Philly’s Greyhound bus ‘station’ is a humanitarian disaster and a municipal disgrace

One block from the Liberty Bell and the birthplace of American democracy, a contingent of weary travelers gathers daily on the Market Street sidewalk, waiting to move to their next destination. They sit on roller suitcases, building ledges, the sidewalk itself. Desperate for relief from the scorching heat and stinging rain, some seek cover under the awning of the U.S. courthouse across the street. But they are quickly sent back to their baking patch of concrete by security officers, who make it clear they are not allowed on federal property.

These are the conditions at Philadelphia’s newest transportation hub, the relocated Greyhound bus “station” — with the word station intentionally in quotes.

After nearly four decades as the signature tenant in a full-service bus terminal on Filbert Street, Greyhound announced last month that it was giving up the building and reconstituting itself as a curbside carrier. Since two intercity bus companies — Megabus and FlixBus — were already operating on the 600 block of Market, the Streets Department figured it made sense to let Greyhound join them.

Rarely has a single government decision unleashed such chaos. What’s happening on Market Street is a humanitarian disaster, a municipal disgrace, an economic assault on struggling businesses, and a major blow to SEPTA’s efforts to keep its own buses on schedule.

Philadelphia, of course, is not the only American city that has become inured to this particularly callous transportation model. Since low-cost operators such as Megabus began emerging in the early 2000s, much of the intercity bus business has shifted to sidewalk locations. At first, the new carriers seemed to be an improvement, with their sleek, WiFi-equipped coaches and bargain fares. But as their popularity grew, it became clear that the curbside arrangement was little more than a rapacious business strategy that enabled them to avoid paying docking fees at bus terminals.

Greyhound, which first began running buses from Minnesota in 1914, has a long and proud history as a national transportation company. With 1,700 destinations, it knits America together in a way our rail system no longer can, making it possible for car-less, low-income people to visit family, find work and travel to college. Many of its downtown terminals are architectural gems.

But after the German-owned FlixBus acquired Greyhound in 2021, the new owner spun off the carrier’s American real estate to a subsidiary of Alden Global Capital, the same hedge fund that has been buying up local newspapers and selling off their buildings. Greyhound immediately began leaving its former terminals and severing leases in rented depots, including ones in Los Angeles, Cincinnati, Louisville and Charlottesville, N.C. Passengers were literally kicked to the curb.

With Greyhound’s exit from Filbert Street, Philadelphia becomes the latest American city to lose its downtown bus terminal. It has been suggested in news reports and on social media that the company was pushed out of the Filbert Street depot by the Sixers, who hope to acquire the site for a new arena. Although Greyhound did not respond to a request for comment, it seems more likely that the company gave up the terminal to better compete with the other curbside carriers.

Of course, Greyhound’s Filbert Street building was not exactly a nice place to wait for a bus. A cramped, one-story bunker, it was as worn out and dusty as a long-distance traveler. But at least it offered protection from the elements, an acceptable restroom, and an assortment of vending machine food. At Greyhound’s new storefront ticket office, there are no awnings, no toilets, and definitely no snacks.

Nor are there any boarding platforms. Greyhound buses wait in the dedicated bus lane that the city had set aside for SEPTA, idling their engines and spewing exhaust.

Richard Montanez, the deputy commissioner for the Streets Department, acknowledged in an interview that the problems at Greyhound’s new location are much worse than anyone anticipated. Yet city officials have known for years that the growing number of curbside carriers in Philadelphia was becoming a crisis.

As far back as 2009, planners began talking about establishing a municipally run central bus station, similar to ones created in Boston, Denver and Washington, D.C. City planners contributed to two studies pinpointing possible locations. One of those plans, commissioned by Amtrak, even offered a detailed proposal for an intercity bus terminal on the north side of William H. Gray III/30th Street Station. But neither Mayor Michael Nutter nor Mayor Jim Kenney took interest in the issue, and those plans went straight onto a shelf.

The problem remained, however. In 2020, after Megabus was evicted from its sidewalk location at 30th and Arch to make way for a high-rise building, the University City District began working with Brandywine Realty Trust to find a solution. The pair reached out to city officials and asked them to help develop a permanent bus station in Brandywine’s parking garage at 30th and Chestnut.

Once again, inertia prevailed. Megabus ended up moving to another barren sidewalk in 2021, this time on a newly reconstructed stretch of Schuylkill Avenue.

Then, in 2022, Greyhound informed the Streets Department that it was ending its lease on Filbert Street. According to Montanez, the city started talks with Greyhound to develop a bus terminal in the Brandywine garage. But he said Greyhound refused to help fund the project because it would have meant adding a ticket surcharge to cover maintenance costs

Of course it rejected the proposal. The Streets Department charges $5,000 annually for every 20 feet of curb space Greyhound uses, a fraction of the rent it would pay in a terminal. Why would Greyhound agree to subsidize a municipal terminal when it can get the curb for a song?

