Madison officials debate bus depot project

Published: July 8, 2009
Tags: Badger Bus, commuter rail, Dane County, development, Madison, Regional Transit Authority

Paul Snyder
paul.snyder@dailyreporter.com

Madison leaders are searching for answers about a new downtown transportation hub as the doors begin to close on the Badger Bus depot on West Washington Avenue.

“Putting some building somewhere is just not going to work,” said Alderman Paul Skidmore, a member of the city’s Long Range Transportation Planning Committee and the Madison Area Metropolitan Planning Organization. “It has to be coordinated with other transportation issues we’re looking at.”

But some of those transportation issues, such as the creation of a regional transit authority and construction of a Dane County commuter-rail line, are undefined, and the Badger Bus depot will close in August to make way for a new mixed-use development.

The Common Council on Tuesday night approved the mixed-use development and requested city staff take 60 days to present ideas on where Badger and other bus lines, such as Greyhound and Van Galder, can instead pick up and drop off passengers.

David Meier, chief financial officer and co-owner of Badger Bus, said on Wednesday the issue should not be a problem and constructing something minor, such as a sidewalk shelter, will suffice.

“We are really one of the only few bus depots that I know of still operating,” he said. “And really, we’re kind of behind the times.”

Meier said most riders buy tickets online. He said Badger’s daily customer average within the depot began diminishing in 1989.

But with a Dane County RTA and commuter-rail line looming, a central transportation hub will be necessary and will have to be better than a sidewalk shelter, said Susan Schmitz, executive director of Downtown Madison Inc. and member of the city’s Transit and Parking Commission.

If the rail project does not materialize, Meier said, the city should not consider anything more than a shelter for intercity buses. The private sector, he said, would not even consider building a hub, because financial return is too limited.

“If you build a hub, you have to take on that overhead in your ticket prices,” he said. “Well, if some other corporation comes along and has their bus picking people up on the corner with a ticket that’s $5 cheaper, you’ve got a problem.”

But Schmitz said commuter rail or not, Madison needs a downtown hub.

“Commuter rail might be up in the air, but the Milwaukee to Madison train is coming,” she said. “That will be stopping at the airport, and we need some way of getting people and students out there.”

The city might have to take on construction costs of a new downtown hub, but Schmitz said there could be federal and state transportation grants available.

Skidmore said if the city comes up with an attractive proposal for a downtown transit center, private companies could be encouraged to partner. But with downtown land fetching high prices and the money that could be generated by an RTA still an uncertainty, he said debate about an alternate hub could continue long after the Badger Bus depot site is redeveloped.

“The big question is: Where’s it going to be?” he said.

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