Oregon U.S. Congressman Peter DeFazio visited Eugene Wednesday to preview the long anticipated EmX West corridor and the many infrastructural improvements that were a part of the project.
Congressman DeFazio, Oregon State Senator James Manning as well as members of the LTD board or directors took a 30 minute tour of the new EmX route that will open officially September 17th. DeFazio says the project will help keep traffic flowing as Eugene’s population continues to grow.
“Some people today look around Eugene and say ‘oh, we don’t really need this.' Well we do already need it and in the future we’re really going to need to have this option to move people around, particularly students and others who use it at a very high rate," says DeFazio
Along with the addition of the EmX West corridor, LTD has also increased service to West Eugene by 40 percent. The new route connects an area of Eugene that has historically been underserved. In all, the expanded EmX system will link over 52,000 people with 80,000 jobs within a half mile of the route.
