FALL RIVER – Fall River’s plans for a bus depot and commuter rail stop are proceeding, “but slowly and quietly,” according to The Herald News in an article examining the two projects’ progress.
The Southeastern Regional Transit Authority is seeking bids for designing and overseeing construction of a new bus terminal on Fourth Street due by March 4.
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The single-story terminal will be at least 8,000 square feet and include a ticket counter, passenger waiting area, restroom and a Southeastern Regional Transit Authority office. It may also include a newsstand, coffee shop, sandwich shop and other retailers depending on the design.
Construction on the terminal, which will be the first permanent bus terminal in downtown Fall River for more than four years, is slated to begin in April after the current building, formerly used by National Grid, is demolished.
The downtown bus terminal project was shifted from Borden Street to 118 Fourth St. after the city said the original site was needed for parking. Other obstacles in the project included the Southeastern Regional Transit Authority dedicating stimulus money to buying 13 new buses instead of funding a station and the city losing out on a $9 million federal transportation grant, The Herald News said. Finally, plans for the Fourth Street location were put on hold due to environmental concerns; the property was finally purchased last summer.
The proposed commuter rail station, dubbed the Fall River Depot, is slated to be built south of the Executive Plaza between Davol Street and a rail line.
No public hearings on the project have been held in 13 months, The Herald News said.
Plans for the depot are dependent on Route 79 being converted to a pedestrian-friendly boulevard and the elimination of Davol Street to free up land; however, funding for that project hasn’t been secured and plans are not fully developed.
A zoning change for transit-oriented development around the station has been pending since fall of 2009, according to a plan by South Coast Rail; the zoning change should be put in place “in the coming months,” according to the city’s planning director Jim Hartnett.
Development around the Fall River Depot station is outlined with 200,000 square feet of commercial space and 200 housing unit as compared to a much larger development project around New Bedford’s downtown station, to be called Whale’s Tooth.
Whale’s Tooth would be surrounded by 500,000 square feet of commercial development and 1,400 housing units.
Fall River Depot, along with Whale’s Tooth and a downtown Taunton station, is also targeted as a potential “multimodal hub” to combine rail service, bus, vehicle pedestrian and bicycles connections, the newspaper said. The Fall River Depot, however, is the only station with a parking garage included in its plans.