But that doesn’t mean the city has to go along with what Greyhound wants. The Streets Department has jurisdiction over Philadelphia’s streets and can deny bus carriers permission to park at the curb — just as it has done with many outdoor dining sheds.

That’s exactly the approach that Boston and Washington took. Rather than let the carriers colonize their sidewalks, they built municipal bus stations and negotiated leases with the intercity carriers. Curbside pickups in their downtowns were vigorously discouraged. Both terminals are next to train stations to make it easy for travelers to transfer between trains and buses. Washington even managed to insert an award-winning terminal in an existing parking garage.

Philadelphia’s new Greyhound location isn’t just unpleasant for long-distance travelers; it has also undermined SEPTA, which is struggling to recover from its pandemic ridership losses.

When I stopped by the other day, five Greyhound and Peter Pan buses were lined up nose-to-tail in the dedicated SEPTA bus lane, which was created to help city buses avoid traffic congestion and improve their on-time performance. Although the dedicated lane was created years ago, it was just given a bright coat of red paint in May — by the Streets Department, no less — to signal motorists to stay out of SEPTA’s space.

Perhaps the most astounding detail in this sorry saga is that SEPTA and Councilman Mark Squilla both say that the Streets Department failed to give them advance notice before relocating Greyhound to Seventh and Market.

Greyhound’s permit to move its operation to Market Street was negotiated in late 2022 and became effective Jan. 1, 2023, yet Chris Valentin, who handles bus operations for SEPTA, told me he did not learn about the decision until late June, while he was walking along Market Street.

At first, Valentin thought it was a temporary situation, caused by some problem at Greyhound’s terminal. But when he saw Greyhound buses arrayed in SEPTA’s lane three days later, “that’s when I realized, ‘Oh, they’ve moved the Greyhound station.”

Squilla, whose district includes East Market Street, told me he didn’t learn about Greyhound’s move until he started getting complaints from local merchants about large numbers of people splayed on the sidewalk. East Market Street was hit harder than many commercial streets during the pandemic, and he worries that the chaos at the Greyhound stop will further hamper efforts to attract and retain shops and offices.

Although FlixBus and Megabus have been picking up passengers at Sixth and Market for several years, Greyhound is a different business. The first two companies serve a relatively small number of cities; Greyhound operates a comprehensive network that covers all of North America. It handles many more buses in Philadelphia than its competitors. Many of those unfortunate Greyhound passengers waiting on Market Street are here to transfer buses. They come with luggage and often need to wait hours for their connection.

Adding to the chaos are private motorists, who constantly slip into SEPTA’s bus lane to drop off luggage-laden passengers. Between the intercity buses and the auto drop-offs, SEPTA’s drivers can barely pull their buses over to the Sixth Street curb to let off passengers.

Joseph P. Schwieterman, a DePaul University professor and the nation’s premier expert on intercity bus travel, was astounded by how poorly Philadelphia handled Greyhound’s transition. “Few cities have such a chaotic configuration as Philadelphia,” he told me, and noted that 15 of the 25 largest metro areas have already taken steps to create some kind of municipal bus terminal.

Unlike Amtrak and the nation’s airports, bus carriers don’t receive federal subsidies, even though they serve a poorer population. Intercity buses also carry twice as many passengers as Amtrak and help fight climate change by keeping cars off the road.

Yet, if you ride Amtrak from Philadelphia, you get to wait in a soaring, climate-controlled cathedral on 30th Street. Those who take the bus are cast into the street. The lack of a decent bus terminals is one of Philadelphia’s great overlooked equity issues.

At the same time, intercity buses are crucial to Philadelphia’s post-pandemic economic recovery. Philadelphia needs high-quality transit at all levels — SEPTA, intercity buses, rail — so it’s easy for workers and tourists to travel to Center City. Incidentally, it wasn’t just Greyhound that pulled out of Filbert Street; so did NJ Transit. Because South Jersey bus riders now have to change in Camden for PATCO, they face longer commutes, surely a disincentive to working in Center City.

Montanez noted that Greyhound’s Market Street permit expires at the end of the year. He plans to meet with SEPTA, Squilla and other stakeholders to explore alternative sites. One possibility is the parking lot behind the former police headquarters, at Eighth and Race Streets.

That means the question of where to temporarily locate intercity buses could be decided before the next mayor takes office. But even if Greyhound ends up at the Roundhouse, that shouldn’t be the end of the road. We need a municipal bus station that treats travelers, and the city’s sidewalks, with the dignity they both deserve.

Note: This story was updated to clarify the Sixers role in Greyhound’s departure from Filbert Street.