Passenger Bus, Rail and Motorcoach Industry News

The Bonneville Transit Center becomes only the third building in all of Southern Nevada to achieve Platinum certification, the highest level of recognition from LEED, the nation’s preeminent program for the design, construction and operation of high performance green buildings.

CTA achieved the status thanks to the efforts of its property manager Transwestern, a commercial real estate services firm that oversees the CTA headquarters facilities.

The John J. Duncan Jr. Knoxville Station Transit Center, which opened in August 2010, is the first Silver LEED-certified government building in Knoxville.

The total cost of the project, including property acquisition, demolition and design is about $15 million. The construction cost is approximately $11.5 million. The terminal employs more than 40, which includes people from MATA, Greyhound and other tenants.

A portion of funding for both states will go to replacing a transfer center and buses and upgrading a maintenance facility to LEED standards.

Opened in 1914, the building has long been recognized as a historic treasure, but efforts to redevelop it for retail or other transit-oriented uses were unsuccessful, and the maintenance facility for the former Texas Interurban Railway has sat vacant for years.

Earned the designation as part of a larger effort to attain a LEED certification for Gateway Headquarters under the U.S. Green Building Council's Existing Building Operations and Maintenance category.

The wrecking ball is planned to remain in use for the next few months as the remainder of the old Terminal structure is removed. A temporary terminal located a few blocks away on Beale and Howard Streets will continue to serve bus operations until the new Transbay Transit Center opens its doors in 2017.

Phase I will consist of a 7,000-square-foot office and maintenance and wash bay buildings as well as a storage area for the authority’s buses and Butler County’s Butler Area Rural Transit shared-ride buses.

LEED-certified facility took sustainable site development, water efficiency, energy efficiency, material selection and indoor environmental quality all into consideration.