Greyhound, RTA - Confront Misconceptions

Greyhound Says People Have Misconceptions
By Bruce Kettelle

A Greyhound spokesperson fears that opponents to a possible Trotwood location may have some misconceptions about their ridership. A local opposition group raised fears last week about preliminary discussions to locate the Dayton Greyhound Bus terminal at the Northwest RTA Mini Hub. Abby Wambaugh of the company’s Dallas headquarters said the company has had several successes with relocating stations from downtown locations to suburban sites.

“These stations prove to have a positive economic impact in the areas where they are located,” said Wambaugh.

She said people are often surprised to find that 1/3 of their ridership make over $35,000 annually, 30% are students, and over 50% have additional education beyond high school. A majority of their riders are traveling for pleasure or to visit family and friends.

“Dayton is a big station for us with 282,944 inbound and 282,565 outbound passengers in 2008,” she said. That works out to about 775 riders a day through the hub that serves north/south routes on I-75 and east/west routes on I-70.

Of those total riders 86,568 started or ended their trip in Dayton.
Greyhound operates a capacity flexible schedule on their routes. If enough tickets are sold they can add a second bus to a scheduled trip. On Friday’s for example there are 15 scheduled buses. During peak holiday travel that may increase to 30.

Wambaugh stressed that security is important to the company and they employ security in their stations as needed. “We want our employees, passengers and surrounding community to be safe,” she said.

Greyhound is already involved in more than 100 intermodal hubs across the country. Those include pairings with air, rail, and regional bus terminals like Trotwood. To bring their service up to speed with the new millennium some of their New York based buses are being outfitted with Wifi and other modern conveniences. Those improvements will gradually be implemented nationwide.

RTA executive director Mark Donaghy also senses that opposition community members are responding to misconceptions. “We want to do our best to answer concerns,” says Donaghy.

As of this week they are still in discussions with Greyhound and there is no timetable in place. He said the site will require modest renovatins to host the interstate bus traffic in Trotwood. Currently there are about 294 RTA buses in and out each day. He describes the impact as a 10% increase in the existing RTA bus traffic currently flowing through the facility.

“The earliest would be the summer of this year,” he said but Greyhound apparently does not need to vacate the downtown location until 2010.

He believes Trotwood is the best site because of its easy access to both 70 and 75 with connections to transportation throughout the region.

Although he admits he is not an economic development specialist he said there has already been interest from one business wanting to locate at the site if the Greyhound terminal becomes reality. “After discussions with the daycare next door our sense is they don’t feel it would impact them negatively.”

He also reports that 40% of Greyhound’s Dayton customers come from Trotwood.

Wambaugh said that Greyhound wants to work with the city. “We would love the chance to speak with city officials and community groups.” She is looking forward to those calls.