SPACE COAST DAILY TV: Space Coast Area Transit Opens New Transit Center in Cocoa, Florida
By Chris Bonanno, Senior Editor & Reporter // June 20, 2019
SPACE COAST DAILY TV SPECIAL PRESENTATION
SPACE COAST DAILY TV: Space Coast Daily’s Chris Bonanno was at the Grand Opening of Space Coast Area Transit’s new transit center in Cocoa, Florida, which is a main hub of the system’s routes.
SPACE COAST DAILY TV: Space Coast Area Transit Director Scott Nelson takes Space Coast Daily’s Chris Bonanno on a tour during the Grand Opening of Space Coast Area Transit’s new transit center in Cocoa, Florida.
BREVARD COUNTY • COCOA, FLORIDA – Space Coast Daily’s Chris Bonanno was at the Grand Opening of Space Coast Area Transit’s new transit center in Cocoa, Florida, which is a main hub of the system’s routes.
Local dignitaries and Space Coast Area Transit converged at 401 S. Varr Ave. in Cocoa on Thursday morning to celebrate the opening of a new transit center.
According to Scott Nelson, Transit Director with Space Coast Area Transit, the new center will immediately be put to good use in that the Cocoa-based hub has more buses passing through per hour than any other SCAT hub.
“The old transit center was not attractive and it wasn’t very safe ’cause there was some obstacles to get around, people would trip and it wasn’t ADA-complaint so we brought it up to speed on all those process. It’s a little more comfortable and a lot more attractive.”
“This should really help our economy as far as people going back and forth,” said Cocoa Mayor Jake Williams, Jr.”(…)it was greatly needed.”
Nelson said that the new center, which also received new painting, carpet and cubicles, became possible through federal funding.
“We had discussions with the county about it. We had saved some federal grant funding for improvements and Mike McGrew with county facilities construction worked with Ivey’s construction and they put it all together.”
Nelson added that there are more plans for improvements in the area.
“We hope that this is Phase 1 of a larger project that we’ve discussed with the city,” Nelson said in remarks at the event.
“It’s dependent on us being able to do demolition of the unsightly building on King St., the veteran’s building. The plan is to demolish that, make an employee parking lot over there and then free up space here so that we can make a real bus turnaround, a nicer transit center with a waiting area, with public restrooms and so forth.”
Nelson also noted that SCAT provides almost 2.5 million rides each year in Brevard.
“That’s pretty significant,” Nelson added. “We transport a lot of folks.”
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