Due to extremely low ridership, GoRaleigh suspended the R-Line, their formerly fare-free downtown circulator, which ran between Raleigh Union Station, Peace Street, and the Raleigh Convention Center on August 9. This comes just weeks after GoCary, the primary transit agency for one of Raleigh's neighboring suburbs, suspended their own Downtown Loop for the same reason.

Introduced in 2009, just months after the grand opening of the Convention Center, the R-Line served as an important and useful way to get around downtown Raleigh, providing a free alternative to driving, walking, or having to connect between other GoRaleigh routes. When it was new, the service used full-length Gillig buses with sleek “BRT” styling and hybrid-electric propulsion systems, a modern feature that then Capital Area Transit (CAT), now GoRaleigh, hadn’t previously worked with. Initially the service was successful, transporting almost 300,000 passengers in its peak year, 2012. It continued receiving similar ridership for a few years until by 2019 when it got so low that GoRaleigh had to shorten the route significantly. When the COVID-19 pandemic hit, the route was temporarily suspended. During its suspension, rideshare services such as Uber and Lyft became popular, as well as other mobility options such as rentable e-scooters and bikes, which are used for more than 30,000 trips monthly in Raleigh.

After a 3-year hiatus, the route returned in May of 2024, requiring a full GoRaleigh fare ($1.25) and utilizing less flashy shorter length Gillig buses that were part of the standard GoRaleigh fleet, powered by clean diesel and natural gas. Ridership would never be the same after COVID, with the route averaging only 5 riders an hour while still costing more than $1 million to operate yearly. GoRaleigh finally

decided to pull the plug this summer and as of August it has been suspended indefinitely. According to city officials, a re-evaluation period of up to 18 months will take place, beginning Thursday, August 13, when public comment and discussion will be available during the monthly Raleigh Transit Authority board meeting. The officials will use this time to decide whether the city still needs a fixed-route circulator service in downtown, if another option is available, or if the concept should be shelved for good.

Former R-Line passengers are encouraged to use GoRaleigh’s 10 available high-frequency routes to move throughout downtown, all of which begin at GoRaleigh station and run along heavily traveled corridors such as Capital Boulevard, Glenwood Avenue (future Bus Rapid Transit corridor), South Saunders Street, Hillsborough Street, New Bern Avenue, and more. These routes are numbers 1, 2, 5, 6, 7, 9, 11, 15, 19, and 21.