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GRTC microtransit program gaining ridership in Chesterfield County

A user holds a mobile phone with a map to choose a pickup location for a microbus service.
Billy Shields
/
VPM News
People in any of five "microtransit" zones designated by the Greater Richmond Transit Company — including along the Hull Street Road corridor in Chesterfield County — can use GRTC's mobile app to request a free ride from one of the agency's LINK vans.

More than 650 people requested fare-free rides in December.

The Greater Richmond Transit Company’s LINK microtransit program is rolling in Chesterfield County, agency officials told the county’s planning commission Tuesday.

The program, which launched in late 2023, lets riders request fare-free rides within specific zones of the greater Richmond area that have high traffic but limited public transit infrastructure.

GRTC rolled the program out along five designated corridors in Greater Richmond, including the Cloverdale section of Chesterfield County. Riders can request a pickup by phone or using the GRTC on the Go mobile app.

Frank Adarkwa, GRTC’s director of planning and scheduling, and assistant planning director Patricia Robinson said to commissioners that ridership steadily increased in 2024 from five daily average users in March to 27 in December. And by the end of the year, more than one-third of LINK trips were shared by multiple riders.

LINK riders in Chesterfield are being picked up within the 20-minute timeframe that GRTC set as its goal, they added.

Robinson said the progress is a positive sign for a program designed to fill gaps in underserved parts of the region’s transit system.

“It’s really important for equity that we not leave anyone behind,” Robinson said.

Billy Shields is the Chesterfield County reporter for VPM News.