Though it will occasion continued waiting until the city and the railroad reaches agreement to proceed on the development of the railyards, the proper place for the bus station to move is the planned intermodal center while any temporary move will satisfy few in the long term, and that is how public leadership should be thinking, for the long term.
Editorial: Greyhound on the move?
Intermodal center is still a distant dream
- Published 12:00 am PST Friday, December 8, 2006
There are two competing truths about the Greyhound bus station on L Street.
It is an eyesore and has been for decades. It's dirty and crowded. It attracts the destitute and the criminal. It is a drag on the businesses that surround it.
At the same time, it is also a vital transportation link for not only the poor who travel out of town, but also for students on a budget, the elderly and disabled people who don't drive.
For years city leaders have talked about moving the bus station to the train depot. The plan is to build a gleaming new intermodal station where train, light rail and bus passengers will make seamless transfers between the different modes of public transit, all in the midst of a vibrant new community of shops, offices and homes. This "well functioning transportation hub" that Mayor Heather Fargo and past Sacramento mayors have envisioned is supposed to rise on the redeveloped railyard.
Sadly, the promise of a new intermodal station, like the redevelopment of the railyard itself, has never been fulfilled. Meanwhile, redevelopment of downtown proceeds and Greyhound is in the way.
