Hillsborough’s In-Town Bus Route to Roll Out New Schedule

Hillsborough’s free bus service is getting a tune-up.

Starting Nov. 14, the in-town bus will operate on a new schedule with additional stops and a re-ordering of the stops to make the service more rider-friendly. The tweaks are based on ridership suggestions collected since the route began in June.

The bus service, provided by the Town of Hillsborough and Orange County, will continue running Monday-Friday but will start one hour later at 8 a.m. and end one hour earlier at 5 p.m.

Runs will start at 8, 9, 10 and 11 a.m. with a break in service from noon to 1 p.m. The original route had a two-hour break from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Afternoon runs will start at 1, 2, 3 and 4 p.m.

New stops will include Food Lion off South Churton Street; Coachwood Apartments off Oakdale Drive; and the business district at South Nash and Calvin streets, where businesses like Hillsborough BBQ Company and The Depot at Hillsborough Station are located.

The circulator route serves various residential areas around town, as well as the library; Orange County Courthouse; Social Services Center; the Shops at Daniel Boone area; UNC Family Practice; Durham Tech; the Hampton Pointe and Maxway shopping centers; and the Meadowlands business park.

It connects to Triangle Transit’s 420 bus route to Chapel Hill at Durham Tech’s Orange County campus, where a park-and-ride lot exists.

The in-town service is provided through a three-year grant from the N.C. Department of Transportation’s Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality Program. DOT waived the local match requirement of 20 percent for the first year. For the remaining years, Hillsborough will provide the local match of about $22,000, while the county will operate the service at no additional cost to the town. The service is expected to cost about $110,000 annually, not including the cost of the bus.

Throughout the grant period, ridership will be evaluated by the town and county to determine whether and how to continue the service. If continued service is desired, other funding sources will be investigated.

The bus’s route and schedule are posted on the home page and Parking and Transportation page of Hillsborough’s Web site. The information also can be found on the Transportation pages of Orange County’s Web site, www.co.orange.nc.us/transportation.

Brochures with the route and schedule are available at Town Hall, 101 E. Orange St.; the Town Hall Annex, 137 N. Churton St.; and the Hillsborough police substation, 501 Rainey Ave.

Citizens also can view a video about the new route on Hillsborough’s government access channel, Channel 18, as well as the town and county’s transportation web pages. Posters on the route are in areas served by the bus.

For more information, contact Orange Public Transportation at 245-2008. Direct feedback to Transportation Manager Al Terry at 245-2002 or aterry@co.orange.nc.us.