12 Responses to “Mayor favors high speed rail over bus transfer station”

1. posted by Jeff E. at December 21, 2009 4:32 pm :
   

   Thankfully Mayor Jones sees the bigger picture.

2. posted by Stuart at December 22, 2009 2:36 pm :
   

   There are many acres of city-owned lots around this site that would be more logical for a transfer station. Building huge ramps up to a second floor facility is an eccentric plan. I don’t think GRTC has thought through the logistics of that in terms of wear and tear on the vehicles, queuing on Broad St for the ramp bottleneck, maneuvering a tight u-turn inside the building, etc. lol to say nothing of those ramps being icy and dangerous in the snow! Plus we know rail expansion is coming soon to Main St so it would be a mistake to take space from that project.

3. posted by Stuart at December 22, 2009 4:06 pm :
   

   To say nothing of the cost of engineering and constructing such a unique facility. They say it is $70 million, but if it were built in one of those empty lots I can’t see it costing more than $20 million. All we’re talking about is a covered boarding area for passengers and an office and break room for drivers. It doesn’t take a Herculean retrofit of an elevated historic building to accomplish something that simple.

4. posted by Scott Burger at December 23, 2009 8:32 am :
   

   The bigger picture is intermodal. The bus transfer station would add traffic to the train station and vice versa.

   I think the “Better Station Coalition” had better figure out what they want- a viable train station or another downtown white elephant that will cost taxpayers millions without a ROI.

5. posted by Stuart at December 23, 2009 3:09 pm :
   

   “Better Station Coalition” is a euphemism for “No Station Coalition.”

6. posted by paul h at December 24, 2009 3:38 am :
   

   Scott,

   After criticizing all projects you deem “white elephants”, why would you support this turkey? $70 mil to run 80 buses an hour through Shockoe Bottom? Can you imagine the noise, exhaust and congestion? Right now HSR is a multibillion $ pie in the sky with years planning and construction before it reaches Richmond. Where is your concern about those taxpayer dollars?

7. posted by Stuart at December 24, 2009 12:59 pm :
   

   It’s true HSR is a multi-billion dollar long term infrastructure project (though only a tiny percentage of highway spending) but we know that it is definitely coming to Main St. Station. That alone should be enough to discourage further talk about this peculiar bus facility in the middle of the train right of way. The transfer center would make a lot more sense if it were on ground level next to the train station, not up inside it.

   There should also be an intercity bus terminal as part of the center. It would be great if we could get some of the lines like Megabus or Bolt to run routes out of Richmond. That’s a perfect central location with good highway access for the express lines.

8. posted by FanGuy at December 24, 2009 1:27 pm :
   

   Wha? Good highway access to the Bottom, Stuart? Wasn’t poor highway access one of the arguments AGAINST Shockoe Center?

   HSR is a great concept….the bus terminal, not so much. Build the bus transfer station on the Boulevard. Greyhound’s already there, interstates intersect, it’s already an industrial wasteland. The Bottom has a very bright future (including baseball) as long as this bus transfer station isn’t built there as proposed.

9. posted by paul h at December 24, 2009 1:37 pm :
   

   I still oppose the SB site for most reasons mentioned on Better Station Coalition, especially.

   1. Fails to Address Potential Conflicts Between Rail and Bus Service
   2. Increases Traffic Congestion
   3. Discounts Air Pollution and Other Environmental Issues
   4. Impacts Historic Slave Sites
   5. Wastes Taxpayer Dollars
   6. Disregards Better Locations

   Functionally I think it would work better elsewhere and could be linked to Shockoe Bottom by bus or trolley. I believe a station in SB drive people and business away. I’m not opposed to the idea of a transfers station. I just don’t think SB is the place for it.

10. posted by Stuart at December 24, 2009 5:57 pm :
    

    “Wasn’t poor highway access one of the arguments AGAINST Shockoe Center? ”
    ******
    The difference is a few buses staggered throughout the day versus thousands of cars all at once causing gridlock. But that’s not even part of this plan, just my own idea. The area around Main St Station is perfect for a multimodal transportation hub and intercity bus service should be part of that along with rail. It’s always annoyed me that you have to go to some remote part of town in the middle of the night to catch a bus somewhere. Transportation should all be in one place in a central location, that’s why Main St Station was built where it was.

11. posted by Scott Burger at December 27, 2009 10:45 pm :
    

    paul h, the difference is that this is a PUBLIC project being built for the PUBLIC’s benefit.

12. posted by paul h at December 28, 2009 9:26 am :
    

    Did somebody ask the PUBLIC about this?

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