UPDATED BELOW

I wrote last month that Montpelier may end its probable status as the only state capital without a bus station "before the tulips bloom." Well, the tulips have come and gone, and we're further from having a bus station than we were a month ago. If you come to tonight's City Council meeting, maybe we can push things along a little.

Background: The Taylor Street station on the Carr Lot closed in April. Greyhound looked for a local business willing to sell tickets. Rhapsody on Main Street signed a tentative agreement to sell tickets; the restaurant also provides a handy place to wait for the bus for every departure except 3:30 am. 

Since then, the proposed bus stop next to Rhapsody has come under fire as being disruptive of traffic.

Today, Greyhound's area sales representative, Tony Stone, is coming from his office in Hartford, Connecticut to look at more locations and try to find something that the city will accept. City Councilors or city staff have objected to several other downtown locations, I'm told. 

Mayor Mary Hooper says that, after some thought, she's come around to viewing in front of City Hall as being the best location. It's right downtown, it's close enough to Rhapsody that Rhapsody could still sell tickets, and City Hall itself could be a waiting area. When City Hall is closed, the police station is nearby as a back-up waiting area. For this to work, five parking spaces would be taken out--something that some area merchants have objected to.

Long-haul bus service in Vermont has been gradually shrinking, with Greyhound now serving only Burlington, Montpelier, White River Junction, Bellows Falls, and Brattleboro. With world oil production capacity depleting by 4 million barrels per day each year, and new production lagging, bus and trains are going to become more important than ever in the near term. It's important that Vermont's capital city try to hold onto its bus service and get a bus station that serves people downtown. 

I'm told that the debate in Montpelier has been dominated by concerns about short-term traffic and parking issues. 

If you care about bus service, come to the Montpelier City Council meeting right at 7 pm tonight to use the public comment period to tell City Council why it's important for Vermont's capital city to have long-haul bus service. The Council chambers are in the rear of City Hall.

UPDATE: I had a previous commitment. I've heard numerous reports that it went well, with 6-8 people there to speak on behalf of the bus station, and councilors expressing their support. Tom Stone, the Greyhound representative, was very pleased the next  day. He told me he went into the meeting not sure about the bus continuing to stop in Montpelier, and he left convinced that it could be worked out. No specific proposal was discussed; Stone expected to come to the following meeting with a new proposal.