained strong until the 1950s, when the popularity of private vehicles began to reduce transit ridership nationwide.
1881–1894 – Raleigh Street Railway
1894–1908 – Raleigh Electric Co.
1908–1921 – Carolina Power & Light Co.
1921–1925 – Carolina Power & Light Co. (Electric Bond & Shares Co.)
1925–1946 – Carolina Power & Light Co. (National Power & Light Co.), operating from 126 N. West Street, Raleigh
1930s – streetcars discontinued
1946–1950 – Carolina Power & Light Company (CP&L).
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1950–1958 – White Transportation Co.
1958–1975 – Raleigh City Coach Lines (City Coach Lines, Inc.)
1975–2015 – City of Raleigh/Capital Area Transit
2015–present – City of Raleigh/GoRaleigh
In the mid- to late 20th century, CP&L ended its operation of transit services in the city, and the current publicly owned Capital Area Transit system was created. Capital Area Transit formerly rebranded its system to GoRaleigh in 2015.
Five-year plan
In 2002, Capital Area Transit (CAT) spent $200,000 to hire consultants to come up with a five-year plan to improve public transit in Raleigh. At that time, most bus schedules were ten years out of date. It wasn't until fiscal year 2006 that the city council gave CAT the additional funding needed to begin implementing year one of a five-year plan. At the start of the fiscal year 2007, Raleigh City Council gave CAT the additional funding needed for year two of the five-year plan (which took effect on bus routes in January, 2007).
Despite the city budget providing CAT with additional funding for year three of the five-year plan for the fiscal year 2008 (July 2007-June 2008) and additional funding for year four of the five-year plan for the last quarter of the fiscal year 2009, these changes were never implemented because tax revenues had been lower than expected and the funds were not available.
The city budget for the fiscal year 2010 notes that "The FY 2010 budget represents the implementation of delayed transit services from last year... year three of the Transit Plan will begin January 2010 and will result in reduced headways on Route 15 Wake Med, a new route in Southeast Raleigh, and a series of other small service changes." However, the implementation of these changes continues to be delayed due to budget shortfalls.
In May 2008, the North Carolina Board of Transportation awarded CAT with $3.5 million for 13 additional buses (which CAT received in June, 2009) and $2.8 million to purchase land and design a new administration building and garage, which is now located on 23 acres (93,000 m2) off of Poole Road. Additionally, $7.6 million of stimulus money has been awarded to CAT towards the garage. In May 2011, the new facility was opened.
On August 6, 2017, GoRaleigh expanded its Sunday service as described in the first round improvements of the Wake County Transit Plan (Archive at the Wayback Machine (archived 2017-07-06)).
From Wikipedia’s article on GoRaleigh, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.3