Aldermen concerned about bus service

The Greyhound bus still stops in New Bern, but there's nowhere in the city to buy a ticket.

City leaders want to know if and when additional services will be available - or whether New Bern will become only a stop on a route.

Carolina Trailways had a bus ticket agency in New Bern on Guion Street. But Carolina Trailways doesn't exist anymore.

It is a subsidiary of Greyhound Lines Inc., and has since been absorbed by the company, Greyhound spokeswoman Abby Wambaugh said Thursday.

"We do still have a bus stop in New Bern, but the agency stopped selling tickets on March 20 and we are looking for a new agency," Wambaugh said. "An agency is not an actual station; we contract with a business and they sell tickets for us."

The aldermen asked City Manager Bill Hartman this week to send a letter to the bus company.

"Short of giving financial incentives, what more can we do?" asked Aldermen Robert Raynor. "There are too many low-income residents in our districts for us not to have service.

"We need an actual facility," Raynor said. "Everybody's prospering but the least of us. Going without full service is a disservice to our citizens."

The aldermen contend that New Bern's size and traffic numbers make it suitable for a station.

"We're on a major route at (U.S.) 70 and 17," said Alderman Max Freeze. "I don't understand why they wouldn't have made provisions for this. This is a service that is obviously valuable to a segment of our population and we don't need to lose it."

Hartman has not yet prepared the letter, but intends to have it ready shortly.

Wambaugh said Thursday that she had little information about why the ticket agency in New Bern closed.

"It's usually a mutual decision, but I'm still looking into that," she said.

She said Greyhound is evaluating potential places for a ticket agency in New Bern, but she does not yet know the specific locations or when a decision might be made.