During their meeting Tuesday night, members of the Tracy City Council unanimously approved establishing Greyhound bus service in the city’s new Tracy Transit Center at Sixth Street and Central Avenue.
The agreement is not directly between the city and Greyhound, but through the city’s new contract with MV Transportation Co., which since 2001 has operated the city’s Tracy Tracer bus service.
MV earlier reached an agreement to provide station services for Greyhound operations in Tracy as part of its deal with the city, explained Rod Buchanan, the city’s director of parks and community services.
Rod said the Greyhound service will begin “sometime before the first of year,” but an exact date has not been set.
Before the blue buses begin pulling into the station, ticketing equipment must be installed in the building and Greyhound scheduling updated, he reported.
In the city-MV contract, ratified by the City Council on Tuesday night, are provisions for MV personnel to sell Greyhound tickets for one-time trips and commuter fares, arrange for charters, handle express packages, take care of excess baggage and sell phone cards and student advantage cards.
Moving Greyhound service from under a tree in front of a trash-strewn vacant lot near Holly Drive and Grant Line Road to the new transit station will be a major boost for the station — and for our town.
The handsome transit station already is a stop for the local and regional buses, and the addition of Greyhound inter-regional service will provide a full range of bus options.
It also falls in line with Greyhound’s goal of upgrading its bus service with a new fleet of buses and better station facilities. Tracy will be a showcase for those facilities.
And what of train service? The downtown route is still in the running to be Tracy’s stop in the proposed semi-high-speed rail system. But, of course, that possibility — and it remains just a possibility — is at least a few years off.
But regardless what the future holds for rail service, I’m excited about having Greyhound bus service where it belongs. I keep thinking Tracy’s late, great Greyhound agent Frank Taylor, who had operated the Greyhound depot on 11th Street for so many years, would be at least as excited as I am.
Grandparents’ delights
Longtime Tracy resident Verle Miller is one proud grandmother these days. Her granddaughter, Joy Clark, is playing a lead role in the Stockton Civic Theatre’s production of the musical “42nd Street.”
“Joy is one of the fortunate ones,” Verle reported. “She can sing, dance and act, and that’s what the role requires.”
Her performance as Peggy Sawyer, the young girl from Allentown, Pa., breaking into Broadway, has generated very solid reviews as the production, which debuted June 29, continues through July 24 in the SCT facility off March Lane.
Joy, 19, just completed her freshman year at the University of the Pacific, where both her Tracy grandparents, Verle and the late John Miller, along with her mother, Janet Miller Clark of Stockton, attended.
While on the proud grandparent trail, I should also note that Don and Darlene Cose of Tracy are excited that their grandson, Jake Cose, is now playing baseball at Bristol, Va., in the Appalachian League after being drafted in the 22nd round by the Chicago White Sox.
Jake, a 6-foot-5 pitcher who was one of the mainstays of Delta College’s state championship team, is the son of Greg Cose of Stockton.
He is the second baseball player with Tracy grandparents to be drafted in recent years by a major-league baseball team. Darrell Ceciliani of Madras, Ore., grandson of Gladys Ceciliani and Judy Robertson of Tracy, was drafted in 2009 in the fourth round by the New York Mets. After an MVP season last year with the Brooklyn Cyclones in the New York-Pennsylvania League, he is now playing with the Mets’ farm club, the Savannah Sand Gnats, in the South Atlantic League.
• Sam Matthews, Tracy Press publisher emeritus, can be reached at 830-4234 or by e-mail at shm@tracypress.com.
Post a Comment