Philly launches search for intercity bus station near 30th Street

Lina PortmanMay 31, 2024

1 7 minutes read

Whenever the city brings up the idea of moving its Greyhound bus terminal to a new temporary location, people inevitably have the same exasperated response: Just set that jaw on 30th Street already.

“The city needs to get off the hook and start discussing a bus terminal at the 30th Street station,” one Reddit commenter wrote last month, after news surfaced that the terminal could temporarily be transferred to a parking lot in the old town. “It’s ridiculous at this point.”

Congratulations, angry transit advocates: the city seems to have heard you.

Philadelphia recently applied for and received a $90,000 grant from the Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission “to evaluate three pre-identified potential locations for the intercity bus terminal in the 30th Street Station area.”

The project will conduct a feasibility analysis, select a preferred site and develop preliminary designs, per DVRPC. It will also “place a strong emphasis on stakeholder awareness and engagement.”

The community engagement effort would come after residents of Old Town and, previously, Northern Liberties complained they had been blindsided by draft proposals to place the bus terminal close to their homes.

The idea of consolidating intercity bus companies into a physical public terminal, complete with seating, restrooms, ticket booths and other amenities – and conveniently located near the 30th Street Amtrak station – is nothing to write home about. new.

In 2016, Amtrak itself proposed using land on Arch Street, just north of the station, an idea that the city and SEPTA later recognized in their 2021 transit vision plan. of a new intercity bus facility has been on the table for years,” the plan states.

But the problem became even more pressing last summer, when Greyhound closed its doors and sold the bus station building on Filbert Street near Chinatown that the carriers had used for decades.

Since then, buses have been picking up and dropping off passengers curbside, first on Market Street and more recently on Spring Garden Street, leaving riders exposed to the elements while they wait – and further fueling demands for that the city finally creates a suitable terminal.

Perfect location, just needs tens of millions of road works

Has the city already “pre-identified” three potential locations for a terminal?

The city's Office of Transportation and Infrastructure Systems (OTIS) did not make officials available for interviews or to answer questions about the draft assessment. However, some ideas have been put forward in the past.

A new intercity bus terminal just north of the city's Amtrak station was envisioned as part of the 30th Street Station District Plan released in 2016.

The “30th Street Station District Plan” released by Amtrak and its partners in 2016 proposed a new intercity bus facility on a narrow lot north of the station, which is technically on Schuylkill Avenue at Arch Street. He predicted the bus terminal would be built by 2025, along with other improvements such as an adjoining rideshare pickup area and a nearby pedestrian plaza on Arch Street next to the office tower Cira Center.

The land has several advantages, the report says: it could accommodate up to 11 bus bays, it is right on the highway and close to other modes of transportation, and has space for a terminal with a indoor waiting area. Passengers could go directly to the Amtrak station via a new pedestrian bridge over Arch Street or by crossing the street.

However, the site would first require significant work. To make it easily accessible to buses and pedestrians, PennDOT would have to reconfigure the nearby I-76 and I-676 ramps, which in 2016 would have cost $32 million, the Inquirer reported.

An intercity bus terminal, right, was envisioned in the 30th Street Station District plan released in 2016 by Amtrak and its partners.

It is unclear whether the Arch Street land is still in use as a potential bus terminal.

Amtrak declined to comment specifically on the terminal. Spokeswoman Beth Toll said the federal rail operator “is always open to discussing options to improve mobility and connections with other transportation providers at our stations.” It evaluates these opportunities based on whether they are useful to passengers, whether they support Amtrak's service needs and plans, and whether they provide “adequate investment and fair compensation.”

Toll said Amtrak is currently focused on the $550 million renovation of 30th Street Station, which began late last year and is expected to continue through 2027.

PennDOT spokesman Brad Rudolph said it would be “premature” to release information related to the Arch Street Terminal concept and associated roadwork.

“PennDOT will continue to work with the city and stakeholders in the 30th Street Station area on their most recent proposals, which we believe are still being developed,” he said.

Making space in an office tower?

Another option is to build a terminal west of the 30th Street station, somewhere along JFK Boulevard. Until a few years ago the street was used as a curbside collection area by Bolt Bus and Megabus. (Megabus still makes pickups on Schuylkill Avenue near Walnut Street, one block south of the station.)

