Greyhound searching for new ticket office in Montpelier
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A trailer on Taylor Street in Montpelier has served as the Greyhound bus terminal, but Greyhound hopes to find a new ticket sales location soon. Kurt Budliger/Times Argus file |
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By SARAH HINCKLEY Times Argus Staff - Published: April 15, 2009
MONTPELIER – Since April 3, the doors to the Greyhound Transit Station on Taylor Street have been closed.
A company spokesperson said the national bus company is in the process of looking for a new location from which to sell tickets in Montpelier. Passengers can still board buses from the Taylor Street location, also known as the Carr Lot, but purchases must be made online or from another ticketing agent.
"We are no longer operating out of the old agency," said Abby Wambaugh, spokesperson for Greyhound Transit Lines. "We are actively looking for a new agent, but we are currently in the looking stage… This is nothing more than a switchover of an agent."
If customers do not have access to the Internet to purchase a ticket, they are asked to offer a license or identification to the bus driver who returns it at the next station where purchases can be made.
Owners of Rhapsody, a vegetarian restaurant on Main Street, said they have been approached by the bus company as a possible ticketing agent. They are awaiting results of a background check by the company and to determine what the pick-up and drop-off location will be, if it is to change.
"It's a good opportunity for us, I think," said Elysha Welters, who owns Rhapsody with her husband, son and daughter.
For the last four years Mike Coffin sold tickets from the transit station in Montpelier, after working as an agent in Waterbury for almost a decade. Coffin was reliant on commissions from ticket sales to make a living. When a number of routes were changed, leaving fewer stops in Montpelier, he began to struggle.
When Greyhound purchased Vermont Transit, the national company cut 23 terminals in the state, Coffin noted in previous reports. He saw an increase in ridership when fuel hit a peak of $4 per gallon.
According to Wambaugh, Greyhound last made significant cuts in 2004, when 1,000 locations throughout the country were eliminated to make routes faster and smoother. There has been no discussion about discontinuing the stop in Montpelier.
"We're working hard to make sure they don't leave town," said Mayor Mary Hooper, noting the importance of the company's presence in the state capital.
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