Work continues on Alice transit facility to expand rural mobility
Crews are building Alice’s $22.7 million transit hub, but Jim Wells County riders are still waiting on the transfer stations, park-and-ride lots and mobility connections it is meant to deliver.
Work is continuing on the REAL Inc. Multi-Modal Transit Facility in Alice, a $22,689,506 project at 349 FM 1554 that is meant to reshape how residents in Jim Wells County move to work, school, health care and other daily destinations. The facility is designed to add a new REAL administrative office, bus transfer stations, passenger and driver amenities, park-and-ride space and ride-sharing services.
Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation records list the project start date as Sept. 3, 2024, with a completion date of March 3, 2026. Local reporting later put the expected finish in July 2026, and crews are still active on the site as the project moves toward full operation. For riders who depend on public transportation, the key question is no longer whether the building is rising, but when the new service points will actually open.
Project materials describe a 17,000-square-foot administration building and an 11,600-square-foot maintenance building that will handle bus and fleet servicing. Those additions are meant to support a regional transportation headquarters in Alice, where REAL, Inc. held a groundbreaking ceremony on March 12, 2025, at the future site on Farm-to-Market 1554.
REAL says it has provided transportation service in the Coastal Bend for more than 28 years and serves nine South Texas counties, including Jim Wells, San Patricio, Aransas, Bee, Brooks, Duval, Jim Hogg, Live Oak and Refugio counties. Its transit service is aimed at the general public, seniors, persons with disabilities and transit-dependent riders.
The stakes are practical in rural South Texas, where a ride to a job site, a clinic, a classroom or a grocery store can depend on whether a transit system is available and reliable. The City of Alice has described REAL Transit as an essential public service for employment, education, health care and daily life, making the new facility more than a construction project. It is the infrastructure that will determine whether Alice becomes a stronger hub for countywide mobility or simply a site where a major investment is still waiting to translate into daily access for local riders.
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