Second PAT bus will be added to South Crater Road to accommodate Richard Bland College

PETERSBURG – City and Richard Bland College leaders will unveil plans Monday night for extending one of the city’s bus lines to serve the college.

It’s the first time that Petersburg Area Transit has pushed service to the college that straddles Dinwiddie and Prince George counties just south of Petersburg. The line, which PAT is calling the SCR [South Crater Road]/RBC Express, provides riders with “opportunities to further their educational and travel demands,” according to a notice announcing the service.

PAT plans to debut the service Aug. 28. It will present the plans to the public at 5 p.m. Monday at the transit’s downtown headquarters, 100 W. Washington St.

PAT operations manager Darius Mason said the transit is adding a second bus to South Crater Road that will go to RBC via Flank Road, which intersects with Crater Road near the old King’s Barbecue restaurant, and Johnson Road, on which the college is located. It will continue to stop at all the regular Crater Road points, including Walmart, just like the original bus on the route. but is adding Jesse Lee Apartments just off Crater Road and Addison Crater Woods Apartments behind the South Crater Square shopping center.

“There will be no time added to the South Crater Road route,” Mason told The Progress-Index. “The only addition is a second bus. Wait times will be reduced.”

Instead of once-an-hour service, Mason said the wait time with the two buses will be once every 30 minutes. The trek to RBC and the two new stops will add an extra 15 minutes to the Express bus “depending upon any traffic and construction delays,” Mason said.

The college is picking up the cost for the new service with annual payments to PAT of more than $23,000.

The idea of bus service to Richard Bland was first broached in 2014, but the cost was not feasible for RBC. Eight years later, the college approached PAT again with the idea, and this time, all sides were able to work something out.

The meeting Monday night will be the first opportunity to receive public input on the SCR/RBC Express. Since the contract has already been signed and a ribbon-cutting planned for the opening day at Richard Bland, the meeting is for informational purposes only.

More: Partnership for Petersburg: City gets nearly half a million dollars to improve its transit system

Bill Atkinson (he/him/his) is an award-winning journalist who covers breaking news, government and politics. Reach him at batkinson@progress-index.com or on X (formerly known as Twitter) at @BAtkinson_PI.

This article originally appeared on The Progress-Index: Petersburg starts bus service to Richard Bland College this month