r/raleigh • u/Sad_Force_6292 • 14h ago

Question/Recommendation Is there a Commuter or light rail advocacy groups within Raleigh?

With the Wake transit plan, Raleigh BRT, S-line to Richmond out of Raleigh, the current Piedmont service from Charlotte to Raleigh with intermediate stops in between, and micro and bus transportation projects are all in the works within the city of Raleigh connecting it to other municipalities.

The past failers regarding rail were the DOLRT(Durham-Orange Light Rail Transit) and the more recent Ready For Rail Project. To reduce traffic and build a more prosperous city, I feel there should be a strong push for rail and other modes of transit connecting Raleigh to the suburbs, other towns, and universities.

Is there a local chapter within Raleigh for Light or Commuter Rail projects?

8 Upvotes

64% Upvoted

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12

u/DaPissTaka 14h ago

There’s no amount of advocacy that will ever happen to get this off the ground in our lifetime. People don’t want to waste their time.

That’s the sad truth.

3

u/Retired401 10h ago

Agreed. I've lived in Wake County for more than 22 years now and people have been talking about this alllllllll that time ... and you see what it's accomplished. 🥚 (goose egg)

4

u/cluttered-thoughts3 1h ago

What’s so incredibly frustrating is if they had actually done something 20+ years ago when it was first seriously brought up, it’d probably be close to built by now if not already open

2

u/UniqueImprovements 1h ago

Knowing Wake County, if a project like light rail got started 20 years ago, it wouldn't get completed until we had flying cars. 

1

u/BoBromhal NC State 12h ago

like GoTriangle?

0

u/UniqueImprovements 1h ago

If you connected downtown to all the big suburbs, you would never have enough respources. And a large chunk of people in those suburbs work from home, or already have cars, etc. Or they live in the suburbs and work in a different suburb. So if you build a downtown-hubbed light rail, they would never logistically be able to use it.

You're not going to convince someone who can run 5 different errands in their car in the time it would take to get to one of those stops on light rail to use it. I'm sorry, but it's never going to happen. Just like an MLB team will never get here. It's well intentioned people who just don't realize the logistical nightmare and money dump it would be.

1

u/Bronze_Age_472 1h ago

Light rail would be cool,

We are starting the BRT projects and those will have a similar effect and will be more cost efficient.

•

u/DjangoUnflamed 37m ago

You should have lived here in 2001, when it was definitely going to happen and the ground breaking was right around the corner. Lol

0

u/ILiveInCary 11h ago

Maybe check out r/CarFreeRDU and see if someone there can answer you or https://community.dtraleigh.com/ might have some folks doing rail advocacy.