Close to 100 people crowded under the one-block transit center’s glass and metal awning on St. Paul Street to keep out of the rain that was falling Thursday afternoon.
The $7.7 million facility took 16 months to complete and was paid for with 80 percent federal money. Burlington and the state each contributed 10 percent of the center’s cost.
It will be operated by Green Mountain Transit, which is the new name for the entity formed by the merger of Green Mountain Transit Agency and the Chittenden County Transportation Authority. The two became the same legal entity in 2011, cementing a long partnership. The new name was announced earlier this year. GMT serves six Vermont counties.
Chapin Kaynor, chair of the GMT board, said the new facility is the key feature of an overhauled system. It offers riders a climate-controlled waiting area, restrooms, wi-fi — courtesy of Burlington Telecom — and will serve as a transfer point for bus lines including Greyhound and Megabus.
Through the partnership with Burlington Telecom, GMT customers can now use a cellphone app to track the bus they’re waiting on, officials said. In the coming months, the electronic signs that line the transit center will show expected waits in real time.
Many speakers thanked Leahy for his role in securing a federal earmark that supported the center’s construction before the earmark system was dismantled in 2011.
As Seven Days pointed out in a Leahy profile published this week, the senator’s primary election strategy is to highlight what his campaign says is hundreds of millions of dollars in federal money he’s brought back to Vermont. Leahy faces a re-election challenge from Pomfret Republican Scott Milne.
Mayor Miro Weinberger celebrated an achievement that he said was 35 years in the making. He thanked a predecessor, Mayor Peter Clavelle, as well as Vermont’s congressional delegation, transportation officials and his team for their hard work.
For decades residents and successive city administrations have recognized that the old bus transit center on Cherry Street did not offer the “dignity” and amenities that riders deserve, Weinberger said.
He said one of his campaign promises when he was first elected in 2012 was to advance “stuck and stalled” projects across the city and the completion of the transit center is one where he’s delivered.
The mayor closed by exhorting city residents to “make sure we get the maximum use out of this facility,” plugging a set of ballot questions he supports that would pave the way for further infrastructure investments and the $220 million mixed-use redevelopment proposal for the nearby Town Center mall.
Currently, there aren’t enough people living and working downtown to get the maximum benefit from the $7.7 million facility, Weinberger said.
“We have an opportunity on Nov. 8 to change that,” he told the crowd at Thursday’s event.
The transit center was expected to officially open at 4 p.m. Thursday, when riders could begin to catch their buses at the new facility.
Speaking after Thursday’s event, project manager Stephen Carlson, who had drawn praise for ensuring the center was completed on time and on budget, said the work went “right down to the wire.”
Glass for windbreaks installed on the north side of the facility was delivered Thursday morning and installed hours before the politicians and news cameras arrived, he said.
