GRTC is changing – hopefully in ways that will improve public transit in the Richmond region.
The old news is that GRTC is abandoning the 100+ yr. old facility on Robinson and Cary and building a new hub in Southside. The exciting news is that the expected outcome of this move is, not just a less problematic building, but better transit. From Richmond.com, emphasis added:
“What you see before you is the culmination of over a decade of planning and engineering to transition GRTC from our old facility at the corner of Robinson and Cary streets to a brand new state-of-the-art facility on Belt Boulevard in the Southside that is twice the size of our current facility and really enables us to grow as the Richmond region grows,” said John Lewis Jr., CEO for GRTC Transit System. “It enables us to better meet the transportation needs of a quickly growing Richmond region.”
By decreasing energy and building repair costs- they should free up money for transit.
By increasing square footage at their facility- their fleet should grow.
Which is great news for transit riders in Richmond! Unfortunately, the facility won’t be open until ‘09 or ‘10. And during that time, it sounds like most excess money will be put towards their new headquarters, expected to cost $40 million. So transit in Richmond will likely see only limited improvements for the next 2-3 years.
In other good news, the GRTC headquarters will be a green-building, both energy efficient and using green materials, and they’re looking at green technology for buses as well.
As I’ve said before, I’m a fan of their new CEO, John Lewis, Jr. This news only confirms that he’s taking GRTC in a good direction- even if a little too slowly for my impatient tastes.
September 5, 2007 at 10:27 am
Those brick barns in the Davis Ave-West Cary Sr. property were built to house and repair Richmond’s electric trolleys. Our fair city was the first in the nation–possibly the world–to have an effective operating streetcar system. If you go to European cities today, like Berlin, you’ll see streetcars oprating with refined equipement that was first devised right here in River City by Annapolis Academy graduate and Connecticut Yankee, Julian Sprague.
Unlike European municipalities, though, Richmond didn’t want ownership of the lines. Virgihia Power and Passenger, the forerunner of Dominion, became a utility out of its supplying power to the trolley system. The Richmond cars though passed from the hands of one investment group to another, who weren’t from here, and didn’t give a fig about Richmond or its future. By 1949, the ragged cars, suffering from willful neglect, were retired and burned in a Wagnerian pyre, and the tracks either paved over or ripped up. Thus ended what could’ve been one of Richmond’s premier calling cards for visitors. Imagine coming down the middle of Broad, sliding down Capitol Hill into Shockoe, then coming up Church Hill. Gift shops would be selling images of the views.
Sprague later sold out to Edison then from terrestrial transportaton to vertical interior transit — elevators. He started his own firm and sold it to Oits. He’d later devise a means to run two elevators at the same time, one stopping on each floor, and the other an express — and he sold that idea to Westinghouse.
September 5, 2007 at 12:47 pm
At least some improvement is in the offing … I just wish it would happen faster!!