Former congressman and Cincinnati Mayor Tom Luken isn't sugarcoating his feeling on the $23 million Riverfront Transit Center located beneath Second Street in Cincinnati.
"Cincinnati has a history of transit debacles. And what we have here is a white elephant to end all white elephants," Luken said.
Built in 2003, the Transit Center is built to handle up to 500 buses and 20,000 people each hour during major downtown events.
That's why Metro's Chief Administrative Officer Sallie Hilvers from thinks it's a good idea.
"I think it's probably premature to suggest the transit center isn't being fully used or that maybe it wasn't a good project. We really need to wait until the riverfront is completely developed," Hilvers said.
Cincinnati already has its share of changes, ones supporters say force the city to have the transit center.
"In the past hundreds of Metro buses and charter buses used the old Riverfront Stadium plaza level for major events like Tall Stacks and Riverfest and so on. But that was lost when the new stadiums were built. The new transit center really fills that role," Hilvers says
However Luken says he disagrees.
"That's been there six or seven years and they have two buses today. That's where we are and they're going to think up some other reason why, something else is going to use it," Luken said.
