Langdon Street Is About to Get More Crowded

It looks like Langdon Street is about to get even more crowded as Lamers Bus Lines has announced new routes for Madison: Green Bay to Madison; Wausau to Madison; La Crosse to Madison; and Dubuque to Madison. These apparently start in two days. And next month Lamers will be offering service between Madison and Milwaukee. According to this article, the Wausau bus will drop passengers off "downtown, including at the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus" and the idea is that "Each Lamers Connect route will connect with the others using a 'hub' concept in Madison that allows for connections among all communities served by the three routes."

So let's see here. Badger Bus has 10 daily buses at the Union, although I'm sure some of those arrive, sit around for a bit, and then head back to Milwaukee. Van Galder has 9 buses leaving the Union for Chicago every day and Megabus has 4. Greyhound has a few and now we add 5 more over the course of the next month. There will be no room on the north side of Langdon for anything else pretty soon. Even Metro buses will have to be diverted at this rate. Was Langdon built to withstand the weight?

While it is certainly nice to have more bus service here in town, the whole intercity bus scene looks to be a messy patchwork. Megabus stops at the Union and the Dutch Mill Park & Ride as does Van Galder. Greyhound, unsurprisingly, stops at the Union and apparently has something resembling a terminal in DeForest along with a stop where you cannot purchase tickets but I don't know where it is and their website doesn't say. Perhaps this is the North Transfer Point. Badger Bus utilizes the Union, Dutch Mill, and the sidewalk across the street from the former site of their bus depot on West Wash. And now Lamers will be at the Union and apparently another site as yet unknown. With the potential exception of Greyhound, the current bus stops aren't particularly well-connected to Madison Metro (and, by extension, the airport.)

I understand that the curbside pick-up model is the cat's meow these days and that intercity buses are making a killing on medium-distance routes. Remember when Badger Bus announced it was closing its depot? A company rep said, "Oh, well the new Union South will have space for buses." Then a UW rep called bullshit. So, if there is to be a bus depot again here in Madison, it will surely be taxpayer funded. Once Gov. Walker 86'd passenger rail for Madison, all talk of a bus terminal ended. Perhaps we need to talk about it again. At the very least, we can talk about finding a stretch of curb for busses which retains its proximity to campus and downtown but is also more connected to Madison Metro.