The plan to move the Greyhound bus station to a new Downtown building near the Historic Train Depot and the Ronstadt Transit Center has taken a detour all the way to the Northwest Side.
The city no longer can afford to construct a new building planned to house the Greyhound bus terminal and city transportation offices at the northeast corner of North Sixth and East Toole avenues.
However, the bus station can't stay where it is now, along the westbound Interstate 10 frontage road south of West Congress Street, because plans are moving forward for a city-funded arena on the site.
The city has come up with a plan to move the depot temporarily to West El Camino del Cerro and I-10, Assistant City Manager Karen Masbruch said.
The move would be temporary because, eventually, the city hopes to bring it back Downtown, said Andrew Singelakis, deputy director of the Tucson Department of Transportation.
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The date for the move, and an estimate of how long the temporary Northwest Side location would be necessary, are not yet known, city officials said.
The lack of money for the building comes from a change in the amount the city receives from the state Highway Users Revenue Fund. Data from the 2005 mid-decade census brought a cut in Tucson's funding, Singelakis said.
"We were expecting $54 million, and we ended up coming in at $49 million," he said. "That was a big decrease in the amount of funding, and we had to cut that from our budget this fiscal year."
On top of that, the department already had made a 5 percent cut due to revenue shortfalls in the city's general fund, Singelakis said.
Greyhound pays the city about $7,500 in rent each month and could not pay any more, he said.
Without the HURF money and without an increase in Greyhound's rent, financing the building was not possible, he said.
If the city had instead decided to take the $18 million required to construct the building from existing HURF money, the result would have had a ripple effect on local roads.
"It would mean cutting basic maintenance," Singelakis said.
Eventually, the Tucson Transportation Department wants the bus station to be Downtown, near the other transportation hubs. At this point, that's a long-term goal, and "not in the foreseeable future," Singelakis said.
The city selected the Northwest Side site because it already owns it, and it provides easy access to I-10 and Sun Tran routes, Masbruch said.
"Right now, it's our best alternative," she said.
The move would put the Greyhound buses in the same neighborhood as the Sun Tran bus maintenance and storage facility, just down the interstate near West Prince Road and I-10.
But the proposed El Camino del Cerro site for Greyhound isn't likely to affect Flowing Wells neighborhood residents, said Ellie Towne, neighborhood association president.
Although the association has asked the city to ensure that the buses wouldn't make traffic worse in an area already affected by the massive I-10 widening project, a bus terminal there would likely not disrupt the neighborhood, she said.
"There's nothing near it except a Jack in the Box and a convenience store," she said.
Greyhound is talking with the city about finding a temporary location, said Dustin Clark, Greyhound spokesman.
"We're currently looking for a suitable location for a temporary terminal. The city is helping us with that," he said.
Greyhound hopes for three things: a convenient location for its customers, with easy access to other modes of transportation; a location in the city center or on a major thoroughfare; and a site that would benefit the city and the company, Clark said.
To connect the terminal to local bus routes, Singelakis said, the city would likely extend nearby Sun Tran routes to the new location.
"It's really a practical matter that we're dealing with, which is the lack of resources to have that property constructed both on the city's part and Greyhound's part," Singelakis said.
DID YOU KNOW . . .
The Pacific Greyhound Bus Corp. began bus service between Safford and Tucson in September 1946.
Greyhound Bus Lines opened its station in Tucson at Broadway and Church Avenue on Sept. 1, 1948.
In 1969, Greyhound opened a new terminal Downtown, occupying the block bounded by Fourth Avenue, Broadway, Toole Avenue and Congress Street.
Source: Star archives
