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America's Greyhound bus stations are disappearing

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Re: America's Greyhound bus stations are disappearing

#21

Post by Spooky23 »

mcone wrote: post #16
briandear wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

The majority of Americans didn't fly anywhere last year and I'm not sure they would agree with your assessment. This is a case where more democracy — putting region airports on ballots — makes a lot of sense. If the majority of people vote for it, then by all means, subsidize it.

There is a reason why republican government is more effective than a pure democracy.

We have plenty of examples of populist idiocy. Many folks never fly - I’ve actually only ridden an airplane 8 times. But the overall benefit to society is compelling and beneficial to society.

Sports stadiums can be similar, but modern clubs want facilities who luxury features exceeds what the government should provide.

Re: America's Greyhound bus stations are disappearing

#22

Post by gambiting »

yaksha wrote: post #18
linotype wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

EVs aren’t wasteful. The US alone consumes 9 million gallons of gas a day. It’s not sustainable. If we don’t transition in the next fifty years no one will be driving except for the extraordinarily wealthy.

Do you have references backing up the claim of such gas consumption not being sustainable?

What do you mean? You do know our oil supplies are finite, right?

Re: America's Greyhound bus stations are disappearing

#23

Post by kasey_junk »

chasil wrote: post #17
kibwen wrote: post #3

> The threat of a closure has reached a stress point in Chicago because Greyhound, the largest intercity carrier in the United States, no longer owns its terminals in the city and dozens of others. Greyhound, owned by German company Flix Mobility (which also owns FlixBus), has sold its terminals to investors for lucrative redevelopment in recent years, including dozens to investment firm Alden Global Capital. Alden i…

Union Station in Chicago would be the obvious place to put Greyhound. Greyhound will never go there for one reason: it has a bar that sells alcohol. CTA also does not have a presence in Union Station for the same reason, so no subway/el or local bus presence. Metra and Amtrak are alcohol-friendly, and I've seen people boarding Metra carrying open containers quite often.

Is there some rule that CTA can’t have a station in a building with a bar? Because most of the loop subway stations skirt that pretty close.

There is a bar in the pedway between the lake redline stop and the Washington blue line stop for instance. And the merchandise mart has several bars and a brown line stop.

I’d guess that the CTA doesn’t have a presence at Union Station because of the way we carved up regional transit, not because of done alcohol policy.

Re: America's Greyhound bus stations are disappearing

#24

Post by [deleted] »

chasil wrote: post #17
kibwen wrote: post #3

> The threat of a closure has reached a stress point in Chicago because Greyhound, the largest intercity carrier in the United States, no longer owns its terminals in the city and dozens of others. Greyhound, owned by German company Flix Mobility (which also owns FlixBus), has sold its terminals to investors for lucrative redevelopment in recent years, including dozens to investment firm Alden Global Capital. Alden i…

Union Station in Chicago would be the obvious place to put Greyhound. Greyhound will never go there for one reason: it has a bar that sells alcohol. CTA also does not have a presence in Union Station for the same reason, so no subway/el or local bus presence. Metra and Amtrak are alcohol-friendly, and I've seen people boarding Metra carrying open containers quite often.

[deleted]

Re: America's Greyhound bus stations are disappearing

#25

Post by ajsnigrutin »

kibwen wrote: post #3

> The threat of a closure has reached a stress point in Chicago because Greyhound, the largest intercity carrier in the United States, no longer owns its terminals in the city and dozens of others. Greyhound, owned by German company Flix Mobility (which also owns FlixBus), has sold its terminals to investors for lucrative redevelopment in recent years, including dozens to investment firm Alden Global Capital. Alden i…

> Alden is best known for buying up local newspapers like The Chicago Tribune, New York Daily News and The Baltimore Sun, cutting staff, and selling some of their downtown buildings.

How does that work?

I mean... were the companies sold for less than the realestate was worth?

Re: America's Greyhound bus stations are disappearing

#26

Post by whartung »

edm0nd wrote: post #8
searealist wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People don't use greyhound because of the other people who use greyhound. Making this a public utility only worsens this problem.

