Bus Terminal Drives Some To Flights Of Fancy
Allentown was waiting to board a bus home yesterday when she took one long, last look around Philadelphia's brand-new Center City bus terminal. She liked what she saw.
"I've been in a lot of bus terminals in my day, but this one is really nice," Holliston said. "It's more like an airport than a bus station."
Tony Roberts of North Philadelphia, a Navy seaman stationed at Norfolk, Va., who said he's seen his share of bus terminals, agreed: "This thing is a different world from the old Philly terminals."
They were not alone in their assessments. Many travelers using the city's new consolidated Greyhound and Trailways bus terminal at 10th and Filbert Streets seemed to think the busy, sparkling- clean terminal is a quantum jump over the often-seedy Philadelphia bus terminals of the past.
The new terminal, which became fully operational three weeks ago, replaces a couple of bus stations that had seen better days. The old Greyhound terminal at 17th and Market Streets had a faded, nondescript institutional environment, while the old Trailways terminal suffered from its location near the porno shops and peep shows at 13th and Arch Streets. Both are now closed.
And it replaces them with a single terminal that handles nine different bus lines, including Greyhound and Trailways, in a pleasant new facility that uses airport-style TV screens with arrival and departure information updated every few minutes.
''The decline in the bus industry is over, and we decided that it was time to upgrade our facilities and terminals," said Sheryl Steward, a spokeswoman for Greyhound at the bus line's Dallas headquarters.
"One of the things we are selling on Greyhound and Trailways is a safe and pleasant trip, and we felt that includes a pleasant and upgraded terminal facility," she added.
The new one-story bus terminal is located just north of the Gallery and across the street from the Market East commuter rail station. It is built on the site of the old Harrison Court building, which was destroyed by fire in 1984.
To make the wait for buses less boring, the terminal has several rows of seats equipped with coin-operated television sets. Also noticeable is the presence of uniformed security guards, which Greyhound officials said was designed to keep the terminal pleasant and upgraded.
The decision to have all of the city's long-distance bus service consolidated at a single terminal was an outgrowth of Greyhound's purchase of Trailways Lines Inc. On July 14, the two bus-transportation giants began operating as one line, although Trailways is retaining its own name and "Big Red" slogan.
In addition to Greyhound and Trailways buses, the terminal serves a variety of other bus lines, including Martz Trailways, Carl R. Bieber Tourways, Capitol Trailways, and NJ Transit's Jersey shore buses.
On an average day, Greyhound officials said, about 215 buses use the new terminal's 14 bus bays.
Greyhound designed the new terminal and leases it from a developer, Richard I. Rubin & Co., because the developer is part of a team that is planning to build a 56-story office building on the site of Greyhound's old home in the 1700 block of Market Street. The Rubin firm, which had leased the Market Street terminal to Greyhound, built the new facility so that Greyhound could vacate the site on which the new tower will be built.
The terminal is an example of the new style of station that the bus company has been designing in recent years, Steward said.
"The main idea is consolidation, so that a passenger doesn't have to walk across the street or across town to get to another bus line. Obviously, since Trailways and Greyhound began operating as one carrier, we're in a position to develop a strong national bus transportation network," she said.
"And while we didn't set out to design these new terminals like airports, they have the same feeling because they're all on one level - the ticket counters, the waiting areas, and the bus bays."
Steward said the routes of the buses using the facility were designed so that the vehicles would not pass through Chinatown. Community representatives
from Chinatown had opposed the location of the terminal, citing concerns that increased traffic congestion could affect their neighborhood. But the Rubin firm pledged that no buses would travel through Chinatown going to or coming
from the new terminals.
Susan Moy, an official of the Philadelphia Chinatown Development Corp., said she and others had monitored increased bus traffic in Chinatown, but she added that she believed Rubin and Greyhound officials were working to alleviate the problem.
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