[fcb-l] Sarasota Greyhound Bus Station Closes

[Gbhgirl at aol.com]

Hello Friends, 
 
It was a sad day when I learned of the Greyhound Bus Station closing.   
Below is an article by a North Port Sun Herald reporter.  Hopefully, this  
article will inform Sarasota County Commissioners and other officials about what 
 is going on with Greyhound and how it impacts people's lives..
 
Barbara Grill
 
 
Ran  10/21/10

County ‘missing the boat ... er, the bus’
Greyhound may see  Sarasota as ‘a prime location for travel’

By ED SCOTT
Staff  Writer

SARASOTA COUNTY — A Sarasota-area resident for 50 years, Barbara  Grill 
came here from Philadelphia.
“I always traveled on Greyhound and  Trailways until Trailways departed 
sometime in the 1970s,” Grill wrote recently  in an e-mail. “Most of my 
travels were between Florida cities — Sarasota to  Tampa, Tallahassee, St. Pete, 
Naples or Daytona. Greyhound had always been a  reliable service for me.”
But the circumstances are different  now. 

“Imagine  my shock when I learned early this year, while trying to
schedule another  trip, that the Sarasota Greyhound bus station   had 
closed,” said  Grill, 72, who hasn’t driven for 40 years due to an eye disease.  

“As I  recall, I had a sinking feeling in my stomach, hearing that
terrible news.  Instantly, I realized that we who reside in Sarasota, and 
do not drive, are  isolated and locked in with no inter-city transportation 
options. It is a  terrible feeling. I know that I cannot stay in a place that 
has no good  transportation options to the outside world.” 

Greyhound  Bus Lines first came to Sarasota and Charlotte counties in the 
late 1930s or  early 1940s, the company says. But since last year, when 
Greyhound left downtown  Sarasota because its lease expired for a station on U.S. 
301 at Sixth Street,  many Sarasota County residents who have wanted to “Go 
Greyhound” have been  forced to go first to Bradenton, the nearest station 
to the north. 

But Grill  says it costs $45 to take a taxi one way to that Greyhound “
agency,” a franchise  station in downtown Bradenton. The company still offers 
service at an agency —  the Shell station at 900 Kings Highway in Port 
Charlotte — and a bus stop at  26505 N. Jones Loop Road in Punta Gorda. 

Since March, Sarasota County officials have been working to  bring the bus 
line back to Sarasota. Greyhound’s long-term solution in Sarasota  County 
may be the new Cattleman-Bahia Vista transfer station, scheduled for  
completion in September 2011, Sarasota County Area Transit Senior Planner Sarah  
Blanchard said. “They have contacted us and they are very interested in coming  
back in, because they have heard from the riders that they need a stop in  
Sarasota,” she said. Those negotiations broke down for an unspecified 
reason,  according to Greyhound spokesman Timothy Stokes.
However, Greyhound is open to  more discussions, he said.
“We’d want a location that accommodates both the  company and our 
passengers. We could see it (Sarasota) as a prime location for  travel.” With the 
Kings Highway drop-off point so close to Interstate 75 in Port  Charlotte, 
Stokes is not aware of any plans to establish an agency in nearby  North Port, 
the largest city in Sarasota County. “That’s something they (company  
officials) would have to review when evaluating the location,” he said.  

On Monday, shortly  after noon, the sky was blue in Port Charlotte as a 
handful of passengers stood  outside the Shell station, awaiting the northbound 
Greyhound bus. Clement  Barabash of San Francisco was going to New Orleans 
to catch a plane home, after  spending time here with his brother. Paul 
Wedekind and Ben Lewis of northwest  Pennsylvania were returning home after 
attending a wedding. Emmanuel Desinor of  Port Charlotte was headed to Alabama. 

Wedekind, from Titusville,  Pa., said his wife and daughter — who had time 
constraints — flew down to  Florida for $60 less than it cost him to go by 
bus. “It’s nice that they are  driving,” Wedekind said of his Greyhound 
trip. “I think they could improve their  equipment a little bit. When you are 
going down the road and every time you go  over a bridge and you hear metal 
clanging on metal, that’s not good. But the  newer ones (buses), they are nice 
and comfortable.” 

Last year, Greyhound  introduced more than 100 new buses with free wireless 
Internet, power outlets,  extra leg room, leather seats and seat belts, in 
northeast states. 

Desinor, a native of Haiti who has lived in the United States  for
about 20 years, says Greyhound is convenient.  “I think it’s better  
sometimes to take Greyhound,” he said. “Depending on where you go, it helps you  
a lot.” 

Barabash, a native of Brazil  who spent a week in Port Charlotte, joked 
that he likes Greyhound because “it’s  slow. If you don’t really want to get 
to where you’re going, take  Greyhound.” 

Sarasota County commissioners  suggested that Greyhound establish a 
short-term drop-off point at Sam’s Club or  Lowe’s Home Improvement store, both in 
the vicinity of where Fruitville Road and  Interstate 75 meet. Staff will 
review those locations and other possibilities,  such as a former Amtrak 
drop-off location on Clark Road, west of the interstate,  Blanchard said.
Other than terminals, many Greyhound buses operate out of  gas
stations, convenience stores and motels, Stokes said. He is not aware of  
Greyhound stops at any Sam’s Club or Lowe’s around the country, but says, “
Every  year we evaluate our routes and see where different agencies or stops 
need to be  implemented.” 
Meanwhile, Grill says Amtrak, the  federally funded train service,
serves Sarasota with its Thruway Motorcoach  bus connections to the Tampa 
and Orlando train stations. “I was a member of the  Amtrak Customer Advisory 
Committee for a number of years,” she said. “I rode  trains throughout all 
of the U.S. But primarily, we who do not drive rely upon  bus service to get 
to neighboring counties.”
Retired after owning a number of  small businesses, Grill now is a member 
of the Sarasota County Citizens Advisory  Committee for Public 
Transportation. She says there are alternatives to  Greyhound, such as Orlando-based 
RedCoach, which provides bus service between  Orlando, Tampa, Miami, Gainesville, 
Tallahassee, Fort Lauderdale, Lake Worth and  Atlanta.
Florencia Cirigliano, RedCoach  marketing manager, says the company may 
expand into Sarasota in 2011.
“If Greyhound will not service  Sarasota, our elected officials should 
explore this option for ‘public  transportation’ deprived residents,” Grill 
said. “We’re missing the boat ...  ’er, missing the bus, in Sarasota, in 
having to drive up to Bradenton,” Sarasota  County Commissioner Jon Thaxton said 
of many county residents’ shortest trek to  a Greyhound station. 

E-mail:  _escott at sun-herald.com_ (mailto:escott at sun-herald.com) 
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