Western Railroad Discussion > Salem Depot open for business

After several years of screwing around by several government agencies and a generous anonymous donation from a private party, the Salem, Oregon former freight depot has been opened as a Greyhound bus station adjacent to the Amtrak depot.
Pix 1. Abandoned depot in 2013
Pix 2. New Greyhound station, yesterday 2/21/2018
Pix 3. Small building at bottom of pic is the depot, just south of the larger Amtrak depot. Upper left corner is a great brew pub called the Ram.
Bill Pyper
Salem, OR

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Nice restoration. Its good to see history preserved.How much Greyhound service is there in Salem?

What a nice restoration job, I will have to check it out next time I go through Salem.

Tom Trent
Eugene, OR

the ribbon cutting was held 1/30/2018 and was a nice ceremony.....Bob Melbo is holding up a Ed Austin developed model of the 1888 depot that had this freight house. Some very nice photos on the walls inside along with some preserved freight doors. if anyone wants a copy of the extensive history of Salem's depots, 1888-1918, PM me. Arlen

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Thanks for the coverage and congrats on the preservation project.

I would think Greyhound would feed passengers to the existing rail network, would be nice to think so anyways.

Strange..............

The Greyhound agent is still in the office at the north end of the AMTRAK station.

At the dedication they were ready to give the keys to Greyhound and found out there is

no wiring for the fire alarm................

or the phone................

or computers...........

Now they don't know how they are going to get them into the building.

They still don't have the canopies up.

They made the entry ways from 13th street too narrow and the busses are wrecking the landscaping.

Where is there a station sign on the roof that shows Eugene and Portland??? Everywhere I know it is
Portland and San Francisco. And fractions???
They can't make a decision on how or where to put a pay phone or vending machines.

Five years ago they were looking at doing the job for $200,000 and now they are at $2,700,000 and counting.

The anonymous donor was Mr. Kenney, the gentleman cutting the ribbon. The building was named for his wife Dixie.
The brass plaque on the wall in the ribbon cutting picture is in her memory, Dixie Kenney.

jb



Edited 4 time(s). Last edit at 02/23/18 05:57 by jdb.

They have eight busses (when they decide to run them) four each way. You can take the Cascades to Portland for less than Greyhound.

You can't count on Greyhound ever being there. If a driver doesn't show in Redding they just cancel the run. No warning,
no nothing.

It is not uncommon for them to be running four hours late. And they don't let the agent know anything.

And just recently they dropped Roseburg as a stop. Didn't tell anybody it was coming. GONE!!!

You can catch a Tillamook County bus at the AMTRAK station (I think it is moving over to the Greyhound station)
that will take you to the coast and the casinos.

jb



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/24/18 16:52 by jdb.

Nice to see it restored. Too bad Greyhound will trash it. Just see Albuquerque or Barstow. Would have been better as a coffee shop, restaurant or railroad museum (like Tucson).

jdb Wrote:
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> Strange..............
>
> The Greyhound agent is still in the office at the
> north end of the AMTRAK station.
>
> At the dedication they were ready to give the keys
> to Greyhound and found out there is
>
> no wiring for the fire alarm................
>
> or the phone................
>
> or computers...........
>
> Now they don't know how they are going to get them
> into the building.
>
> They still don't have the canopies up.
>
> They made the entry ways from 13th street too
> narrow and the busses are wrecking the
> landscaping.
>
> Where is there a station sign on the roof that
> shows Eugene and Portland??? Everywhere I know it
> is
> Portland and San Francisco. And fractions???
> They can't make a decision on how or where to put
> a pay phone or vending machines.
>
> Five years ago they were looking at doing the job
> for $200,000 and now they are at $2,700,000 and
> counting.
>
> The anonymous donor was Mr. Kenney, the gentleman
> cutting the ribbon. The building was named for
> his wife Dixie.
> The brass plaque on the wall in the ribbon cutting
> picture is in her memory, Dixie Kenney.
>
> jb
Yes, it's true that Greyhound has not yet moved into the renovated Salem baggage/express building. They indicated they would like to wait until the canopies currently being manufactured are installed on the platform just south of the building. Motivating Greyhound to move into the building isn't an issue.

It's Greyhound's responsibility to install communication lines into the building for fire alarm, telephone and computer network. Conduits between the main depot and the baggage/express building are in place and ready for wiring. Greyhound has had a communications contractor scoping the site.

The new driveways off of 13th Street were designed for use by buses and are sufficiently wide to accommodate them. Some of the landscaping around these driveways has yet to be finished.

There are many examples of station signs in service on Southern Pacific lines in Oregon that did not display distances from San Francisco and Portland, respectively, although using San Francisco instead of Eugene would have been more historically correct in this instance. Nevertheless, great pains were taken to have the signs adhere to the Southern Pacific common standard for station signs extant in the late 19th century, and that standard called for the use of fractions for display of mileage.

