Charles Lattuca was brought on to lead GoTriangle four years ago to help the region’s transit agency build a commuter rail line in Wake and Durham counties.
Now that the commuter rail project has been shelved indefinitely, 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 . Faith in the agency’s ability to build ambitious transit systems was badly shaken.
Lattuca was head of transit development at the Maryland Department of Transportation, overseeing planning and early construction of the Purple Line, a 16-mile light-rail system across the suburbs of Washington, D.C. It was thought his expertise would 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 indicated they wouldn’t help pay to build the $3 billion system, because there weren’t enough people living along the rail corridor to ensure its success.