The Georgia Regional Transportation Authority (GRTA) started the Xpress commuter coach service more than 10 years ago to improve mobility on metro Atlanta’s most congested interstates and highway corridors. It has since grown to become a key part of the region’s transportation network, giving commuters throughout metro Atlanta a valuable transportation option.
Our 33 routes carry more than two million passenger trips annually, providing workers from nearly 40 counties with reliable, stress-free commutes directly to and from Atlanta’s largest employment centers.
After a decade of successful operations, it’s time for us as an organization to take a thorough look at our service and make sure that we continue to provide solid value to our customers and the taxpayers who support us. So we launched Direct Xpress in January 2014 as a full-scale evaluation of GRTA’s existing commuter coach service and a strategic exploration of future opportunities for growth.
After more than 18 months of examining the service from top to bottom, the results are in, and I believe we have developed a service plan framework that will enhance the commuter experience for our current riders. It will make Xpress more attractive to new customers and better position us to connect with the other transportation options in the region, such as MARTA.
In 2016, we expect to roll out a new plan designed to make the existing service more reliable, effective and easier to understand. It will match service levels to existing and projected demand, and expand to new employment destinations.
Highlights include increased service hours and trip frequencies on high-demand routes; streamlined routing patterns through downtown Atlanta, designed to allow buses to move through the city more quickly and reliably; and new routes from Cobb, Gwinnett and Forsyth Counties to Perimeter Center, one of the state’s largest and fastest-growing job centers.
Through smart management and cost-effective planning, we can deliver these upgrades across the entire system within our existing budget. Concurrently, we will roll out technology upgrades allowing for riders to track the arrival time, departure time and location of our coaches via the web and mobile apps. We plan to follow this improvement with public Wi-Fi for customers during their commutes.
Long-term, we’re thinking bigger. Over the next few years we’ll explore additional improvements, including all-day service in high-demand corridors and opening new markets with service to destinations such as Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport, providing greater flexibility for commuters and people traveling into and out of Atlanta.
A key outcome of Direct Xpress is increased focus on improving transit access in the state’s Express Lanes managed lane system. Georgia’s managed lanes plans call for major state investment over the next few decades to implement a network of managed lanes to address congestion and mobility throughout metro Atlanta. The addition of commuter buses like Xpress in those lanes will maximize the value of that investment for commuters. As new express lanes open to traffic in 2017 and 2018, we will look for opportunities to increase service in those corridors.
In the existing managed lane on I-85 in Gwinnett County, commuter buses currently make up 2 percent of the vehicles during the peak commuting times — yet they carry more than 26 percent of the people moving through that lane. That’s a cost-effective way to free up space in those lanes for other cars.
Georgians are seeking transportation options, and the state has an important role to play in connecting workers to jobs. Direct Xpress will transform GRTA’s service into something that is more understandable, marketable, accountable and best positioned to meet the needs of metro Atlanta commuters and businesses in the future.
We are confident that these changes will lead to greater ridership and a more valuable service.
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