ORLANDO, Fla. – Central Florida transportation officials and elected leaders broke ground Monday on the Pine Hills Transfer Center, a LYNX facility designed to improve transportation access in that Orange County community.
Located near the intersection of Silver Star Road and Pine Hills Road off Belco Drive, the new station will alleviate the need for some bus passengers to travel more than five miles east to the LYNX Central Station in Downtown Orlando to transfer to other bus routes.
“This becomes the hub, the transportation hub for the Pine Hills community,” said LYNX CEO Tiffany Homler Hawkins.
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When construction is completed in about 12 to 14 months, the Pine Hills Transfer Center will feature eight bays to load and unload buses. Waiting passengers will be sheltered by a canopy resembling the one found at the agency’s downtown bus station.
The project also includes improvements to Belco Drive and an expansion of Pine Hills Trail.
“Our goal is to make it more convenient for riders of the LYNX bus system to really improve connectivity and access to our public transit system,” said Orange County Mayor Jerry Demings, who serves as chair of the LYNX board of directors “By improving the number of buses and routes available, hopefully we will cut down on the period of time for people that it will take to get to their final destinations in our community.”
The $15 million project is being funded by a combination of local, state and federal funds.
In the future, Demings said he hopes the SunRail commuter rail system can be linked to the Pine Hills Transfer Station.
Deemoreena Duvall, who relies on LYNX buses to get around Central Florida, will not miss traveling to the Downtown Orlando bus station to transfer to another bus route.
“That will be convenient,” said Duvall. “Make things faster.”
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