Leave The Driving To Us

Be still my beating heart...........can you feel the excitement building in our revitalizing downtown with the Keg restaurant operating and Greyhound approving a $6 million agreement with the City of Windsor for a new downtown bus depot.

It's a shame that our Super Bowl visitors were not able to experience the new bus terminal when they went across the border. I know that it was supposed to have been ready for Super Bowl but perhaps the 25,000 CFL patrons for our new stadium will be able to use it.

I was wondering how many expense-account Keg patrons actually take the bus. I thought I could be helpful and suggest some synergies to help grow business downtown:

• when you pay for your meal, you can buy a Greyhound bus ticket to Toronto at the same time
• you can use your Greyhound bus ticket to get a free dessert
• Keg can offer reduced prices on "Vodka Greyhound" drinks
• Special Greyhound section to get people in and out of the Keg quickly
• Take home your leftovers in a Greyhound "doggie" bag
• "Greyhound" tartare (naaaaaaaaaaaw I don't think so)
  
  

Remember the other so-called "partnership" deal for the Park 'N Go garage that our Mayor was involved in when he was a Councillor and on the Windsor Tunnel Commission. You know the one in receivership where the City could lose millions. I hope the one with Greyhound does not turn out that way.

Some of the details of the Greyhound deal have been released and I have some questions:

• I am curious to know why the size of the terminal was reduced so much and why Greyhound cannot use the inside facilities. (I hope their patrons can use the toilets if there are any in the building!)
• I heard that one of the Greyhound deals put forward to the Transit Windsor Board was rejected. When it was brought back in virtually the same form, Transit Windsor was told to go along with it or face the consequences. How did those deals differ from this one since what I heard about them seems relatively close to this deal
• Is a multi-million dollar Art Gallery compatible with a bus terminal adjacent to it?

I had a few questions on the financing too since real estate transactions are so confusing:

• Francis said the old bus terminal will most likely be sold. To whom and at what price? (Perhaps Burger King can now move here since their other land purchase deal fell apart) But what if the $800,000 value for Greyhound's land is wrong and less is received. Who makes up the short-fall, the City?
• For Greyhound's remaining $1.4 million , they pay $48,000 per year for 30 years. It looks like no interest is paid by Greyhound. Now someone has to pay for the construction costs upfront so who does that? Perhaps one of the math geniuses can figure out the present value of that sum of money to see if there is a shortfall too
• But wait a minute, some of that capital amount is going to pay the terminal's operating costs. How can that be done? So we are NOT receiving $48,000 per year for the cost but less.
• The City gets a 7.5% commission for selling bus tickets. Is that the same rate as travel agents or lower? (I have seen that in some Greyhound promotions, the rate is 10%). Can Greyhound cut commission rates?
• $64,000 is the building operating costs. What are the total operating costs?
• If operating costs go up over the 30 years, who pays for the increase
• Does Greyhound have exclusivity in the building for bus service and how much did they pay for that?
• To become a 50-50 partner, isn't Greyhound's contribution less than 50% and the City's more

I wonder if the Councillors on the Board now can face taxpayers and say this is a good deal for us.

I would not be surprised if the first "engineered slope" for the bus terminal will be dug for a photo-op just in the nick of time for the November election. Thank goodness this Council does not have a 4-year term as the Premier wants or we would have to wait for another year before something got built for bus users.