Trains and buses

8/2/01

The city has a plan to bring Amtrak into a proposed intermodal transportation center in Memorial Auditorium. However, it doesn't have any immediate plans on how to bring Greyhound to the facility - only good intentions and a vague notion of sticking the bus service into the second phase of an intermodal center project that would include Metro Rail.

Here's the problem: Greyhound's lease at the Ellicott Street terminal expires next summer, and it has to sit down with the Niagara Frontier Transportation Authority to negotiate a new one. The bus company's last lease was for 25 years.

Therefore, the concerns of Assemblyman Sam Hoyt that Greyhound could get left out of the intermodal project appear to be valid. If the city is truly interested in getting Greyhound into the intermodal mix, it needs to act quickly.

The potential exists to reach critical transportation mass at the Aud, which would make the proposed intermodal transportation center work. The city is looking at using the front end of the Aud for the transportation center that would bring Amtrak and light-rail facilities together. But planners should do whatever they can to make Greyhound part of the mix, in light of the fact that it already serves about 900,000 passengers a year.

Bringing Greyhound into the package would make even more sense if the city is successful in attracting a Bass Pro Shop to the Aud. The Bass Pro store would be expected to attract customers from as far away as Syracuse and Pittsburgh. The original 300,000-square-foot Bass Pro in Springfield is one of the biggest tourist attractions in Missouri, according to a company spokesman.

The feds, with the help of Rep. Jack Quinn, R-Hamburg, have already agreed to provide the bulk of the $8.1 million being considered for the proposed transportation center. That's enough money for the project's first phase, which is a train station.

But the city hasn't been able to give Greyhound definitive answers on a timetable for including facilities for its operation because it doesn't know when construction on the intermodal facility will occur. City officials say they would like Greyhound to be a part of the facility, but point to the large amount of work it will take to retrofit the Aud and the limited resources available.

It's unlikely Greyhound will think about a short-term lease elsewhere without some assurances from the city that the company will be included in plans for an intermodal center at the Aud. The company is scheduled to meet with the NFTA on Aug. 24.

It just makes sense to include Greyhound in any intermodal transportation plan. As Hoyt said, there's the potential to reach critical mass with a combined facility. The city needs to give Greyhound assurances that it will be part of any intermodal mix.