A letter from a concerned citizen . . .
I am writing because I am disappointed with the current Greyhound bus situation in Madison, Wisconsin. I am not sure why a perfectly good bus depot was leveled to make way for a CVS pharmacy and some apartments, but regardless, we need to have a permanent station/stop where people can buy tickets. Here’s my story:
My brother, who is taking a break from college to be an Americorps volunteer for a year, came to visit me last week and arrived at the Kelly’s Market on West Washington (across the street from the former station) no problem. We checked the Greyhound bus web site several times (including this morning) and saw that today’s Greyhound would be again leaving for Chicago from Kelly’s Market and that ticketing was available there. When we arrived at Kelly’s Market, the news was not good. A worker there told us that they didn’t sell tickets and that they had told Greyhound this and that Greyhound won’t take that erroneous information off their web site.
Far worse, they said that Greyhound wasn’t stopping at Kelly’s Market anymore starting today. The worker said that “people didn’t want Greyhound here” and that “the Madison Police came by and told us that Greyhound wasn’t coming.” We were directed to the Memorial Union but told they don’t sell tickets there either. The bus was supposed to leave in 7 minutes. We rushed as fast as we reasonably could on the snowy roads and got to the Union just before the bus left. Fortunately, the bus driver was extremely nice and let my brother on the bus and buy a ticket en route when they stopped in Milwaukee.
I am extremely disappointed at the way the Greyhound situation was handled. We should be encouraging more public transportation, not making it difficult. I don’t understand why Greyhound couldn’t continue to stop at Kelly’s Market – is it because it’s embarrassing to have the buses stop so close to the former station? Is it due to class-ism? I hope when and if the stops move again, there can be much, much more notice and I hope Greyhound will update their web site in a timely and accurate fashion.
I am cc’ing some news sources on this email because I think the word needs to get out and permanent, accessible, ticket-selling Greyhound stop needs to be re-established in Madison.
Thank you for your time.
Jessica King
Madison, WI
This situation was predictable.
And odd, given how much value the city council placed on having a train station downtown, bike boxes, etc…
Why did they not buy the land? They had the money. They bought the car dealership land east of the capital. They bought land for a parking garage. They bought Union Corners.
Why did they not consider acquiring this parcel for continuing bus service?
I agree. This situation is a prime example of why private enterprise cannot be left to its own desires. It does not work. We need reliable public transportation. The same situation exists with Amtrack in Tomah, WI. No tickets can be purchased in the city…only via the mail by phone or via the internet. Not everyone has the internet. Fortunately, I do. At least the station has not moved. Republicans: You lie! We DO need big government and we need to rebuild our transportation infrastructure.
This tragedy has been known for a while, and the Madison Peak Oil Group along with the Madison Area Bus Advocates went to meeting after meeting trying to alert public officials to the impending disaster — Madison’s Transit and Parking Commission, its Long Range Transportation Planning Commission, its Plan Commission and finally its Common Council. The reaction? Nigh unanimous support for Badger Bus’s plan to tear down its depot and put a drive-through pharmacy there instead. Look for instance at http://www.busadvocates.org/misc/June09joint.html.
Do you see a classist aspect to having enthusiasm over a downtown rail depot but a laissez faire attitude toward an existing bus depot on the part of Madison officials? Stand up for Social Justice and join the Madison Area Bus Advocates. Check out our website (www.busadvocates.org) and join online or by mail. Or at least join our Yahoo! email listserve for free.
We will need a bus station downtown again before this is over. We will find that busing in from Sun Prairie, Lodi, Waunakee, and the burbs will happen in earnest once gasoline gets into the $7-$8 range.
By-the-by… a well placed bus depot would really support the rent-a-bike kiosk initiative or vice-versa.
For the alders and municipal poo-bahs to fund bike kiosks but deny a downtown bus depot is really hard to understand… conceptually they go together. Don’t they???