Greyhound is closing some stations and moving toward curbside pickup
Greyhound is closing some stations and moving toward curbside pickup
A bunch of Greyhound bus stations across the country are closing, including some in cities like Philadelphia and Tampa, Florida. Twenty Lake Holdings, an affiliate of a hedge fund, owns the real estate and has been putting a portion of its property up for sale. That means Greyhound has been relocating some stations to the suburbs and in some cases, moving to curbside pickup points.
Greyhound was once synonymous with intercity bus transportation. But in the 1990s and early aughts, new bus companies like Megabus arrived on the scene.
“They didn’t have bus stations. They didn’t have baggage handlers. They didn’t have a lot of things. They basically just had drivers,” said Randal O’Toole, a transportation policy analyst at the Thoreau Institute.
Greyhound wants to copy the stationless model, O’Toole said, adding that it can be good for passengers.
“If you have a choice between going for $30 and have a station or $10 and have a curbside stop, you’re going to choose $10,” he said.
But Nick Klein, who teaches transportation planning at Cornell, said bus stations are important infrastructure for travelers.
“Very few people would say their favorite place to hang out for an afternoon is a bus terminal. But they offer shelter, they offer stores to get something to eat, they offer a bathroom,” he said.
And they offer a safe place to wait.
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