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Hazleton intermodal center

Riders revved up

Convenience is driving force behind bus hub

By Steve Mocarsky smocarsky@timesleader.com
Staff Writer

HAZLETON – Bus riders in Greater Hazleton are thrilled with the city’s new $12 million intermodal transportation center – Church Street Station.

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Church Street Station – Hazleton’s new intermodal transportation center – opened for public use last Monday.

PETE G. WILCOX photos/THE TIMES LEADER

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“It’s different, it really is. When it’s really bitter cold out, we can wait inside. Nobody will have to wait outside in the cold anymore,” Jean Ann Wersinger, 47, of Hazleton, said while waiting to catch a bus home after working her shift at the Salvation Army soup kitchen last week.

“It’s convenient. When they put the shops in, we’ll be able to go inside for coffee, sit inside and wait for a bus once they put the benches in,” Wersinger said.

Renee Craig, acting director of Hazleton Public Transit, said there are still some finishing touches to add to the 10,000-square-foot facility that opened Nov. 23 on the site of a former parking lot bordered by Church, Mine and Laurel streets and railroad tracks.

The city is negotiating with a potential tenant for 800 square feet of retail space at the west end of the station, Craig said.

“And we’re still waiting for 13 benches for the interior of the building. They were the first things ordered and are the last to arrive,” said Craig, adding that the benches are totally recyclable and were constructed using 88 percent recycled materials.

Despite the absence of adequate indoor seating and an automated public address system that will alert passengers to arriving and departing buses, which Craig said will be installed in the spring, officials were anxious to open the facility to passengers as colder weather sets in.

The city’s previous bus hub consisted of two metal/Plexiglas shelters on Laurel Street, where buses parked along the curb.

Bus driver John Halechko said he has heard nothing but positive feedback from his passengers.

“They all like it. It’s a good building, a good idea. This way, everything’s in one spot. Hazleton needed this a long time ago,” Halechko said.

Besides providing spacious waiting areas for passengers, there is a ticket counter for inter-city passengers of Susquehanna Trailways, Beiber Trailways and Greyhound.

Trailways/Greyhound will move from a small, antiquated station across Church Street into Church Street Station in December. Inter-city buses will utilize gates on the north side of the station along Mine Street, and local buses will utilize gates along the south side of the station.

And, in addition to housing Hazleton Public Transit offices, the facility is also the new home to the Hazleton Parking Authority.

Ana Maran, 48, of Hazleton, said she’s been riding buses locally since she moved to Hazleton from New York City in 1994. While waiting to hop a bus to the Laurel Mall to get a haircut for Thanksgiving, Maran said the station is a much better alternative to the former bus hub.

“I like it because inside they’re going to open shops and it will be warm in the winter,” she said.

Daris Cruz, 23, who moved to Freeland from Passaic, N.J., two months ago, said she rode a bus locally for the first time last week to do some downtown shopping and was impressed with the facility and those who work there.

“It’s different from New Jersey. They give you information, people are nice,” Cruz said of Hazleton Public Transit staff.

Richie Eldard, 41, of New York City, said he was in town visiting family for the holiday, a tradition he’s had for the past 10 years. He had been visiting cousins in Hazleton and was waiting to catch a bus to his sister’s house in West Hazleton.

“It’s better than what it was before – a big parking lot, nothing but a mess,” Eldard said of the station site. “It’s a lot better with shelter. On Laurel Street, when it was windy, you felt the wind.”

Craig said the downtown lost more than 100 parking spaces as the first phase of the station was built, but there are plans to construct a four-story parking garage over the station when additional funding becomes available.

An elevator shaft for upper parking decks was included in the first phase of the project so elevator installation in the second phase will be less disruptive and more cost-effective. Foundations for ramps also were installed for the same reasons, Craig said.

In the meantime, the city constructed a 39-space parking lot between Broad and Mine streets adjacent to the station. Seven spaces are marked for station customers who might stop in to purchase tickets or passes; the remaining spaces are leased to customers who previously leased spaces in the parking lot on which the station was built. A nearby Hazleton Parking Authority garage accommodates the remainder of the displaced leasers.

While waiting for a bus back to her West Hazleton home after picking up a prescription at a downtown drug store, Mary Platukis said she’s thankful for the station and will be there often.

“I don’t drive at all, I’m a bus person. I take the bus at least three or four times every week. And I think this is great. It’s a shelter. It’s better and it’s safer.” said Platukis, who turned 80 on Thanksgiving.

“I remember when this was a train terminal, so it’s like it’s repeating itself in history,” Platukis said as a freight train rounded the tracks outside the station.

Church Street Station sits on the site of the grandiose former Hazleton Train Station, with its marble floors and pillars, high ceilings and stained glass windows, which was demolished in the 1970s. The exterior of the new facility is brick with stone accents incorporated into the design to remind residents of that former train station, Craig said.

And while the station might lack the splendor of the former train station, the state-of-the-art facility is aesthetically attractive and offers many conveniences previously unavailable to public transit users and employees such as vending machines, public restrooms and a driver’s lounge.

There is also an indoor luggage storage area for inter-city passengers that bus drivers can access from outside the station and load onto a bus.

Craig said the facilities should make waiting for the bus a much better experience, especially for older passengers. She noted that more than half of Hazleton Public Transit passengers are 65 years or older and can ride for free.

Mayor Lou Barletta said the station was “desperately needed.”

“Over the past few years, we have seen an increase in our ridership. Everyone from seniors to students relies on Hazleton Public Transit buses to take them to school or to a store, to the mall or to destinations in three counties,” Barletta said in a press release.

“Our buses take people to work in the morning and bring them home to their families at the end of their workday. The Church Street Station is for them,” Barletta said.

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