Richmond releases alignment of second Pulse bus rapid transit route

While cities across the country have struggled to restore lost transit ridership, as early as August 2022 Richmond’s transit passenger counts had boomed back to pre-pandemic levels. To accomplish this Richmond followed a simple strategy — a strategy other cities could employ: redesign bus routes, forsake fares, and build out bus rapid transit.

To keep that success coming, earlier this month, the Greater Richmond Transit Company officially released the alignment for a second bronze standard BRT. With a route that could range anywhere from 10 to 23 miles, GRTC’s second Pulse will require a lot more planning and funding than the first, which travels just 7.6 miles, largely along one road.

As municipalities across the region, from Baltimore and Montgomery County to Alexandria and Fairfax County, debate, plan, and build out bus rapid transit, they have a lot they can learn from their southern neighbors.

More service, more supporters

When the Pulse first launched in 2018, the leaders of Henrico County, which wraps around the northern half of Richmond, were so skeptical of expanding public transportation that they almost didn’t allow the BRT to cross the city line. Today, the county may be the region’s biggest public transportation cheerleader, pushing the first extension of the existing east-west Pulse route and chairing the GRTC board.

“We see the Pulse as a success,” said Tyrone Nelson, a Henrico County supervisor and GRTC board chair. “It has whetted the appetite for rapid transit connections across the region. Gone are the days when only a certain type of person rode the bus. Riders of GRTC are as diverse as we have people. Everyone rides for different reasons and there are a lot of places people want to get to.”

Alignment analysis

The announcement of a new north-south Pulse corridor was the culmination of more than a year’s worth of surveying, planning, and community engagement to figure out where additional bus rapid transit would work best. The alignment north of downtown, however, has long been clear. After the Pulse, the Route 1 up Chamberlayne Avenue to the Azalea Shopping Center is Richmond’s busiest bus, serving roughly 75,000 passengers per month on that stretch alone.

South of the James River is where planners and transit officials sought consensus among the city, counties, and community. Midlothian Turnpike, Hull Street, and Richmond Highway were all evaluated based on development potential, job and population density, demographics, multimodality, and employment access. The ultimate alignment combines the top two scoring options to travel along Hull Street through Manchester and then follow Midlothian Turnpike beyond Southside Plaza.

Where the route remains unclear is from Richmond’s only HBCU, Virginia Union University, through downtown to the Manchester Bridge — the anointed river crossing for the new BRT. Currently Lombardy Street, Brook Road, and Chamberlayne Avenue are under consideration to get the Pulse from Northside to Jackson Ward.

There’s also a debate as to whether this second BRT should travel down Leigh Street to create new transit access or overlap with the existing Pulse for several stations to allow riders to easily transfer between the two routes. Even with GRTC expanding its stations to accommodate new accordion buses, having just one point to transfer between Richmond’s most popular routes could quickly cause overcrowding.

Behemoth BRT

To figure out which exact route through downtown the Pulse will follow, GRTC will be conducting further stakeholder engagement and public outreach over the coming months. No matter which corridor is selected, the north-south Pulse will prove a massive project far bigger than the 7.6 miles that make up the first.

“This is an enormous length project,” said Henry Bendon, a spokesperson for GRTC. “We’re having discussions about the number of stations, and it could be more than double the 28 stations of the current Pulse. The shortest version of this project is 10 miles.”

If the region chooses to build the BRT all the way out to Walmart Way near Chesterfield Town Center in Midlothian — the southernmost potential terminus, then the next Pulse could stretch over 18 miles from end to end. The list of possible northern termini may also add an extra five miles onto the existing corridor under consideration if Henrico County has its way.

“At the next GRTC board meeting, we are going to vote to amend the [north-south Pulse] plans to extend the potential route out to Virginia Center Commons and GreenCity,” Nelson said.

All of the destinations under consideration may not receive a stop along the BRT’s route. Local transit service could come to those sites in Henrico as both are redeveloped, but the potential southern termini only have to wait one month until they receive their first-ever bus route.

Starting in January, GRTC’s Route 1A will extend out to Walmart Way in Chesterfield, running along what could one day be the county’s first BRT corridor. With 30-minute headways and a one-seat ride to downtown, the launch of Chesterfield’s second-ever local bus route could be an indicator of the area’s growing demand for transit.

“For us at GRTC [the Route 1A extension] is not so much about building up to BRT,” said Bendon. It’s about good local service for people living along the corridor that helps them get to jobs, grocery shopping, and their other needs.”

Those ready to ride the north-south Pulse will have to hold their excitement till 2031. Project development should be done by 2026, design by 2028, and then construction beginning in 2029 if all goes according to plan. Although an eight-year wait may seem excessive, Department of Rail and Public Transportation director Jen DeBruhl confirmed in an interview that such a long timeline is quite common if not actually ambitious in today’s climate.

“When you make this kind of generational investment in transit and communities across the region, it means taking time and doing things the right way,” Bendon explained. “It will take time, but it will pay off.”