Published: November 04, 2009 08:41 pm      

Beckley without Greyhound ticket office until at least 2011

Greyhound will not have a ticketing office in Beckley until at least 2011, a company spokeswoman said Wednesday.

Maureen Richmond, director of media relations for Greyhound, said the only option for a new ticketing agency will be in the Beckley Intermodal Gateway facility that is expected to be completed around June 2011.

“Unfortunately, the narrowness of the streets in Beckley prohibit us from using a lot of the outside sources in that area,” Richmond said. “We anticipate and hope to bring back a ticketing office.”

Richmond said Greyhound’s status with BIG has not been confirmed, but Beckley Mayor Emmett Pugh said the city plans to include Greyhound in the BIG project. The project includes a transit facility.

“We’re trying to include Greyhound in the Beckley Intermodal Gateway project,” he said. “That’s not going to be done for another year and half or two years.

“Hopefully, at that time, there will be a ticketing agent in place in the Intermodal Center where people can book and buy tickets.

“We would really like to try to find a different place for them to go for a year or two years until we get the Intermodal facility.”

Richmond advised Greyhound customers to visit www.greyhound .com to purchase and print tickets online or to visit the Charleston ticketing agency.

Four Greyhound buses currently make stops in Beckley.

“The only thing they’re doing is coming in,” Pugh said. “If anybody’s getting off, they get off. If anybody gets on, they get on. It’s a five-minute stop.”

Pugh said the city’s biggest challenge with maintaining a ticket office in Beckley has been finding a location.

The bus station was located on Third Avenue for more than 30 years, but Greyhound officials left that location when their lease expired in May 2008 to avoid the $1,000 per month rent.

The station was moved to Neville Street, but when construction on the county judicial annex project began, a portion of Heber Street was closed.

Buses could not turn without the Heber lane being open.

The closed lane was one reason the ticketing station was closed, according to Richmond.

Pugh said folks have been catching the bus near Rails-to-Trails, across the street from the old bus station on Third Avenue.

The former bus station is now Village Shoppe and Bistro, a business that specializes in boutique items and gourmet dining.

“Since there is no ticketing agent on Third Avenue, we have been having problems with passengers going across the street to the bistro and disrupting business or standing under the roof,” Pugh said.

Pugh has brought the issue of the business disturbance to the attention of city council so an immediate solution may be developed.

“(The owners) have been quite gracious, frankly, but it’s not the best of circumstances for them,” he said.

Councilman Cedric Robertson said the city is committed to maintaining a business relationship with Greyhound.

“I think Greyhound is very important to the city of Beckley,” he said. “Greyhound has been here in Beckley as long as I can remember.

“It’s a main part of transportation for people who don’t want to drive on long trips,” he added. “I think that we the city need to do everything we possibly can to try to keep Greyhound here, locally.”

Robertson said he was aware of traffic problems created when the bus station was located downtown.

“But when you look at the big picture, the bottom line is (that) Greyhound is important to the infrastructure of the city of Beckley,” he said.

— E-mail: jfarrish@register-herald.com