City Breaks Ground For New Terminal

The city hosted an official groundbreaking ceremony today at the corner of Oak and Wyld Streets where the new transit terminal will sit.

With eight designated bays the new terminal will make it much easier for people to find their bus as well as grab a cup of coffee from a coffee shop that will also sell bus passes.

“It will be much more convenient for the drivers to have everything on one level rather than having to run up a couple of flights of stairs to get to our current facility,” says transit manager Peter Reid.

Reid also points out that the new facility will offer other amenities that are long over due including washroom facilities that are sadly lacking at the moment.

Downtown Manager Jeff Serran says the new terminal brings the area one step closer to seeing the finished product of new face of the Waterfront development.

“It’s going to mean more beautification and vitalisation of the downtown core and we’re really looking forward to the completion of the transit terminal,” says Serran.

“It’s going to mean more people downtown, and the more people coming downtown is good for the businesses, so we’re really excited about this project.”

Councillor Dave Mendicino, Chair of the Community Services Committee, says it has been twenty years in the making but he is pleased that all three levels of government came together to help make the project a reality.

“When I was told it was since 1988 that this has been in the works, and for various reasons mainly budgetary that it was never able to happen it kind of made us more determined to see if we could do something,” says Mendicino.

“When we came on council one of the first things that was identified was that if we could possibly make something like this happen a new transit terminal that would certainly be a step in the right direction, considering everything else that’s been going on downtown.”

Mendicino says the department is excited with the positive change the new terminal will bring about but says the real focus is on the riders.

“It’ll be nice that while they’re waiting for a bus here that they’ll be able to wait in the comfort of a heated building. You’re going to see the state of the art bays develop, we’re certainly injecting a lot of funds into the transit operation in general not to mention the upgrade of the transit fleet.”

Nipissing MPP Monique Smith echoed Mendicino stating the province was delighted to be a partner in the project through the gas tax initiative.

“I think that the new terminal is just going to be a real bonus to the riders, I think it may increase ridership and I think it will be an added attraction to the downtown.”