#transit terminal

[bucktransit]

An articulated MiWay express bus at the Mississauga City Centre Transit Terminal. April 2019. Photo by the green buck.

[the-green-buck]

Hamilton GO Centre. April 2019. Photo by the green buck.

[bucktransit]

MacNab Transit Terminal, Hamilton, Ontario. Hamilton Street Railway. December 2018.

Photo by the green buck.

[atlurbanist]

An update on the MultiModal Passenger Terminal project for Atlanta's Gulch

The Georgia Department of Transportation has published a Winter 2014 newsletter on the progress of the MMTP project. You can download the PDF here. 

The terminal and surrounding structures will serve as a hub for local, regional and intercity buses and any future passenger-rail expansion. It will contain a mixed-use development, as well as a new street grid to connect neighborhoods that have long been separated by the relative dead space of The Gulch.

According to the newsletter, construction on the MMPT could begin after approval of the environmental review by the Federal Transit Administration. GDOT anticipates that, if funding is secured, construction could begin in 2015 and would take about three and a half years.

The current estimated cost of construction is $1.5 billion. Funding would come from a combo of federal, state, private and local funds. The various required approval processes could be complete in late fall of 2014, allowing the project to apply for federal funding at that time.

I’ve included a couple of nice renderings of the MMPT from the newsletter. Just for some perspective, here’s what The Gulch looks like now. Isn’t it lovely? Ugh. 

This space was, for many years, taken up by a massive amount of infrastructure for both freight and passenger rail, with Atlanta’s long-gone Terminal Station on the southwest side. It was busy with daily activity in those times, but for the past few decades it’s been mostly dead, except when being used as parking for big events (the MMPT will still have parking decks, just no surface parking). 

I would like to see this happen. Even if the new passenger-rail component doesn’t come along in our lifetimes, the bus terminal would be wonderful, providing a huge improvement over the existing commuter, intercity (like Megabus) and MARTA bus docking areas. By the way — the project will also connect to MARTA’s Five Points rail station on the east.