City, TARTA unveil transportation hub plans

10/17/2012
BY IGNAZIO MESSINA
BLADE STAFF WRITER
  • tarta-hub-rendering

    Rendering of proposed TARTA hub on Jackson Boulevard.

    City of Toledo

  • Rendering of proposed TARTA hub on Jackson Boulevard.
    Rendering of proposed TARTA hub on Jackson Boulevard.

    City of Toledo and TARTA officials unveiled today a feasibility study detailing a $24 million downtown transit hub that could be built on a parking lot at Jackson Boulevard.

    The new hub would eliminate the downtown bus loop, said Dave Dysard, Toledo’s administrator of public service with the division of engineering services.

    The city and TARTA each paid $100,000 for the study, which recommends having all bus routes going in and out of the downtown use a centralized location along Jackson between Superior and Huron streets.

    Mr. Dysard said 80 percent of the cost could be paid for with federal grants from the U.S. Department of Transportation. The city and TARTA could pay the rest of the cost.

    Map of downtown Toledo area for proposed TARTA hub.
    Map of downtown Toledo area for proposed TARTA hub.

    The single bus terminal plan for downtown was first unveiled in November, 2010, by TARTA to the Downtown Toledo Improvement District Inc. annual meeting. The existing bus loop stations in downtown would become “regular bus stops,” James Gee, the transit authority’s general manager, said.

    The proposal involves converting what is now the westbound side of Jackson between Summit and Erie streets to two-way traffic and its boulevard median and eastbound lanes into a park-like setting, with the bus terminal occupying part of the block between Superior and Huron streets.

    The plan’s modifications to Jackson would eliminate three blocks of on-street metered parking on what is now the westbound side, plus a block of restricted parking on the eastbound side between Erie and Huron that was created for the Toledo Police Department several years ago. But eliminating the bus loop could allow the restoration of on-street parking elsewhere downtown.

    New, angled parking would be created in a new area parallel to Jackson between North Superior and Summit streets.