Four years ago, Charles Lattuca was brought in to lead GoTriangle and help the regional transit agency build a commuter rail line in Wake and Durham counties.
With the commuter rail project indefinitely postponed, Lattuca is leaving. The GoTriangle board accepted his resignation as president and CEO on Wednesday.
Lattuca arrived in the spring of 2020, a year after GoTriangle’s planned Durham-Orange light rail system collapsed, severely shaking confidence in the agency’s ability to build ambitious transit systems.
Lattuca was the director of public transit development for the Maryland Department of Transportation. He oversaw the planning and early construction of the Purple Line, a 16-mile light rail system through the suburbs of Washington, D.C. His expertise was expected to help GoTriangle plan and build a 37-mile commuter rail line connecting Durham, Research Triangle Park, Cary, Raleigh and Garner.
GoTriangle completed a feasibility study for commuter rail last year. But federal officials said they wouldn’t help pay for construction of the $3 billion system because there weren’t enough people living along the line to ensure its success.
Faced with having to pay for the entire system themselves, Triangle leaders agreed to fold it, leaving Lattuca in charge of an agency whose other primary mission is to run a regional bus system that serves about 5,100 passengers a day.
“As you know, I came here to help build a regional commuter rail system,” Lattuca wrote to the GoTriangle board in a Sept. 12 letter. “Unfortunately, that initiative has proven to be too costly an investment for this region. Regardless, I am confident that I am leaving the agency better off and on a stronger path to improving regional public transportation in the Triangle.”
He helped launch two bus projects
Lattuca helped advance two projects aimed at improving regional bus service. Both are being built with the help of federal grants and will be integrated with private development that will take advantage of proximity to public transportation.
The first is known as RUS Bus, a new eight-station bus terminal for GoTriangle and GoRaleigh buses a short walk from Amtrak trains at Raleigh Union Station downtown. The station, expected to open late next summer, will anchor a planned apartment tower with ground-floor retail.
The other project is a regional transit center in Research Triangle Park, near the corner of NC 54 and South Miami Boulevard. It’s being built on 19 acres owned by the Research Triangle Foundation, which wants to rezone the land to create a mix of apartments, restaurants and offices.
Less visible is the overhaul and expansion of GoTriangle’s bus operations and maintenance facility on Nelson Road in Morrisville. That project, Lattuca wrote, “ensures GoTriangle has the capacity to add needed service as the region continues to grow.”
Lattuca will receive a severance package from GoTriangle that includes 75% of his annual salary of $258,253.
Interim president and CEO won’t seek the job
Byron Smith, the organization’s general counsel, was named interim president and CEO on Wednesday. Smith worked with Lattuca in Maryland and followed him to the Triangle to help with the commuter rail project.
“He called me up and said, ‘Hey, do you want to come to North Carolina and help me build a commuter rail system?'” he said in an interview Wednesday. “It was a great opportunity.”
Smith, a Johnston County native and graduate of N.C. Central University School of Law in Durham, felt like he was coming home. At 67, Smith says he will stay until a new leader is chosen and then likely retire.
Before it looks for a new president and CEO, GoTriangle’s board needs to draft a new job description, Smith said. With commuter rail on hold for the time being, the agency may need someone with a different skill set than Lattuca.
Smith says that won’t happen while he’s at GoTriangle, but he does expect the region to eventually get a commuter rail system, noting how congested and unreliable the highways can be.
“I would like to see commuter rail in this region,” he said. “It will be necessary.”
