If you’re [or rather were] like me, you spend a lot of time at bus terminals, sit on Greyhounds, and accumulate miles on the road for no real good reason. It can be a lot of fun, and you can actually get a lot of work done. However, this post isn’t really about commuter bus trips, but rather, it’s about the deplorable state that the Bay Street Bus Terminal has fallen into in the last few years.
I don’t know much about the full history of the building, but I know it’s pretty old. What I can say about the building is that while the city has rapidly grown around it, the terminal hasn’t really followed suit. This is a huge problem as the number of people choosing mass transportation and the number of scheduled bus trips out of the city had been steadily increasing. [There are a myriad of reasons for this, which I will not go into.] There are occasions where the line for a bus is so long, the busses aren’t able to pull into their loading bays. There are other times when so many busses are in the terminal, they don’t have enough room to maneuver their way out. There are now so many passengers waiting for busses, the waiting lobby area is almost always standing room only. The end result of this lack of maintenance and upkeep is the congestion in and around the bus terminal every rush hour. This is good for no one.
While I understand that building a new terminal is more or less out of the question, I implore Greyhound, Coach Canada and other public bus companies to work together and create a better solution both for yourself and your passengers. Improving passenger experience will only be beneficial to all stakeholders involved in this situation. Otherwise, other competitors like GO or Via Rail can easily swoop in and win over the market with either lower fares or better customer experience. The choice is up to you.
God bless Via Rail. I stopped using Greyhound a while back for just such a reason (i.e. the Bay St. Bus Terminal). Sometimes, if forced to take the Greyhound, I’ll just get off at the Royal York…but in the summer, construction usually closes up that option, so VIA is usually a better bet for me, followed by the GO train.
THANK YOU SAM !
I have notice this decline of the Bay St. Bus Terminal for at least 10 years !
One particular section that is quite spooky, is where the busses come in to Toronto and drop off passengers (near Edward & Centre Sts.) Imagine being a total stranger to Toronto and being dropped off there – worse – if it is late or in the middle of the night ! Signage is very poor. Lighting is quite dim. There is no employee stationed there, just an odd security guard that makes – what seems to be random walk throughs. This arrival terminal is so open to the small dark side streets around it. It is not a great place to be if waiting on visitors to arrive. It is also not a place to be proud of ! It is quite depressing and disrespectful !
We always waited there for our daughter’s arrival when she returned from a bus trip, whether it was day or night.
I know that the TTC manages a part of the terminal. I think it’s the ticket sales. I had called to express our comments a couple of years ago.
I think twice about returning to this terminal from a trip !
Well if Toronto is supposed to be a first class city, it’s time that the muicipality step in and insist that the Bay St. Bus Terminal: Arrivals & Departiures, be upgraded and made secure and safe for all customers that deserve the respect from the Bus Lines.
If anyone is willing to start a PETITION,I am in.
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