North Shore transit center set to open

The Placer County’s Transit Center in Tahoe City will open for business and be fully operational on Oct. 29.

The center is a modern “park and ride” facility located for Tahoe Area Regional Transit passengers at 165 West Lake Blvd. in Tahoe City just off Highway 89 south of the Y.

With the opening of the center, some of the schedules and routing for TART buses will change. Riders are encouraged to check bus schedules by going online.

The new center is a state-of-the-art facility. It features six bus bays, a 1,100-square-foot terminal with an indoor, heated waiting area with restrooms and a covered outdoor waiting area with bench seating to provide comfort for passengers as they transfer to or await arriving buses. On-site parking is available.

In all, 130 parking spaces plus several enclosed bike lockers with an electronic pay-per-use system and more traditional bike racks have been installed. The center covers about 2.5 acres adjacent to hiking and bike paths for easier mobility around the North and West shores of Lake Tahoe.

A high-tech display system, known as Nextbus, has been implemented on the TART bus system and is available now to the public. A display system will be installed inside the building to inform passengers on the arrival time of their buses. The system provides online real-time locations of on-route buses and predicted arrival times of TART buses at all stops on all routes. The information can be accessed via text messaging or smartphone web access.