MTD Terminal Updates and Survey

The local mass transit district is looking for feedback in a survey and is also planning to expand the primary terminal in downtown Champaign. From the Daily Illini:

The Champaign-Urbana Mass Transit District is planning on expanding the Illinois Terminal to increase access by providing a more efficient service to connect both students and residents to educational buildings, as well as other necessary locations.

The expansion of the Illinois Terminal will include a 5,000 seat arena, about 175 to 200 hotel rooms and an ice arena, according to the MTD proposal.

Autumn Soliman, marketing manager for MTD, said this new proposed project will be beneficial for everyone who rides buses. The new expansion will also give customers a larger Amtrak waiting area and other patron accommodations. 

Full article here with additional comments by City of Champaign council members. Proposal link here.

Also in recent news, the MTD has been encouraging residents and riders to fill out a survey and give them feedback for their future services. From WAND:

The Champaign-Urbana Mass Transit District wants the public to share what the future holds.

The large-scale study called MTD Next is looking at the potential market for public transit service in the community, where current and future customers want to travel, ho the MTD is performing and how service can be improved.

Officials are hoping for responses from as many people as possible so they can get more recommendations from their customers.

The online survey is brief and is the first comprehensive study of its kind that the MTD has undertaken.

Link to that blurb here. The MTD on-line survey is available here. The News-Gazette had additional information about the MTD's efforts to gather information for their study earlier this month:

[MTD Planning Manager Jay Rank] said the study is set to be completed in August 2020.

In addition to the online survey, the MTD has also done an on-board survey of riders. It will also be looking at data from cellphone apps that show how people are moving about in the community, Rank said.

That information is being supplied by a private company and derived from cellphone carrier data, and the MTD won’t have any access to information on individual cellphone users and their movements, Gnadt said.

The study is being funded through an Illinois Department of Transportation grant.

More at that full article here.