MetroLINK: A Community Partner HE RIVERFRONT WAS lined with empty roads and factories in Moline, Illinois, aft er the meltdown of the economy. Home to the world headquarters of John Deere, the company dedicated to those linked to the land knew it needed to fi gure out a way to reinvest and ignite the community to help it transform away from the blue-collar factory and create an economy that was more diverse and more sustainable. Rock Island County Metropolitan Mass Transit District (MetroLINK) General Manager Jeff Nelson said John Deere was heavily involved in creating an entertainment district. At the time, Moline didn’t really have a civic center. John Deere donated the land of one of its old factories, cleared the land and made a considerable multi-million dollar investment in a civic center. It was a civic center without any restaurants or bars, so HOK 10 | Mass Transit | MassTransitmag.com | MARCH 2017 was hired to come in and do a downtown land snapshot to visualize, what would a robust downtown look like? While the current director at the civic center wanted to knock everything down for acres of parking around the center, HOK came back and said no, you can’t do that. “HOK was big on looking into the future of what public transportation’s role was going to be,” said Nelson. “We were invited to the table to build our new downtown transit center right in the middle of this. “A community our size usually throws transit out down the street and around the corner,” Nelson said. But here, MetroLINK built its Centre Station, an intermodal transit hub, right in the middle of the $190 million development. By Leah Harnack The Quad Cities has seen a transformation and MetroLINK has been a part of that transformation by being involved and fi nding community partners. By the Numbers 85% CNG Fleet More than 3.5M rides per year 3 Channel Cat Water Taxis
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