Work is finally beginning on an idea that's been 10 years in the making. The Butler County Regional Transit Authority (BCRTA) broke ground Friday on the Chestnut Street Multimodal Station.
The station will include passenger waiting areas, publicly accessible restrooms, bike storage, passenger kiosks with customer service, and intermodal transfer bays. There will be room to store about 40 buses, a maintenance facility with two maintenance bays, outdoor diesel fueling spots and a bus wash. It will also serve a planned but not-yet-constructed Amtrak stop in Oxford.
"This is a big deal, not only for our own organization, but also for Miami University, for Talawanda schools, and ultimately, for Amtrak," said Jim Foster, BCRTA board member.
The station is being constructed on the site of the former Talawanda High School, which is currently being used as a parking lot by Miami University.
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Oxford Vice Mayor Chantel Raghu said the station will be more than just "a beautiful building."
"It is the freedom for people to move about. It means that they have a freedom to go to their job; they have a freedom to go to their doctor. This impacts our elderly population, first and foremost, who no longer can drive and people who have disabilities. This is an amazing thing; this is transformative," she said.
"This is a unique project," said Ken Emling, director of public architecture with Bowen & Associates, the firm in charge of the project. "Usually when we work on projects, it's a transit center for the passengers, or it's a bus facility for the maintenance and operations of the buses. This is both."
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He adds, "This truly will be a multimodal facility. What that means is, you'll have people coming here by foot, by bike, by scooter, by car — there'll be a drop off area — of course by bus, and then eventually by train. You can't get more multimodal than that."
The station is expected to open by Sept. 2025. The estimated construction cost is $23,692,150, with funding coming from the Federal Transit Administration, Miami University, and the Ohio Department of Transportation.
The transit agency announced late last year it had reached a 40-year lease deal with Miami University for the station's construction and operation, along with a shared services facility.
