June 17, 2010

After years of planning, the new area transit center has opened on Thursday.

The center will be a new green neighbor for people in Charlottesville and Albemarle County. Officials held a ribbon cutting Thursday morning, which opened the operations and maintenance facility on Avon Street in Downtown Charlottesville.

On site is a bus service area and a refueling station.

It was designed with green in mind, from color choices to materials used. A big feature is an extensive rainwater collection system. The saved water will be used in the toilets and to wash the buses.

"The energy efficiency, the economics of running this place, are going to be pretty significant for an operation like this, combined with the fact it will provide the growth this organization needs on into the next 30 or 40 years," said Scott Hendrix of Charlottesville Public Works.

Officials are hoping for gold LEED certification.

With this space, transit officials are in a position to grow the bus fleet when the community is ready to expand transit.

Six hybrid buses will be added to the fleet.

With the new center, they'll be ready to meet the green transportation needs as the community grows.