Brooklyn Center Transit Center (BCTC) is a

transit center A transport hub is a place where passengers and cargo are exchanged between vehicles and/or between transport modes. Public transport hubs include railway stations, rapid transit stations, bus stops, tram stops, airports and ferry slips. F ...

in the

Minneapolis Minneapolis () is the largest city in Minnesota, United States, and the county seat of Hennepin County. The city is abundant in water, with thirteen lakes, wetlands, the Mississippi River, creeks and waterfalls. Minneapolis has its origins ...

suburb of

Brooklyn Center, Minnesota Brooklyn Center is a first-ring suburban city in Hennepin County, Minnesota, United States in the Minneapolis–Saint Paul metropolitan area. In 1911, the area became a village formed from parts of Brooklyn Township and Crystal Lake Township. I ...

. Owned and operated by Metro Transit, it is one of the busiest single boarding locations in the

Twin Cities Twin cities are a special case of two neighboring cities or urban centres that grow into a single conurbation – or narrowly separated urban areas – over time. There are no formal criteria, but twin cities are generally comparable in statu ...

. The transit center is not a

park and ride A park and ride, also known as incentive parking or a commuter lot, is a parking lot with public transport connections that allows commuting, commuters and other people heading to city centres to leave their vehicles and transfer to a bus, Rail t ...

, but provides free 10-minute parking and free outdoor bike racks. June 8, 2019 Metro Transit's second

bus rapid transit Bus rapid transit (BRT), also called a busway or transitway, is a bus-based public transport system designed to have much more capacity, reliability and other quality features than a conventional bus system. Typically, a BRT system includes ...

line, the

Metro Metro, short for metropolitan, may refer to: Geography * Metro (city), a city in Indonesia * A metropolitan area, the populated region including and surrounding an urban center Public transport * Rapid transit, a passenger railway in an urba ...

C Line, opened with Brooklyn Center Transit Center as the line's northern terminus. The center will also be the northern terminus for the planned

Metro D Line The Metro D Line is a bus rapid transit line in Minneapolis-Saint Paul, Minnesota. The route primarily operates on Fremont and Chicago Avenues from Brooklyn Center through Minneapolis to the Mall of America in Bloomington. As part of BRT servi ...

, expected to open 2021. The transit center opened December 4th, 2004 and cost $1.9 million. Before opening of the C Line,

charging station A charging station, also known as a charge point or electric vehicle supply equipment (EVSE), is a piece of equipment that supplies electrical power for charging plug-in electric vehicles (including electric cars, electric trucks, electric ...

s were installed for end-of-the-line charging of 8

battery electric bus A battery electric bus is an electric bus that is driven by an electric motor and obtains energy from on-board batteries. Many trolleybuses use batteries as an auxiliary or emergency power source. In 2018, the National Renewable Energy Laborato ...

es used on the C Line.

Creation

Prior to the creation of the Brooklyn Center Transit Center, Metro Transit had a hub at nearby Brookdale Mall. In 2003, mall owner Jim Schlesinger, ousted Metro Transit from using Brookdale as a bus center hub. At the time, Metro Transit was running 4,000 passengers per day through Brookdale, and Schlesinger said that he would allow the mall to be a destination, but not a hub for ride transfers. He said he was not running a charity, and that bus riders hanging out at the mall waiting on ride transfers did not make good customers. His stance was that it was up to Metro Transit to build their own Brooklyn Center transit hub and not use Brookdale. Metro Transit subsequently opened the new Brooklyn Center Transit Center located offsite of the mall in December 2004. Brookdale Mall closed in 2010 and was largely demolished in 2012. The site has been redeveloped into a new shopping area named Shingle Creek Crossing.

Renovation

In mid-2020 Metro Transit plans on renovating the 15-year-old transit center to provide a better experience for customers. Since the opening of the Metro C Line in June 2019, the transit center has seen an increase in traffic. In an interview, Metro Transit Spokesperson Howie Padilla said "When you have a transit center that's been used as much as this has, it can come to look used. It needs a facelift every once in a while." The renovation is not funded as part of either the C Line or D Line projects, but through Metro Transit's capital improvements budget. Current plans call for replacement of concrete and crosswalks, as well as other accessibility improvements, additional lighting both inside and outside the facility, canopies for plazas at either end of the building, bench replacement, additional bike racks, a renovated waiting area and restrooms, and a renovated drivers' lounge. In February 2020,

Star Tribune The ''Star Tribune'' is the largest newspaper in Minnesota. It originated as the ''Minneapolis Tribune'' in 1867 and the competing ''Minneapolis Daily Star'' in 1920. During the 1930s and 1940s, Minneapolis's competing newspapers were consolida ...

insinuated that a police substation would be added to the existing building, but there are no plans to construct police facilities. The renovation was expected to be complete late 2020, but ended up not being largely complete until May 2021.

References

External links

Metro Transit: Brooklyn Center Transit Center
{{Minnesota Metro stations navbox Bus stations in Minnesota Bus rapid transit in Minnesota

Creation

Renovation

See also

References

External links