Vail council cautious with second transit center

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VAIL, Colorado – Vail’s Town Council is taking it slow on a $15 million Lionshead transit center plan.
The Lionshead transit center project would include two buildings, both adjoined to the Lionshead parking structure on opposite sides.
The council Tuesday asked the town’s staff for more information about the second half of the project, the larger and more expensive part.
Construction on the first phase started this summer on a basic bus shelter. It’s on the South Frontage Road side of the Lionshead parking structure. It’s by far the more modest of the two buildings.
The first phase will include an area for ECO Transit buses, restrooms, a waiting area and improved skier dropoff.

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The side toward Lionshead is where the more grand Lionshead Transit Welcome Center is envisioned.
That building would cost between $5.8 million and $7.3 million, depending on whether the Town Council decides it wants a two-story or three-story building, and what it wants in it.
The combined price tag for both buildings and the entire project is estimated between $12 million and $15 million.
It would be being funded, in part, by a $5 million federal transportation grant.
The project comes on the heels of Vail’s decision to spend $5 million for a new fire station in West Vail, which also started construction this summer.
The new transit center will do everything the Vail Transportation Center does, but more of it, say town staffers.
It will become second hub for local and regional bus systems, charter buses, hotel shuttles, taxi and limousine services, van shuttle services and general passenger pick-up.
Vail’s free in-town bus system is one of the nation largest of its kind. Town staffers say the Vail Transportation Center is over capacity, and the Lionshead transit center would help distribute people to Lionshead, relieving congestion in the Vail Transportation Center.
The welcome center could have ski lockers, a great room, and flexible exhibition space.
