Southwestern College Transit Center

Rendering courtesy of Sillman

Southwestern College, in eastern Chula Vista, has long been a major transit hub in the region, served by four bus routes connecting the campus with the Blue Line, shopping centers, and stations along Rapid route 225. Since the college’s establishment in 1961, the campus and its 32 thousand students have been served by a dedicated transit center featuring six bus bays located near the front of campus. But as Southwestern College began planning to renovate much of its campus, the existing transit center would soon be succeeded by a newer one further from campus, built with the hope that it could make it safer to access transit and connect to more than just the college campus.

Planning for a new transit facility had begun as early as 2018 when the college released a Facilities Vision Plan. The original plan, however, was to move the transit center to the opposite side of the campus Ring Road in order to improve circulation, featuring only four bays. The current plan came about in the 2022 update, where the stop was to be relocated onto a portion of Parking Lot A just southwest of Otay Lakes Road.

Site plan courtesy of Sillman

In 2024, Southwestern College received 500 thousand dollars in federal funding in order to build the new facility. It would feature six bus bays similar to the old transit center, as well as three large shelters and additional seating. The transit center would be built along a brand-new bus-only road cutting across the lot between the Gotham and Elmhurst entrances. A bus only lane would be painted at the Gotham entrance in order to facilitate buses entering the transit center; the bus lane has since been removed as of opening, however. The main outcome of this move would be to turn the transit center into a community hub that would also serve the nearby neighborhoods opposite of campus in addition to Southwestern College itself. By physically moving it closer to the street instead of keeping it closer to campus, nearby residents would have easier access to the transit center.

Although the college planned to have the station opened by the summer of 2025, construction wouldn’t begin until early 2026. The project would be led by both Texas-based CORE Construction which specializes in education, healthcare, and civic projects, in addition to San Diego-based Gafcon, who have handled most of the college’s other expansion projects. Construction began concluding around August 17 when a ribbon cutting ceremony was held to celebrate the completion of the new transit center. Officials at the ceremony cited that the new location was safer as it was further away from the busy ring-road that carries vehicle traffic to and from the parking lots surrounding campus. Additionally, they mentioned that it would reduce congestion on campus as buses would no longer need to share the road with other vehicles.

Construction in July 2026 (Benji Comiskey / BuildSD)

Buses would continue to use the existing transit center until the September 6th service changes went into effect. Most of the bus routes serving campus now use the new transit center with the exception of the eastbound Route 709 which instead uses the eastbound Otay Lakes Rd & Gotham St stop. With the opening of the transit center comes a new chapter in Southwestern College’s ambitious expansion, one that will hopefully tie the communities surrounding campus much closer together.