This area west of the station is the site of Schuylkill Yards, a multi-property development by Cira Center developer Brandywine Realty Trust on land owned by Drexel University. A 28-story office and apartment tower was completed last year at 3025 JFK and a life sciences building at 3151 Market St. is expected to be completed next year.

Progress Made on the Schuylkill Yards Master Plan. (Schuylkill Fields)

Brandywine eventually plans to construct more buildings in the area, including a proposed 35-story office and retail tower at 3001 JFK. It's a three-minute walk from the back of the Amtrak station. Could this building be designed to accommodate a bus terminal on the ground floor?

Brandywine has reportedly been supportive of installing a bus terminal at one of its properties in the past.

In 2020, the company and the University City District contacted city officials about creating a station in the Brandywine parking lot at 30th and Chestnut, the Inquirer reported. When Greyhound decided to close its Filbert Street facility a few years later, the city asked the bus carrier to help finance the new station by paying extra for tickets, but the company refused.

In its promotional materials, Brandywine highlights Schuylkill Yard's good public transportation access, but a spokesperson declined to discuss the bus terminal. “We will not be interviewing at this time,” she said in an email.

Near the Arch Street lot, Amtrak also has a 1,500-space parking lot behind the Cira Center that could accommodate a bus terminal.

Other cities charge them

DVRPC's brief description of the grant does not specify whether seeking funding for the terminal will be part of the feasibility analysis. But this question could be essential to the success of the project.

Money has played a central role in the city's current intercity bus crisis, sparked by Flixbus' acquisition of Greyhound in 2021.

Flixbus, like Megabus and other carriers, was already limiting its expenses by paying the city a relatively low fee to use sidewalks for pickup, rather than renting terminal space. After acquiring Greyhound, it quickly sold the company's station properties in Philadelphia and many other cities, pocketed the profits, and also moved Greyhound to a curbside model.

Other cities, facing similar challenges, have responded to increased curbside pickup in various ways.

Passengers waited for their bus to arrive at the 7th and Market pickup point shared by Greyhound, Flixbus and Peter Pan in 2023. (Danya Henninger/Billy Penn)

Some, like Philadelphia, have allowed it, granting carriers permits to stop at certain locations, and charging them a fee. Others decided to provide few or no curbside permits, and instead ticketed and fined bus companies that insisted on picking up passengers on the streets.

Boston, for example, has used police enforcement against curbside pickup to pressure carriers to use its municipal terminal, South Station, where they must pay gate and ticket booth rental fees, as well as departure fees per trip.

Philadelphia was never able to follow a similar path because it lacked sufficient station space, even when the Filbert Street facilities were still open, according to a 2022 review of several cities' intercity bus operations.

If Philadelphia creates a new terminal, OTIS could decide to stop issuing curbside permits and require Greyhound and other carriers to pay fees to use the new station. The companies could comply or try to insist that the city pay for the station itself or risk losing bus service altogether.

“Access to public intermodal facilities is crucial to providing communities across the United States with intercity bus service,” a Greyhound spokesperson told CNN last year. “We strongly urge local and regional governments to support intercity bus access to these centers. »

Status quo for now

Meanwhile, most of Philadelphia's long-haul buses continue to pick up and drop off passengers on Spring Garden Street near Front Street in Northern Liberties, as they have since November.

In March, OTIS and the Philadelphia Parking Authority were working to create a long-term temporary bus terminal at a Spring Garden parking lot using modular buildings that could be erected quickly. They quickly abandoned the project and announced plans to move the bus pick-up area entirely away from Northern Liberties by Labor Day.

In April, officials said they wanted to use a garage on 2nd Street in Old Town as a terminal, according to Councilman Mark Squilla and others consulted on the proposal. The garage, which is owned by the National Park Service and operated by the PPA, already has parking spaces for buses and space for a passenger waiting area.

Nearby residents and property owners quickly organized to oppose the terminal, saying they had not been consulted and that the bus station would be too close to a daycare and other businesses.

The status of the proposal is unclear; OTIS did not provide answers to Billy Penn's questions, and a National Park Service spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment.