Pat McDonnell, the author of the Tenney-Lapham neighborhood plan, recently sent an email to other city policy types in response to the confusion over where to put the Greyhound bus station, which has been moving around a lot lately.
The Greyhound (and Badger Bus) situation and the impending decison on the Amtrak High Speed Rail station location underscores the importance of the City establishing a Multi-Modal Transit Center. The Center would serve as the new HSR Amtrak station, the intercity bus depot, a future commuter rail stop and be easilty accessible by auto, local bus, bike and pedestrian modes - similar to Milwaukee's downtown transit center, only better.
Concentrating transit is a good idea. I don't pretend to understand the city planning implications of such a decision, but I have seen enough ragtag bus shelters to know that buses do not require particularly sophisticated stations. Put them wherever. Why not put them at the train station? Although there's nothing more charmingly Eastern European than being told you have to hike a mile from the train station to the next stage of the public transportation journey, the new transit fad is to aim for the West.
