Chestnut Street Multimodal Station Breaks Ground in Ohio

A rendering of the Chestnut Street Station, expected to open 2025.

Courtesy of Butler County RTA

OXFORD, Ohio – The $16.9 million multimodal station project has broken ground in Butler County.

On Friday, January 19, 2024, the Chestnut Street Multimodal Station project broke ground. In a partnership with the Butler County RTA, Miami University, the city of Oxford and Talawanda Schools, the $16.9 million station “has been more than a decade in the making,” according to a report from Journal-News in Butler County.

Chantel Raghu, Vice Mayor of Oxford, commented: “We don’t do anything without public support. . . This facility is more than just a beautiful building – and it is a really beautiful building – It is the freedom of people to move about. It means they have the freedom to go to their job, they have the freedom to go to their doctor, and this impacts our elderly population, first and foremost, who no longer can drive, and people with disabilities. This is an amazing thing. This is transformative.”

Scheduled to open in late 2025, the Chestnut Street Multimodal Station “will feature services for RTA and regional buses, state-of-the-art passenger waiting areas, public restrooms, bike storage, real-time transit information, passenger kiosks with customer service, and intermodal transfer days.” For rail, a platform for Amtrak’s Cardinal line is expected to be operational by 2026. 

According to the report, funding for the project came from several sources with $1.5 million from Miami university and $2.4 million from Butler County RTA. Both have also partnered to raise more than $5 million for the project. For passenger rail, over $2 million came from the Ohio Kentucky Indiana Regional Council of Governments.

Matthew Dutkevicz, Butler County RTA Executive Director, said on Friday: “We’ve been working a long time working with our local and federal partners to make sure we come up with the right plan, talk with the community and get this project funded. . . We’re so excited to be able to stand on a shovel today.”