(Rochester, N.Y.) – Plans for a downtown bus station are still in the works – the same plans that the city shot down last summer.
The head of Rochester Genesee Regional Transportation Authority said a bus terminal should be built on Mortimer Street or not at all.
“We picked this site and worked on it for 10 years for a reason. Mortimer Street is the right location to build a transit center. It's environmentally approved. We've spent millions of dollars getting the design to where it is today. That's the right place to build this project. We're hopeful that's where it's going to be,” said RGRTA CEO Mark Aesch.
The authority has more than $50 million in federal and state funds set aside for a bus terminal. The terminal would cost in the mid to high $40 million range, Aesch said.
A transit center was proposed on Mortimer as part of the failed Renaissance Square project. City officials said the design was too large and should be linked to the train station. Those objections played a role in the death of the project proposed at Main and Clinton.
Aesch told 13WHAM News in September that the authority was looking at a number of options for a bus terminal, but he has since returned to Mortimer Street as the best location. Aesch said the authority wouldn’t build a terminal at all, if a deal could not be reached for that site.
“I'm hopeful we can work past those issues and get this thing into the ground sooner rather than later,” he said.
A spokesman for the mayor would not comment on Aesch's statements, other than to say, "We're upbeat. We're having productive talks."
The mayor has said he wants the buses off Main Street, which now functions as virtual transfer station. After Renaissance Square collapsed, developers told the mayor the buses were an impediment to revitalizing the street.
RGRTA wants a bus terminal for operational purposes and to keep passengers out of the cold.
