With a brand-new bus transfer station complete, the wait for the bus should seem a lot shorter now for area passengers.

The City of Hanford and four transportation agencies celebrated the completion of the newly renovated bus depot on Seventh Street with a dedication ceremony Saturday.

The $1.5 million facility will provide a safe and secure transfer point for passengers riding Kings Area Rural Transit buses. It will also allow Amtrak passengers to access local transportation and connecting Amtrak buses.

Between 40,000 and 50,000 riders pass through the transfer station each month, said Ron Hughes, director for the KART Agency.

The new project included the newly renovated train depot, a new parking lot, permanent canopies, benches and restrooms.

Prior to the renovation, KART customers had to wait under portable sports awnings with old benches. Portable restrooms were on site but were meant only to be used by bus drivers. The nearest public restroom was at Amtrak, across the tracks.

During the dedication ceremony Saturday, city and transportation officials talked about what the new facility will mean for Hanford residents.

"You'll no longer have to go into a portable restroom when it's 110 degrees or 17 degrees in the morning," Kings County Supervisor Joe Neves said to a crowd of community members.

However, though the project is basically complete, buses won't actually begin running through the facility until next week. Some minor finishing touches still need to be completed, including the painting of canopy gutters and a minor adjustment of a guard rail, said Hughes.

The planning for the bus transfer renovation originally began in 2001, when KART was given a $400,000 grant from the state. But the grant fell through and the project was put on hold, said Hughes.

The city became involved in the project in 2005 when they needed a place to put their historic train depot. In the 1960s, the depot had been moved from its original Hanford location to Fort Roosevelt, a nature center at Roosevelt School. The depot was used as a nature museum at the school, until Fort Roosevelt fell into disrepair, and was leveled three years ago.

The depot was spared, but needed a new location. The city partnered with KART, deciding to incorporate the depot into the bus-transfer station.

In 2007, KART began renovation on the project, ripping out the building's exteriors to install sheer walls and reinforce the aged-out structure frames.

Now the building still retains its old-fashioned look, only with a bright blue metal roof, and a fresh coat of white paint. A substantial portion of the building was rebuilt.

"I wanted to keep in mind the structure -- the bones of the building -- and the architecture that was already there," said Manuel Oliveira, the architect for the renovation. "You have to respect what was here and what is going to be new so it keeps a cohesive design and keep it simple so it keeps the costs down."

The depot now has a large front room which will be used for office space, a room for the ticket-taker and a break room for the drivers. The inside bathrooms will be used for drivers' use and the outside brick bathrooms will be used for passengers.

"This is much better because they used to have these little tents," said Maria Galante, who rides the bus daily. "This is a lot nicer. We were waiting for it to open up."

The reporter can be reached at 583-2427.

(June 1, 2006)