Regional Transportation Center Off Park St
Posted by Mitch Mitchell on Jul 5, 2012
I’m not sure that everyone living in the Syracuse area has been to the William F. Walsh Regional Transportation Center off Park Street, in between Alliance Stadium and Carousel Mall, soon to be DestiNY USA. It replaced both the old bus station that used to be on Erie Boulevand and the Amtrak station that used to be out in East Syracuse. It seems it’s overseen by Centro, which I didn’t know until researching it, as you’ll be able to see from the link.
I took the pictures you see here from a recent visit when my wife was taking a trip out of town by bus, Megabus to be more specific. It’s interesting because you have multiple ways of getting into the building, one bus area for the big boys, and Megabus picks people up and drops them off out front. The train area is to one side, which is gated in the evening (you’ll see that picture) and to the other side is their version of a combined waiting area and food court.
That’s the area that’s much different than what either of the other two places used to have. Some people might not think of either Subway or Dunkin’ Donuts as quality food choices, but compared to what was previously offered, which was only vending machines, I think it’s a major step up. And if you happen to get there earlier in the day there’s a store where you can buy all sorts of stuff.
To me, one of the big things is that it’s much cleaner than the other locations used to be. What I’m not sure of is if homeless people are allowed to crash inside ever, although I have seen a few sleeping outside the facility. In the old Greyhound station I used to see a lot of people sleeping both inside and outside that weren’t waiting for buses.
It’s proximity to the mall has to be a great draw as well, and it makes me think how much better things would have been for outside visitors if they had built that hotel like they were supposed to do. Oh well… Anyway, if you’ve never seen any of it I hope you’ve enjoyed the images.
This station seems amazing! I have never seen such a gorgeous, clean and elegant station like this in my life. Almost every station that I go to, is crowded will stress you out. I hope someday I’ll get to visit this station.
It’s pretty neat Amy, in more ways than one.
I take the train regularly to Albany, NYC and Chicago for work ( I do not like to fly.) The station is nice, if a bit smaller than the old station out in E. Syracuse–it’s one of the few things that was made MORE convenient for city residents. Amtrak keeps their stations fairly clean–I have been in some bus stations that were pretty hellacious though!
Mitch–thanks for highlighting so many things on this blog. You give people a nice view into our community.
Thanks Phil. I remember both of the old places and they weren’t overly inviting. They do a pretty good job at the Regional Center and I appreciate that. I have to say though that it’s still a very fun place to hang out sometimes if you want to see some interesting people. 🙂
FYI The new transportation center parking lot is now open.
They Spent big $$$$ on redo after everyone told them original lot was way to small.
But the old lot had big advantage; $10 month long term parking.THE NEW RATE IS $7 DAY.Do the math; what kind of rate increase is that?.
That is similar to airport parking at bigger cities not greyhound bus terminal
.
This is a get rich policy for city taxi companies which are hooked up politically with the mayor because now they can raise fares.
It no longer pays to drive to train even at usurious cab rates.
nice work Syracuse you made transit cost more than driving !
Round trip train fare to NYC is around $120 bucks
1 week parking=$70 HUH?
Someone is charging too much or not enough
Yuri, I didn’t know it was back open yet, but I’m not surprised at the rate hike. Truthfully, there was a lot of free parking around there as well, and I figured that bad boy had to find new ways to pay for itself. Truthfully, it’s still cheaper than parking at any hospital in the city.