Mass Transit - 25

San Antonio | VIA
that VIA can be something more
than what it is if we continue the
same way we have been. They really empowered the staff to think
bigger, to think grander."
With the support from the
board of trustees, in the past five
years, VIA has made significant
investments ranging from its bus
fleet and facilities to its bus shelters and transit center program.
The first investment went towards
replacing nearly the entire fleet
from mainly diesel buses to primarily compressed natural gas
(CNG) vehicles, since the agency
was holding on to several buses
past their useful life. This meant
VIA also had to construct a new
CNG fueling facility, which fuels
almost 600 vehicles.
VIA's second investment went
towards installing bus shelters. In
two and a half years, the agency
installed 1,000 bus shelters. Arndt

says they estimate 95 percent of
boardings in the system occur at
a location with a shelter, which
includes transit centers, park and
rides or stops with a shelter.
"We have more shelters on the
street than Los Angeles or Houston; we have about the same number of shelters on the street as Austin has bus stops," Arndt explained.
VIA's third investment went towards expanding its transit center
program, one of which was VIA
Villa, which includes Centro Plaza
and The Grand. Centro Plaza is a
transit hub that opened in November 2015 and features an air-conditioned waiting area, digital nextbus arrival signs and a full-service
customer service center. The Grand
is an old train depot that was purchased by VIA in 2010. Following
the purchase and additional renovation, VIA staff moved into the
building in 2014 and it now houses

"I'll

often say if
real estate
is location,
location,
location,
transit is
frequency,
frequency,
frequency."
- JEFF ARDNT,
President/
CEO, VIA

executive offices.
"The redevelopment of VIA
Villa is envisioned as a return to
the area's historical use and its
development as a modern multimodal transportation hub," said
the VIA Villa Vision Plan.
The Centro Plaza at VIA Villa
now serves a little more than one
million boardings a year and has
four of VIA's 10 busiest stations.
Thanks to advocacy from key
stakeholders to receive additional funding, encouragement from
leadership to branch away from
business as usual and dedication
from VIA staff to realize a bigger
and better system, VIA is on the
path to realizing the vision the
board first saw.
"It really does start at the top
with the board of trustees. They
had a whole different picture of
what VIA could be to the community," Arndt concluded.

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