The city wants to install a heated shelter at the Greyhound bus terminal. Neighbors are not happy.

With the Philly weather feeling more like winter by the day, the city wants to install a heated shelter at the bus terminal on Spring Garden Street, where passengers have to brave the elements while waiting outside for their ride.

But Northern Liberties community members are not happy about it.

Jeff Hornstein, the president of the Northern Liberties Neighbors Association (NLNA), was angered by the city’s initial plan to install the shelter with little notice.

“For the neighborhood, it just feels like a total lack of respect: ‘We dropped something pretty significant in the middle of your neighborhood, and we haven’t had the respect for you to actually include you as a partner in decision-making,’” he said.

Hornstein said on Nov. 15 NLNA received notice from the city’s Office of Transportation and Infrastructure Systems (OTIS) that it was planning to install a heated shelter on the street and sidewalk at the Spring Garden bus terminal area by the following week.

NLNA objected strongly to the plan and the abrupt nature of the notice. The city pulled back and agreed to hear more from community members before a shelter plan is finalized. But since then, Hornstein said, the city has largely kept him, NLNA, and the community in the dark as to what comes next.

“We want to work with the community, but at the same time we’re interested in bringing that to a head before things get too cold,” said Michael Carroll, the deputy managing director of OTIS.

Carroll said there is no timeline for installing the shelter. But the department has shifted another timeline; while the city originally intended to move the bus terminal from Spring Garden to another interim location by Labor Day of this year, now its goal is to move by spring 2026.

OTIS said that it planned for the shelter to be a converted semitrailer, with sides that open and extend outward up to 600 square feet. Currently, the only weather protection that the area offers is the I-95 overpass and the overhead El tracks. The city would relocate a portable bathroom it already has at the terminal closer to the shelter and plans to install a security booth.

But Hornstein said that in OTIS’ notice, the city also planned to make part of Front Street into a one-way street, which he said would create even more traffic in an area beset by congestion since the city moved the Greyhound terminal to Spring Garden a year ago. The plan did not answer key questions that NLNA had, like how pedestrians would be protected or how long the city planned to keep the shelter operating.

“No one has showed us what this will look like,” Hornstein said.

OTIS said that the city currently does not have a timeline for when it will install the trailer because it intends to give community members a chance to voice their concerns first, though it is unclear what that process will look like.

“We want to make sure everybody’s comfortable. We can demonstrate to them that we’ve got a good plan that everyone can feel good about,” Carroll said.

Ever since Greyhound abruptly closed its Filbert Street station in June 2023 to cut costs, Philadelphia’s intercity bus terminal has been beset with problems. First, the city opened a temporary terminal on the sidewalk at Sixth and Market Streets, which became a chaotic mess of traffic and discomfort. Last November, the city moved the terminal once more to Spring Garden Street and Columbus Boulevard, but the improvised space does not offer much shelter from the weather and still clogs the street with traffic.

The city previously said that it planned to move the terminal again, from Spring Garden to a more permanent location, by Labor Day of this year, but with that target now in the past, Carroll said that the city aims to move the terminal to its longer-term home by spring 2026, in time for Philadelphia’s celebration of the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, the MLB All-Star Game, and the World Cup.

These stopgaps are meant to be an interim measure until the city constructs a final, permanent bus station in the future, possibly near 30th Street Station. Carroll said that the city is currently evaluating several possible locations for the interim terminal.

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“It’s going to be something that’s not just a pure curbside setup, but really takes into consideration how central it is,” Carroll said, citing access to the Schuylkill Expressway, public transit, restrooms, refreshment options, and ADA accessibility.

Until the city moves the Greyhound terminal, Hornstein said, he understands it has to go somewhere and wants to make the situation work the best it can for Northern Liberties.

“We know these buses are important. Just be respectful. Let us know what’s going on and let us participate in the process,” he said.

“We know the neighborhood. They don’t know the neighborhood.”