By Howard Packowitz

BLOOMINGTON – It will be several months before the public finds out possible locations for the transit system’s new Downtown Bloomington transfer center.

There are three or four potential sites, or perhaps more, but making them public would harm negotiations to buy privately-owned land, according to Connect Transit General Manager Issac Thorne.

“Some of them could be owned by private property owners, and the last thing you want to do is make it public, and then the price goes up,” said Thorne.

He said it could be about six months when the sites are made public. Eventually, Thorne said there will be a public engagement process.

Thorne said the transfer station has to be big enough to accommodate all buses that don’t fit at the current Front Street transfer center. A transfer center would also have an indoor waiting area and a place to buy tickets.

The Connect Transit Board last month voted to hire the Farnsworth Group to perform a feasibility study at cost not to exceed $244,700.

An Illinois Department of Transportation Technical Studies Grant is paying for the study’s cost. The study will be done in about a year.

Howard Packowitz can be reached at [email protected]