Philly’s Greyhound station is one step closer to finding a permanent home

Lights shine from a window of the abandoned Greyhound intercity bus terminal on Filbert Street as construction crews demolish fixtures and begin renovations ahead of a May reopening.

While the old depot is ready for crowds of travelers attending high-profile special events this year, the city Department of Planning and Development has identified three possible locations for a permanent intercity bus station.

Officials sifted through 208 possible locations over the past two years before zeroing in on the three sites:

On Wednesday, the city Planning Commission is holding a public open house at Independence Visitors Center from 6 to 8 p.m. People can learn about the sites, share their ideas, and ask questions about the future home of an intercity bus facility.

There’s also an online survey collecting opinions about what the intercity bus station needs and where it should go, due March 13.

The former Greyhound terminal at 1001 Filbert St. “is not a long-term solution for the city’s intercity bus needs,” city officials say, though it will provide a safe and comfortable indoor station for travelers, as opposed to the current, haphazard outdoor curbside loading zones along Spring Garden Street near Columbus Boulevard.

It is scheduled to reopen in plenty of time for events celebrating America’s 250th birthday and World Cup soccer tournament matches in the summer.

That’s why the city turned to the old station as a stopgap solution. The Philadelphia Parking Authority will operate the facility under a 10-year renewable lease with the private group of New York investors that owns it.

The city says its goal is a modern “transportation hub” with amenities for travelers and bus operators and, ideally, some development built around the facility. It would be owned by the city.

“Public ownership means it won’t be closed down by a landlord or private bus company,” the planning department said in a statement. In addition, the forever depot “could be designed to have housing in the floors above the station or retail spaces within the station. These uses could help support … construction and operation.”

Greyhound ran the terminal at 10th and Filbert for more than three decades but pulled out in June 2023, ending its lease with the owners amid the bus company’s push to cut costs by shedding real estate it owned or rented nationwide.

Other intercity bus carriers have done the same, operating from curbsides in a number of cities.

Greyhound may have had to leave the property anyway because the Philadelphia 76ers in 2022 proposed building a new arena on top of it and Filbert Street.

When those plans fell through, the building was empty again, while Greyhound, its parent company FlixBus, and family-owned Peter Pan Bus Lines were operating at curbside on the 600 block of Market Street. That site, chosen by city officials, lacked benches, bathrooms, or shelter for customers.

Traffic was a mess, and SEPTA had to reroute some of its metro bus routes for a time.

In November 2023, Greyhound and the other carriers moved operations to a corner in Northern Liberties along Spring Garden Street with more space than the Market Street block. City officials promised it was temporary, but the “station” is still there, with attendant trash and disruptions to local business.

Plans to move intercity bus operations elsewhere collapsed amid community opposition, notably to a proposal to use the first level of an Old City parking garage at Second and Walnut Streets as a temporary terminal.

Consultants and city planners picked 35 potential sites for closer analysis. They were looking for places that could accommodate a multistory, mixed-used development in addition to a station and that were close to Center City or University City, transit, and highway ramps.

They also preferred a publicly owned space not already marked for development, according to a document prepared for the public meeting.

In the end, three places checked most boxes.

The Eighth and Arch site has room for 18 bus parking spots, the planning department said. It could fit a 113,000-square-foot station and an overall 640,000-square-foot development.

Strengths: Proximity to several transit stops and to I-676 and I-95, as well as the potential to build public parking above the station and to use the African American Museum building when that entity moves to the Parkway.

Challenges: The ownership, split between the city and a private corporation, could require coordinating with the Federal Detention Center there on the southwest corner, and buses may need to be routed through Chinatown.

At 15th and Vine Streets, the Gateway garage could fit 16 bus slips, a 112,000-square-foot station, and a 1.37 million-square-foot development, planners say.

Strengths: It’s next to I-676 and close to transit. Plus, it is owned by PennDot and operated by PPA.

Challenges: The parcel is split in ways that could hinder bus circulation, and Spring Street nearby would need to be converted to one-way.

The site at 30th and Arch Streets could fit 12 bus slips as is, or the deck on which the lot sits could be expanded to fit 24 spaces.

Strengths: The site has quick access to SEPTA and NJ Transit stops, Amtrak, and I-76. There are dining options in the area.

Challenges: Amtrak owns the property, however, and the city would have to coordinate with the company to develop over the railroad tracks and the structural work needed to strengthen the lot and ramps for heavy bus traffic. PennDot also has said there would have to be substantial work to the entrance and exit ramps to the Schuylkill Expressway.

The city plans to consider the feedback it gets Wednesday, update the schematics, and then hold another public event later in the year. It hopes to have a final report by the end of 2026 that names the site.

And then begins the long process of acquiring the site, designing the project, and figuring out how to pay for it.