GRAND RAPIDS, MI — Transit officials kickstarted a roughly $600,000 study this week that could result in a second bus rapid transit line in Greater Grand Rapids.

The Interurban Transit Partnership on Wednesday green-lit what is expected to be a 15-month study into the feasibility of a 12-mile "Laker Line" between Grand Valley State University and downtown Grand Rapids on Lake Michigan Drive.

Planners are expected to begin the study in May or June. The Rapid nabbed a $600,000 federal grant to pay for the study in October 2011.

"It's a very exciting project," ITP Chairwoman Barb Holt said. "It's going to involve a whole lot of public interaction, a lot of public comment."

The study's approval comes less than two weeks after an official project groundbreaking for a $40-million bus rapid transit Silver Line being built between Wyoming and Grand Rapids.

Once operational in August 2014, the Silver Line will ferry passengers along a 9.6-mile stretch between 60th Street and downtown's Medical Mile in 40 percent less time than a regular bus.

The possibility of a Laker Line — so-called for GVSU's sports moniker — has been on the ITP's radar for years.

It first was identified as a potential bus rapid transit corridor during years-long planning that resulted in the Silver Line, and is included as such in The Rapid's 20-year master plan.

GVSU now pays The Rapid around $2.6 million each year for contracted services that include the Campus Connector route between its Allendale campus and downtown Grand Rapids. Part of that agreement gives free rides on the route to ID-wielding students.

How much the Laker Line would cost, where the money would come from, what it might look like and its ultimate route will be among points determined by the study approved Wednesday at the ITP Board of Directors meeting, spokeswoman Jennifer Kalczuk said.

The firm awarded the roughly $600,000 contract to undertake the study, URS Corporation, is expected to log more than 4,300 hours on the study. The San Francisco-based design firm maintains an office in Grand Rapids.

Given the decade it took the ITP to get its first bus rapid transit line going, the Laker Line is years out, Holt said. It could take as many as five or six year to get the Laker Line up and running.

Still, Conrad Venema, The Rapid's strategic planning manager, told ITP members the agency's success with the Silver Line primes it for an easier road to getting a second bus rapid transit system going.

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