From: nilknocgeo@earthlink.net   
      
    wrote in message   
   news:6834c362-2ef4-4145-b91a-0fed538d2ef0@googlegroups.com...   
   On Monday, April 21, 2014 11:20:29 AM UTC-4, Clark F Morris wrote:   
      
   conklin wrote   
   > >Buses can drop you at the curb, near where you want to go,   
   > >with no need for expensive investments in stations.   
      
   > Gee just what I need as a store owner, hordes of people clogging the   
   > way to my business and all sorts of people wanting to use my toilet   
   > and buying nothing.  I have seen stores and businesses opposing   
   > transit stops near their doors and a Megabus stop would be an even   
   > bigger headache.   
      
   yes, indeed.  This has been a problem with the newcomer cheapo bus companies   
   in multiple cities.  Merchants have reported the problem in the newspaper.   
   Now, college newspapers warn students to "go" ahead of time since they won't   
   be able to at the bus stop, nor will have any shelter if the weather is   
   inclement or the bus delayed.   
      
   Conklin's statement is also false.  Bus companies did indeed build their own   
   terminals in cities.  In smaller towns, they would contract with a local   
   merchant to sell tickets, provide toilet space, etc.  They didn't merely   
   mooch off of someone.  Someone wrote a nice book about Greyhound, including   
   pictorials of their station buildings, some of which remain in use as bus   
   stations.   
      
      
   =================google alert=========   
      
   City buses don't have bus stations.  They haul huge numbers of people and   
   stop curbside.  Always have.  And subway toilets?  Never got the courage to   
   enter one.  Stay out was all I was ever told.   
      
   Long-distance buses today, as far as I can tell, all have a toilet.  They do   
   stop enroute at a :Pilot Station/Truck Stop where I get gas when I travel.   
   I've talked to some of the customers waiting on line at McDonalds and they   
   all seem quite happy.  I've looked in at the "ground floor" of the buses and   
   they seem quite new and well maintained.  When I used to take Trailways, the   
   local store/restaurant sold tickets...and it was owned by a family we knew.   
   But selling a ticket is vastly different from maintaining a station (big or   
   small) with a station agent and so forth.  The stations shown in the article   
   were all built to impress, not to provide efficient service.  They are like   
   high-rise buildings.  Many never did make money, but they were advertising.   
   Some were famous flops, like the Singer Building and even the Sears   
   Building, abandoned by its owners.   
      
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