City of Gainesville breaks ground on RTS Eastside Transfer Station

City of Gainesville breaks ground on RTS Eastside Transfer Station

Published on October 23, 2026

Construction of Gainesville's third bus station will soon be underway as city officials broke ground October 23 on the Regional Transit System (RTS) Eastside Transfer Station on Southeast 20th Street. Scheduled for completion in late 2027, the station will serve as a multimodal hub, connecting bus routes between east and west Gainesville.

"There's a renaissance going on right here in southeast Gainesville," said Gainesville Mayor Harvey Ward.

"We are putting our time, our resources right here to benefit everybody who lives here now and a whole lot of people who don't live here yet."

The project is funded by $5.5 million in Federal Transit Administration grants. The 5,210-square-foot facility will include a community room for the public, a staff training room and six bus bays beneath three canopies. Located at the Eastside Health and Economic Development Initiative (EHEDI) site off Hawthorne Road, the transit hub is designed to improve public transit connections and support economic development.

"We are standing on change," said District 1 City Commissioner Desmon Duncan-Walker. "The Eastside Transfer Station will bring fixed route buses and Mobility on Demand service together in one location, so riders no longer have to treat them as separate systems. A rider can arrive on a Mobility on Demand service trip and step directly onto a fixed bus route, or the reverse."

The groundbreaking marks another in a series of city investments in east Gainesville, including the NE Eighth Avenue and Waldo Road - Citizens Field Redevelopment Project and adjacent Fire Station #3, currently under construction; the UF Health Urgent Care Center - Eastside, which opened in 2024, in partnership with Alachua County and UF Health; a $26 million HUD Choice Neighborhood grant in partnership with Gainesville Housing Authority, and additional homes planned in the mixed-income Heartwood community, among other projects.

"This project is so exciting to me because it ties so many things together," said interim City Manager Andrew Persons. "We have many plans and hopes for some of the developable parcels that we have across the street here. This transit hub will literally be a hub for all of that activity and an anchor for everything that's yet to come out here."

The Eastside Transfer Station will be Gainesville's newest bus station since the Butler Plaza Transfer Station opened in 2016. The Rosa Parks Transfer Station opened downtown in 2007. A fourth transfer station in the western part of the city is currently in the planning stages.

"This groundbreaking is fundamental to our student access," said Naima Brown, Santa Fe College vice president for student affairs. "They are employed and so they have to get to their jobs. They are students, so they have to get to their classes. They are parents. They have to drop off and pick up their students, and they are also seeking employment. So, they need to get to their job interviews on time and having this station here will help to support the dependability of transferring and making that connection."

Supporting the transit expansion are $37 million in federal grants to fund the purchase of 27 new fuel-efficient buses. Several of the buses, along with RTS Plus paratransit and service vehicles, were on display at the event.

"Our city runs because RTS runs. We're investing in that," said Mayor Ward.

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