Durham's Brand-New Electrics Hit the Road

On January 17th 2026, GoDurham's new Gillig Low Floor Plus EVs entered passenger service, operating on routes 2, 3, 4, 10B, and 11B respectively. These buses, which are Durham's first since their order of the same model in 2023, were delivered in December of 2025, and went straight into service once they received their temporary DMV tags. It seems that GoDurham is not planning to wrap these units in their special electric livery that they used on their 2021 and 2023 EVs, which comes as a surprise to many. The older electrics, 2101-2102 and 2301-2306, were delivered in the standard GoDurham livery, same as the 2025s, but were still wrapped before they entered service despite already having full decals underneath. The 2025s not being wrapped is a major win for not only us transit nerds but also for the average commuter, because this means the windows are no longer obstructed by the notorious wrap dots, which make seeing anything outside of the bus almost impossible, making the ride experience even more miserable for those who don't enjoy having to use transit, which is the vast majority, unfortunately. Spec wise, nothing appears to be different compared to the 2023s (minus the livery, of course). They seem to feature Luminator "Spectrum" LED destination signs, yellow stop request tape (as opposed to cords), driver controlled rear doors, onboard Passenger Information Systems, that do in-fact work, as well as the usual hard-backed American Seating Insight Prime Pluses. It appears that all 15 originally ordered units have been delivered and are parked in the yard or are in active service. With more and more of the 2025 electrics hitting the road every day, the question remains: What's going to happen to the rest of the fleet? Well, this is nothing but speculation, but with the overhaul done to 0806, and the worsening condition of the hybrid BRTs, I can see it going either way. The 2008s recently have been getting a lot of attention from GoDurham as 0806 has undergone a rebuild with a new rear sign, rear ad, and a remanufactured ISL and turbo (with it's notorious turbo leak now gone), plus 0802, 0803, and 0805 have all received new rear ads, which points to further use of the 2008s. The BRTs have seen their fair share of love as well, with 1002 getting a new rear sign and ad, alongside new ads on a handful of others. I believe with everything I have seen and gathered, GoDurham will do something along these lines with five of the 2025s already being spoken for with service expansion on the 9 and 4 to every 15 minutes, which leaves 10 buses for replacement. I believe that they will replace their 10 worst-performing BRTs, as their widespread failures in June-July 2024 and again in the first half of 2025 left a sour taste in the fleet director’s mouth. I don't see the full retirement of any series of buses, but a reduction in the use of BRTs and 2008 Gilligs as the 2025 electrics enter full service seems likely. Currently, Durham is using between 3-5 BRTs a day, down from the peak only a couple months ago of almost all BRTs in their fleet being used daily, and they have almost fully scaled back their use of 2008s, with only one or two, if not none being used each day. However, the future of the 2008s still seems bright as they have gone into hibernation at least twice before with the 2021 and 2023 orders of buses semi-retiring them, but they always manage to trickle back out onto the streets and heart of Durham.