VIA Metropolitan Transit is planning to build a new hub for bus service, its 10th in the city but the first one on San Antonio’s East Side.
Construction on the Eastside Transit Center is expected to start in November. The center will be built on 4.22 acres at 4211 E. Houston St., near Loop 410 and within a mile of Interstate 10.
The $9 million transit center will provide 63 parking spaces, a waiting platform and wide lanes for bus layovers. The building will feature a staffed lobby, public and operator restrooms and facilities maintenance and storage areas.
VIA operates nine transit centers across the city: Brooks, Centro Plaza, Ingram, Kel-Lac, Madla, South Texas Medical Center, North Star and Randolph.
The Robert Thompson Transit Station at the Alamodome, which is on the near East Side, operates only for park and ride events. VIA also offers a parking lot and information center at Chestnut Street just north of the Alamodome.
The new Eastside center will operate in an area with a high proportion of low-income and zero-car households, older adults, people with disabilities and minority groups. It will serve as a hub for Route 25, which in July transported an average of 1,288 passengers a day along East Commerce Avenue downtown.
VIA President and CEO Jeffrey Arndt said the East Side has some of the transit organization’s most frequent bus service, which was increased with $10 million in funds from the city in 2017-18. “So you had the frequency, but the [routes] don’t extend that far so we did not build the infrastructure for that area yet,” he said of the transit center.
The Eastside Transit Center will be similar to the Ingram center and is being built in response to VIA’s long-range plans, said VIA Spokesman Josh Baugh.
In addition to the existing and new routes, the Eastside Transit Center also will serve as a hub for VIA’s planned Advanced Rapid Transit (ART) east-west route, known as the Silver Line, with regular bus service continuing past where the planned ART line stops at the Frost Bank Center.
The estimated $289 million Silver Line is similar to the north-south Green Line which is expected to receive major funding through a federal grant later this year and start offering rides in 2027.
The Eastside Transit Center also is being designed as a hub for VIA Link service in the area. Introduced in 2019, VIA Link is an app-based, on-demand transit service that operates in areas where traditional bus service and vehicles do not.
