Ontario Multimodal Transportation Center Feasibility Study

Ontario, California

Gruen Associates conducted a two-year siting feasibility study for a proposed Multimodal Transportation Center (MTC) in the City of Ontario to consolidate several existing, proposed, and under-construction public transit stops on a site at or near the Ontario International Airport—and in one convenient location—to ease transfers between services. Our main objective was to establish a vision of what the Ontario MTC could be and where it could be located. Several prototypical station designs were developed to establish the largest reasonable envelope for the size of the station to accommodate several potential transit modes including bus transit, bus rapid transit (BRT), commuter rail, Phase 2 of the California High Speed Rail (HSR), and a tunnel-based transit service.

The Ontario MTC project underwent a comprehensive public outreach campaign, which included interviews with multiple-stakeholder focus groups, open community workshops, and consultation with a technical advisory committee (TAC) comprised of the transit operators and other regional agencies anticipated to provide service to the Ontario MTC.

Gruen developed a series of objective siting criteria to compare 10 large, vacant parcels at or near the Airport using data collected from the TAC to guide the process. This allowed the team to narrow down the list of potential sites to the top three to best serve the MTC. For each of the three sites, conceptual site plans, building programs, and renderings were prepared to illustrate the vision of a central MTC. The City will use these conceptual plans and renderings to work with its partners to further plan for the precise location and architecture of the MTC.