December 02, 2012 by Robert Moore
I just learned that our local Casa Grande, Arizona Greyhound stop almost became yet another scheduled stop that would be in the "No Longer Serviced" schedule column. The only thing that saved it
was the owner of the Chevron station on the corner of Arizona State
Route 287 (Pinal Avenue) and Florence Boulevard, who agreed to take on
the local Greyhound bus stop ticketing and baggage handling concession
from its long time former location, whose lease had expired, and was not
able to be renewed due to the sale of the building where the bus stop
had been for nearly 30 years, just one block from the historic Southern
Pacific train depot, built in 1939.
Illegal immigrants broke into the fenced-off train depot, which
had been set aside for a ground-up restoration; they built a fire
inside, which got out of control and spread, collapsed the old roof and
quickly destroyed the entire building. The Art Deco, Santa Fe styled
depot was already on the Register of National Historic Places.
The illegal immigrants were caught fleeing the building shortly after
the fire had spread and completely engulfed the structure. It was a
total loss. The 1939 depot had replaced the original train depot, which
was built in the mid 1800s, when Casa Grande was known as "Terminal",
and the small desert town was the end of the Southern Pacific's line,
hence its name.
Now, the buses stop in Casa Grande twice a day, one each going
east and west, next to the fuel pumps under the Chevron station's
canopy. It's the best we can do at this time. This location is just a
couple of blocks away from the former bus stop site on Sacaton Street,
just off of Main Street, near Florence Boulevard in Old Town Casa
Grande.
It is anyone's guess how long this scheduled stop in Casa Grande will survive. Coolidge, Arizona lost its Greyhound and Trailways stops years ago. Without the Casa Grande location, the nearest Greyhound bus stop is in Tucson to the east, or Mesa, Arizona, to the north, both about an hour's drive away from Casa Grande. Casa Grande is the only
scheduled stop for Greyhound in all of Pinal County. This is pretty sad
in my view, especially with it being 2012. The only other bus service
Greyhound offers near me is the CoachLink bus service that is
directly tied to AMTRAK east-west passenger train service at Maricopa,
Arizona, along the Union Pacific's southern route across Arizona.
AMTRAK does not currently
service the city of Phoenix directly. It once did service Phoenix Union
Station downtown, along with the once-separate Atchison Topeka &
Santa Fe/Burlington Northern Railway (ATSF/BNSF). How time has changed everything!
Click on the links below to access the images. The photo is of
the westbound daily afternoon bus stopped at Casa Grande, headed toward
Phoenix from Tucson, El Paso and points east. The bus pulled out just
after I took this photo. The video clip shows the bus pulling out onto
northbound Pinal Avenue. The loud 'noise' in the video is from a junky
old Ford Ranger with no muffler being started near me, as I shot the
video clip of Greyhound 'neoclassic'-painted MCI D4500 #6488's on-time
scheduled departure toward Phoenix. -MC-7 Rusty
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