The Main Street bus shelter. Part of the pitch for Renaissance Square was that the new bus station would get riders in from the cold. PHOTO BY MATT DETURCK
The Rochester Genesee Regional Transportation Authority is sitting on millions of dollars that it can use for a new transit center, and some of that money will expire if they don't have plans in place by September 2010.
All three of the planned components of the defunct Renaissance Square project - the bus station, new MCC campus, and a performing arts center - are currently in limbo.
RGRTA has about $53 million it can use toward a transit center, says spokesperson Jacquie Halldow. That's 80 percent federal transit funds, 10 percent state funds, and 10 percent RGRTA funds. Of that, $3.8 million in federal money is set to expire in September 2010. Another $3.5 million expires in September 2011 if it's not used.
A county spokesperson in 2007 said that the transit center would cost approximately $82 million.
To keep the $3.8 million, RGRTA officials have to present the Federal Transit Administration with a completed application in time for the agency to review it and to award a grant. An agency spokesperson offered no firm deadline for the submission of the application.
RGRTA officials and staff continue to evaluate terminal and shelter options. The authority's board must sign off on any plan, but it's set no deadline to receive a final plan.
City officials will probably have objections if RGRTA wants to follow through on the Mortimer Street site. As the Renaissance Square project fell apart, city officials were vocal about the transit center's potential to affect the neighboring buildings that have been redeveloped into lofts. While it's up to the FTA to approve the project, the city would have to sign off on some details, like curb cuts.
Comments for "TRANSPORTATION: Bus station in transit " (4)
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Karma Ches said on Nov. 11, 2009 at 1:46pm
They had two chances to build a bus station and in the process spent $24 million and they're back to square one. And now they want a 3rd chance? No way.
Voice of Reason said on Nov. 12, 2009 at 5:47am
Duffy and Slaughter killed RenSq and have made clear they simply don't want a transit center in downtown Rochester. It would be foolish for rgrta to continue pushing for something Duffy and Slaughter aren't ever going to allow to happen. RGRTA gave it their best try and the message from the city was: drop dead. So its time to move on.
Harry Davis said on Nov. 12, 2009 at 9:34am
City Newspaper, Democrat & Chronicle, please do some investigative journalism! The GTC (genesee transportation council www.gtcmpo.org/ ) has millions of dollars available for an inter-modal transportation center to be built at either the Amtrak Station or the IBM building on State Street. This facilty could house all transportairton in Rochester and spur downtown development!
I hope when the write-in votes are counted ... :).... by the Board of Elections, me, Harry Davis is elected Mayor of Rochester. If I am, I promise to put this RGRTA in its place. These people are incorrigible!
andrew stainton said on Nov. 13, 2009 at 7:18pm
The price of gas could double with one bad storm or one bad bomb. An important form of insurance against the possibility of substantially higher energy prices is a fully functional transit system.
RGRTA's insistance on siting a central bus station between 2 one way streets will necessarily lead to far slower commutes and a far more costlier system. If someone could ask (RGRTA CEO) Mark Aesch how buses will reach the station, and report the nonsensically circular response, we could put this urban design frankenstein to rest. Then, perhaps, tranportation planners could move towards transit plans that actually put the federal transit dollars to good use.
The Mortimer street bus station idea is like a virus that has damaged our community's prospects for a better downtown for over a decade. The only treatment for it is a full disclosure of just how awful the impact of over a thousand buses driving in a block size circle in a very congested part of the center of the city every day will be.
The RGRTA is an authority that knows how to abuse its power... not one more public dime should be spent on this plan until a rational explanation of how it will function is provided, something not done in five years of planning ren square. The media was bamboozled last time around by their (RGRTA)ability to redirect attention away from the virtually impossible bus station bus routes and towards a hapless mcc and an ultimately fictional theater idea.
Perhaps the price of gas will drift down to 1.50 and stay there for years. But planning for contingencies is necessary, especially with so many predicting the return of $100/ barell oil. Spending more months and more millions on this proven non-starter is truly an authority abusing its resources and public trust.
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