A Pop-Up Park, Better Bus Service, and Hourly Trains to DC
Welcome to What's Next, Richmond: a newsletter that highlights changes coming to the Richmond region. Today's features are organized chronologically from the immediate future to later this decade.
Remember- you can always explore the spreadsheet of projects and plans at your own pace.
Soon!
From May 8th until May 22nd, a small section of Cutshaw Avenue will be closed for a pop-up park. It will essentially function as an extension of the existing Pollinator park, which is on the south side of Broad St near the Scotts Addition Pulse Station.
The pop-up park, which is being referred to as the “West Broad Street Green", is intended to both increase the recreational use of the existing green space and to help with pedestrian safety on broad street. The plan for the pop-up is available on the public works website.
The pop-up is a first step in a city initiative called “Lighter, Quicker, Cheaper.” As outlined in the Richmond Connects Near-Term Action Plan, LQC projects try to provide a fast response to infrastructure needs using temporary materials that could later be made permanent as funding becomes available. Updating infrastructure is a long process, so many localities have adopted this “quick build” approach. This is the same idea behind many of the protected bike lanes planned in Richmond, which are currently “protected” by plastic delineator cones, but will one day be separated by concrete medians.
You can read Ian Stewart’s more extensive VPM article about quick build projects in Richmond here.
In the case of the West Broad Street Green, the goal of the LQC temporary park is to demonstrate the potential of a future permanent park extension. City officials will then collect survey data after the pop-up park is taken back down, and evaluate the benefits of the project.
Make sure to check out the West Broad Street Green between May 8th and May 22nd!
Upcoming!
There are several service improvements coming to GRTC in FY2025 (which begins this summer).
The routes above fall into two major categories: fixed-route and microtransit. The former is a traditional bus service that travels along a set route on a time schedule. The latter, microtransit, is a relatively new program in Richmond where low frequency bus routes to less dense areas are replaced with an on-demand service. Riders can request a ride from their home to anywhere else in the zone (including a higher frequency bus stop if they want to leave the zone). In FY2025 there will be three new microtransit zones added to the GRTC’s service.
In terms of fixed-route service changes, the three key words from the table above are “Routing, Span, and Headway.”
Routing- The route that the bus follows
Span- The amount of hours per day that the bus is in service
Headway- The amount of time between each bus.
Route 7A, for example, is slated for a routing and a headway change. The headway change has been alluded to in the past as an increase to 30 minute service, which, when combined with the 7B, will result in a 15 minute frequency for the section of route 7 that passes through Church Hill and into downtown Richmond.
The routing change is most likely shifting the direction of the Henrico County loop from clockwise to counterclockwise, as discussed in the GRTC’s draft Transit Strategic Plan. This means that the 7A will take a more direct route to the airport.
Increased frequency means less waiting time for busses, and makes the idea of replacing a car ride with a bus trip more enticing. This change to the 7 should be particularly convenient for Richmonders catching a bus to the airport or for VCU medical center employees living in the East End.
In the Future
Traffic on interstate 95 should be better in 2030, but not for the reasons you may expect. Since 2016, Virginia has been paving the way for increased passenger rail service in the commonwealth. This has lead to two phases of ongoing projects that will increase the capacity and speed of the regional and long range Amtrak trains that serve Richmond.
Thanks to a series of grants, all of these projects are fully funded and should be completed by 2030. Once completed, Virginia’s rail lines will have the capacity to support hourly train departures from Richmond to DC from both Main Street and Staples Mill stations.
For those of you who got burned out on taking the train in the past because of the slow speeds and waiting for freight traffic to pass: The Virginia Passenger Rail Authority acquired a significant portion of the rail right-of-way since in 2021, so freight trains no longer hold priority in the commonwealth.
Though 2030 seems like a long time to wait for transformative rail service, there will be some increased frequency as soon as 2026. When the phase 1 projects are completed, Virginia will introduce two new daily round trips that serve both Richmond stations (including one that continues on to Newport News). That means 5 daily departures from Main Street Station to DC and beyond.
There are many other rail updates that don’t pertain to Richmond, including updates on the Virginia Railway Express commuter system that serves Northern Virginia. You can read more about these changes on the Virginia Passenger Rail Authority website.
Thanks for reading!
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