Background
Over the past decade, our community has discussed, debated, and studied a permanent location for a primary bus transfer facility. The City conducted two site selection studies in 2014 and 2018, in addition to a TIGER grant application in 2016 that was not awarded.
In July 2020, the City and the University of Kansas signed a legal agreement to move forward with further study and development of a multimodal transfer facility on university property located at Bob Billings & Crestline Drive. This location takes into account community feedback from prior studies that sought a relatively central location and one that did not encroach on established neighborhoods.
Before the City and KU move forward on the facility design & construction, it is critical to have community discussions about redesigning routes to serve this new primary transfer facility. Decisions about route redesign will inform design decisions for the transfer facility. Different route design concepts may result in different transfer facility needs, so two route redesign projects will precede the development of the transfer facility.
The estimated timeline for route redesign planning and facility design planning are shown below. Generally speaking, the City will engage with the community over the next 12 months to collaboratively determine a new route structure for transit. Following these route redesign processes, the design process for the facility itself will begin. Each route redesign study and the facility design process will include early and substantial public engagement.