This so much. Anyone who has ever spent time having to be stuck at a Greyhound terminal in the south knows what true hell looks like. They are full of the sketchiest people of every city. Not great places unless you are into smoking crack with homeless people and getting threatened or stabbed by them.

> They are full of the sketchiest people of every city.

Partly because the bus station opened up in the 50s and remains in the sketchiest part of the city. There was rarely any real motivation to move them.

I used to take the bus several times a year between LA and Carson City NV. A 12 hour bus ride that would take me from scenic downtown LA and eventually drop me off in Carson City at a closed bus station at 5 in the morning. The driver was able to sell tickets to folks that were just standing by the highway at designated stops in the middle of the desert on the way up. We used to stop in Mojave for dinner at the cafe next to the bus shack^H^H^H^H^Hstation. I'd pick up cool Space Shuttle on 747 postcards while I was there.

Overall the folks weren't too awful on that bus, but it surely made for a long night.

Re: America's Greyhound bus stations are disappearing

#27

Post by Marsymars »

tehjoker wrote: post #19
Reason077 wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's interesting how airports, especially regional airports, are often heavily subsidised in the US. But bus terminals, apparantely, are something that the private sector should provide without government support. Shouldn't it be the other way around?

Yes, but also airlines will completely fail without government support. The only aspect of aviation that is private is the buying a ticket and purchasing and operating planes, creating a thin fiction of a free market. Everything else is supported. The airports, the airline manufacturers (that also make expensive weapon systems via govt. contracts), the fuel system (supported by endless diplomacy, monetary policy, and…

> The airlines are critical to a big country like the US when our passenger rail networks are so slow, so the government supports it.

How does this follow? If they're critical and highly subsidized, that implies the value that people get out of tickets is much higher than what they're paying, so people should be willing to pay much higher prices if subsidies are ended.

Re: America's Greyhound bus stations are disappearing

#28

Post by sevensor »

searealist wrote: post #6
bdndndndbve wrote: post #2

It's amazing how something that should be a public utility has been carved up by private equity and sold to a foreign company. Greyhound has completely stopped operating in Canada and the impact has been tremendous.

People don't use greyhound because of the other people who use greyhound. Making this a public utility only worsens this problem.

Thank you for saying this, I was hoping somebody would bring class into it. Intercity bus lines aren’t subsidized because poor people ride buses between cities, and as a society we prefer not to subsidize poor people’s physical mobility. Physical mobility is a prerequisite for social mobility, after all.

Re: America's Greyhound bus stations are disappearing

#29

Post by kasey_junk »

kasey_junk wrote: post #23
chasil wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Union Station in Chicago would be the obvious place to put Greyhound. Greyhound will never go there for one reason: it has a bar that sells alcohol. CTA also does not have a presence in Union Station for the same reason, so no subway/el or local bus presence. Metra and Amtrak are alcohol-friendly, and I've seen people boarding Metra carrying open containers quite often.

Is there some rule that CTA can’t have a station in a building with a bar? Because most of the loop subway stations skirt that pretty close. There is a bar in the pedway between the lake redline stop and the Washington blue line stop for instance. And the merchandise mart has several bars and a brown line stop. I’d guess that the CTA doesn’t have a presence at Union Station because of the way we carved up regional tr…

That also doesn’t account for the CTA Union Transit center which is a bus terminus across the street from Union Station (and next to an outdoor pavilion with 2 bars).

Re: America's Greyhound bus stations are disappearing

#30

Post by oldnetguy »

searealist wrote: post #6
bdndndndbve wrote: post #2

It's amazing how something that should be a public utility has been carved up by private equity and sold to a foreign company. Greyhound has completely stopped operating in Canada and the impact has been tremendous.

People don't use greyhound because of the other people who use greyhound. Making this a public utility only worsens this problem.

Took a bus to Atlantic City, people played music and smoked in the bus.

If no one drives me, I will never go back.

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