Macon Transit Authority Building New Bus Shelters

MACON, Georgia (41NBC/WMGT) – The Macon Transit Authority has partnered with Main Street Macon and others to unveil a new design for downtown bus shelters.

Representatives from MTA along with the Macon-Bibb Urban Development Authority, NewTown Macon and the College Hill Alliance spoke at a news conference about the new design.

When Macon Transit Authority passengers get their day started they have to wait at bus stops throughout the city, out in the elements, and occasionally without anywhere to sit.

MTA General Manager and CEO Rick Jones and other officials are planning to address the problem with new historical design shelters.

“We’ve had a challenge in Macon, we’ve had some merchants that were looking for something a little different in the way we handle our passengers letting them off and on,” Jones said.

Main Street Macon Manager Mechel McKinley says the design took a long time to get right.

“It incorporates the historic nature our downtown. We were really concerned about making sure that we had something that looked and felt like the existing structures in downtown,” McKinley said.

The plan is to put the locally made shelters on extended sidewalks that the city will create in the downtown area.

Bus fares will stay the same, and Jones says the city won’t fork out much more money for the new shelters.

“Primarily capital funds that come from the federal government, so it will be little expenditure locally,” Jones said.

The first of the new shelters will go up once the city extends the sidewalk.