$1.4M Given to Build Longview Multimodal Transfer Station

LONGVIEW — State transportation commissioners have awarded the city of Longview and its public bus system a $1.4 million grant to build a multimodal transfer station on Pacific Avenue. That’s according to KETK and the Longview News-Journal. The latest step in a long-term project to convert the area of the historical downtown train depot into the Longview Multimodal Transportation Center, the project eventually will move the city bus system’s transfer station from Magrill Plaza. The grant will cover most of the cost of constructing the station on the east side of the Sidney Bell Willis bus station on Pacific Avenue across from the train depot.

The grant requires a $313,400 local match. The city has committed as much as $100,000, Gregg County has committed $70,000, and the remaining balance of the local match will come from transportation development credits provided by the Texas Department of Transportation, said Longview Transit General Manager Scott Lewis.Once the station is built, he said the city’s public bus system would move its transfer point to the Sidney Bell Willis facility. Lewis said he anticipated construction would begin in one year, and the project to be completed by May 2018. The move would accommodate passengers of Longview Transit, Amtrak, Greyhound Bus Lines and GoBus at the center on Pacific.