HENRICO COUNTY, Va. -- GRTC and Henrico County leaders celebrated the largest expansion of bus service into Henrico County this year with a block party at St. Joseph's Villa Wednesday. The new Route 1, which now extends north to Parham Road in Henrico, will eventually add an estimated 20,000 riders on the route each month.
Previously, GRTC's Route 1 took riders from downtown Richmond up Chamberlayne Avenue to Azalea Avenue. The new route travels along Brooke Road up to Parham and out to the Henrcio campus of Reynolds Community College.
"This new Route 1 service, which runs right here along Brooke Road means more access to our community and for our community," said Rev. Roscoe Cooper, the Fairfield representative on the Henrico Board of Supervisors.
“This just speaks gang busters about how federal officials, folks at the state level, folks like Roscoe at the local level are really emphasizing the need for infrastructure but also different types of infrastructure to make sure we’re integrating our communities and getting people where they need to go," said state Senator Schuyler VanValkenburg (D-Henrico).
GRTC will expand Route 1 even further into Henrico later this year. By October, riders will be able to go up to Virginia Center Commons and the new Henrico Sports and Events Center.
"This is a stepping stone for us to go in October up to Virginia Center Commons, which will connect that to our microtransit service, which will mean regional connection in our Ashland microtransit zone all the way down, you could probably go all the way down to Chesterfield with that, which is huge for this region," said Adrienne Torres, Chief of Staff for GRTC.
Adien Hurt is 19-years-old and said many of his friends do not have a vehicle, so he welcomes expanded bus route service.
“I think it’s huge, especially for people who don’t have a form of transportation. This really helps those people get where they need to go," Hurt said. "Thousands of cars on the road, probably better off just taking a bus. If more people can do that, instead of one person for one car, I’d rather have 20 people on one bus, just saves a lot of things.”
You can learn more about GRTC's route 1 here.
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