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Enhanced Bus Service

First stop for Metro’s Transportation Solution?  Enhanced bus service will greatly improve Metro’s existing bus service by:

  • Launching a Frequent Transit Network
    • Dramatic increase in peak bus service to at least every 15-minutes on 11 of the city’s busiest routes
    • Longer hours of service – from 5:15 am to 1:15 am on weekdays.
  • Improving Access
    • On-demand technology that enhances AccessRide, MTA’s program to serve riders with disabilities, to ensure eligible riders can easily get to and from transit stops. All they have to do is download an app to request a ride.
    • On-demand technology also will provide innovative “first-mile/last-mile” integrated connections. “First-mile/last-mile” refers to the legs of your journey to get from home to a transit stop and to get from a transit stop to your final destination.
  • An extensive upgrade of our bus fleet to improve speed, access, efficiency and comfort for all riders, including fully electric buses and four new crosstown routes between neighborhoods along:
    • Trinity Lane
    • Edgehill Avenue
    • Bell Road
    • Airport-Opry Mills
  • Making Service Easier to Use
    • Consistent Regional Branding
    • Unified Fare System
    • Expanded digital signage
    • Expanded fare vending machines/off-board fare collection

The collective impact of these enhancements is two-fold:

  1. It propels up to an 80% reduction in distance/travel time for some trips.
  2. It reflects Metro Nashville’s commitment to provide the highest quality travel experience.  No matter where you travel, we want your ride to be convenient, comfortable, safe, and reliable.

RAPID Bus

What’s “Rapid Bus” service?  It’s a network of four Rapid Bus lines that will provide large numbers of passengers fast, convenient and reliable service along busy corridors into downtown. Rapid Bus service promotes maximum speed, safety and efficiency along approximately 25 miles of corridor by giving buses priority on major thoroughfares in and out of downtown. It incorporates dedicated lanes and fixed infrastructure where feasible.

Rapid Bus brings state-of-the-art buses – including electric – to each route and fare payment before boarding to ensure your ride is comfortable and convenient.

Metro’s Transportation Solution designates four Rapid Bus corridors:

  • Dickerson Road (downtown to Briley Parkway)
  • Hillsboro Road (downtown to Harding Road)
  • West End Avenue (downtown to White Bridge to Charlotte Pike)
  • Clarksville Pike (downtown to Bordeaux)

Rapid us will be designed based on the needs of the individual corridors, incorporating some of the following elements:

  • Fully electric bus fleet
  • Stop consolidation
  • Transit signal priority
  • Sidewalk improvements
  • Level platform boarding and off-board fare collection (where feasible)
  • Dedicated bus lanes where feasible and supported by the community
  • Queue jumps to allow buses to move ahead of traffic at a stop light (where feasible)
  • Upgraded shelters that are larger, include real-time information, and public safety measures
  • Approximately 25 miles total of rapid bus corridor on Dickerson, Clarksville Pike (Bordeaux), West End, Hillsboro

Light Rail Transit (LRT)

If you’ve never travelled on Light Rail Transit (LRT) before, you’ll soon discover what other cities love about this high-capacity form of transportation. Travel by LRT is dependable and hassle-free, providing an alternative to driving for people traveling in and out of downtown for work or play. Here are the LRT advantages:

  • It brings to Nashville for the first time 26 miles of light rail and fast, high-capacity trains, which will travel in their own lanes and avoiding daily traffic congestion.
  • Travel by LRT is dependable and hassle-free, providing an alternative to driving for people traveling in and out of downtown for work or play.
  • And passengers will find park-and-ride lots, bike lanes and racks, and sidewalks along the LRT corridors to make riding LRT easy.

Of course, bringing LRT to Nashville is a complex undertaking. Look for LRT to be phased in gradually with construction beginning in 2022, operations beginning in 2026 and completion by 2032.

Metro’s Transportation Solution calls for the following 5 LRT lines:

  • Gallatin Road – from downtown to Briley Parkway
  • Murfreesboro Road – from downtown to the Nashville International Airport
  • Nolensville Road – from downtown to Harding Road
  • Charlotte Avenue – from downtown to White Bridge Road
  • NW Corridor – from downtown along Charlotte Ave; and along 21st Ave to Buchanan Street

The plan also includes:

  • Approximately 37 Light Rail stations
  • 7 Park and Ride facilities
  • 57 Light Rail vehicles (including spares)
  • About 28,000 linear feet of new or improved sidewalks along the corridors

Introducing – Nashville’s Downtown Underground

As part of Metro’s Transportation Solution, we’ll go underground. Really.

The system will incorporate an underground corridor running for two miles North-South beneath 5th Avenue – from Charlotte on the north end to SoBro on the south – that will provide fast and reliable travel in and out of downtown even during peak travel periods.

  • Highly efficient, it will enable rapid passage through downtown for both Light Rail Transit (LRT) and Rapid Bus lines.
  • The limestone subsurface under our downtown has been tested and can be tunneled.
  • It will be a state-of-the-art transit corridor, featuring three easy access points –
    • Music City Central Transit Center (north)
    • SOBRO Transit Center (south)
    • a new Station right in the middle of the corridor, on the corner of 5th and Broadway, at the entrance to Historic Broadway entertainment district and just across from the Bridgestone Arena.

Slated for completion in 2027,the tunnel will offer more than a one-of-a-kind ride through Nashville.  It’s highly functional, insuring that multiple LRT and Rapid Bus lines are fast and reliable when moving in and out of downtown, which has some of the narrowest streets in all of Nashville. Whether you’re going to work, to a Predators game or to a concert downtown, you’ll be able to travel to the heart of the region and back with ease.

Neighborhood Transit Centers

Metro’s Transportation Solution includes nearly two dozen convenient Neighborhood Transit Centers to make certain residents benefit from every aspect of our multi-modal system – and from any new enhancements and options that improvements in travel and technology will bring.

These transportation hubs, conveniently plotted throughout the city, will have real-time information kiosks providing scheduling and route options for a spectrum of buses and rail selections, as well as the ability to purchase tickets before boarding. They also will be gathering spots, offering:

  • bikeshare stations
  • digital wayfinding
  • improved pedestrian connections
  • dedicated parking so that you can park, relax and ride
  • potential for coffee shops and newspaper vendors

In short, the Neighborhood Transit Centers are accessible welcome mats to our transportation system.