A new draft of GoTriangle’s strategic plan for 2025-2028 paints a picture of disorder and soul-searching at the regional transit agency.
Some of the issues have been compounding for years: after GoTriangle repeatedly failed to deliver on promises of a large-scale rail project for the Triangle, the strategic plan acknowledges that its reputation suffered.
“Public trust is holding GoTriangle back,” the plan reads.
Other challenges are more immediate: GoTriangle accepted CEO Charles Lattuca’s resignation in September and has yet to hire a permanent replacement. Preliminary ridership data for 2025 shows that overall boardings and on-time arrivals for GoTriangle buses are both down compared to last year.
Meanwhile, in a recent survey, GoTriangle’s regional partners (including other transit agencies, local governments, and area universities) identified a laundry list of perceived weaknesses at the agency, including “rising costs,” “too many competing responsibilities,” “board structure and culture,” a “lack of demonstrated project delivery wins,” a “lack of responsiveness,” and a “culture of not owning past setbacks.”
To remedy that, the strategic plan explains that the agency intends to make service improvements, implement a fresh marketing strategy to attract new and lapsed riders, train its board in ethics and financial responsibility, and follow through on its marquee projects—the RUS Bus facility in downtown Raleigh and the Triangle Mobility Hub in RTP—over the next three years.
First thing’s first, GoTriangle needs to hire a permanent CEO. (GoTriangle general counsel Byron Smith took over from Lattuca as acting CEO last year.)
“We need someone with strong leadership and communication skills who understands the value of partnerships externally,” GoTriangle board chair and former Raleigh mayor Mary-Ann Baldwin wrote in a statement to the INDY. “But we also need someone who will bring the GoTriangle team together internally, eliminating silos and improving communication throughout the organization.”
Asked how GoTriangle plans to address specific weaknesses like mistrust, funding, and board structure, chief communications officer Eric Curry said the agency is “upgrading [its] financial systems” and “adding interim positions that directly focus on transforming the agency’s financial and organizational structure.”
The plan doesn’t go into detail on when or how GoTriangle will achieve these goals. Mostly, it describes the agency’s bird’s eye view of itself over the next three years: reliable, community-minded, and respected.
“A strategic plan does not provide a detailed daily operations plan nor does it typically include an exhaustive list of projects and activities that the organization undertakes over the life of the plan,” the plan notes.
GoTriangle plans to publish its finalized strategic plan in July, according to Curry. The draft version is available online as part of the board’s February meeting minutes.
GoTriangle’s last strategic plan expired in 2021. Asked why there was no plan in place from 2022-2024, Baldwin suggested that the agency is still trying to reset its priorities after fumbles and false starts on its light rail and commuter rail projects.
“After focusing on commuter rail and then understanding we didn’t score well due to a lack of density and a lack of federal funding, we had to process our new reality and pivot,” Baldwin wrote in a statement.
These days, GoTriangle has abandoned its rail ambitions and set its sights on more manageable goals, according to Baldwin.
“Due to changes in commuting patterns and federal funding, GoTriangle is pivoting to other transportation options, such as bus rapid transit,” she wrote.
GoTriangle has not announced any bus rapid transit plans to date. The agency is not responsible for the Wake Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) project. Although they share similar names and branding, GoTriangle is a separate entity from GoRaleigh, GoDurham, and the Triangle’s other local transit agencies.
Concerns about rollbacks of federal funding for transportation add an extra layer of uncertainty to GoTriangle’s future planning.
“GoTriangle, along with transit agencies nationwide, could anticipate funding cuts as a result of policy changes on the federal level,” Baldwin said. “While federal funding plays a major role in the projects this agency will develop, so will our partnerships and ability to work with one another for the good of our region – which is the second fastest growing in the country.”
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Chloe Courtney Bohl is a corps member for Report for America. Reach her at [email protected]. Comment on this story at [email protected].