There is not a problem as to where to place vending machines in the renovated building as space was specifically designed for them, including the availability of water and a drain. The issue now is whether there will be enough sales volume to justify installing a vending machine, such as a hot drink machine, in the building. The vendor with the contract to provide services to state-owned facilities does not think Greyhound's estimate of the number of people that will pass through daily is high enough to warrant any sort of vending machines, especially since vending machines are already available next door in the Amtrak depot. And the patronage of those machines is very marginal, even with the current joint use of the waiting room by Amtrak and Greyhound. As for a pay phone, there used to be one on the exterior of the Amtrak depot but it got so little use in this day and age of cell phones that it was removed. There is no plan at this time to install a pay phone in the baggage building.

And, yes, the budget skyrocketed as the project evolved and the unknown unknowns began to manifest themselves and decisions were made to increase the parking facilities which required a retaining wall at the south end of the property along the creek, plus extensive eco-friendly storm water capture facilities with interconnected bio-swales and filtration, plus an extraordinary amount of fill. Not to mention the need to run a whole new water line from Mill Street through the north end parking lot and then jog around the depot to insure sufficient water for suppression in the event of a fire. Then there was the sewer. The building had contained toilets in the past but no one could figure out where the existing sewer line went so it was necessary to trench in a new line. And it didn't help that the city's "as built drawings" indicated the water main was four feet beneath Mill Street when it was finally found at 10 feet, and that the sewer, said to be 6 to 7 feet down, finally showed up at 14 feet. And electricity. The building was originally served by overhead wire but nowadays you bury the service. Which was fine except that PGE decided that the building should have a new transformer and that required installing a vault for it. And a good part of this work requiring trenching and excavation was going on during the winter of 2016-2017, one of the wettest on record. Then there was the discovery of the frost-box foundation and pyramid footing blocks of the water tank that stood for decades 300 feet south of the main depot but had been covered over and forgotten. In all there were 40-some change orders required, which is a big number for a small project. A great deal of effort went into preserving what materials could be reused and in keeping the historic architecture intact. No doubt it could have been built from scratch for less but the objective was to save a piece of history. Part of the building, about 25x21 feet of it, was a remnant of the 1888 depot. The remainder, 30x21 feet, was an addition added between 1891 and 1895. The exact year of the extension has so far been elusive.

it always, I think, helps to hear the real story. thanks! Arlen

asheldrake Wrote:
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> it always, I think, helps to hear the real story.
thanks! Arlen

The "real" story is great but is that depot the best place in Oregon to throw 2.7 million? Schools,
roads, homeless...

A couple of other things. Concrete was poured where the busses run. Then it was taken up and poured again.

A fence was installed between the Greyhound station and railroad tracks. It was a great idea because some of those riders get to shoving each other out on to the tracks. Or, use the platform as a seat with their feet on the rails. But they put the fence too close to the track and had to take it out. All the new paving has created a new "route" for the bicycle riders and the fence should keep them out. Instead it has created an area at the north end where they ride/walk their bikes down the middle of the railroad tracks.


The state doesn't want to provide security at the AMTRAK station but has given in to doing it in the afternoon. At the recent dedication the dignitaries showed up at 10:00AM in their Sunday go to meeting clothes and there was a panhandler greeting them. Now they want security and can't believe that sort of thing happens all the time, so nothing will change.

There is a pay phone outside on the corner nearest the new Greyhound station but it doesn't work.
The handset has been broken in half. I have seen an individual break the doors to the station off
their hinges. But there isn't a problem that needs to be addressed.

Inside the AMTRAK station is a historic picture of the freight station and a sign on it with San Francisco and Portland. Fractions or decimals are not used.

jb



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/25/18 07:04 by jdb.

If it got flattened by a bulldozer not enough would have been done, it gets restored, ah but it's not good enough. The eternal struggle!

GN599 Wrote:
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> If it got flattened by a bulldozer not enough
> would have been done, it gets restored, ah but
> it's not good enough. The eternal struggle!

I think you're probably right. But I was sorta for it five years ago when Mr. Kenney offered his contribution.

The cost and the time have changed my mind. I don't think the Rail Division of ODOT should be involved with the
restoration of a historic building. They don't know who to go to for a permit, state, city, or county. (Federal???)

They let a bid for a job. Then they make a change (40+) and that change is done at the going rate for jobs. And they need
a new permit. Pretty soon it adds up to real money.

Some day a kid is going to fall into the eco-friendly bio swales and hurt himself. The bio swales are already being used for trash
collection. Putting a sign on them won't help because Oregonians can't read.

The bus entries NEED to be widened. Putting landscaping in won't help because the driver will just take the landscaping out. I
watched one driver that almost took out the stop sign.

I don't see that the parking was needed. Unless you can look ahead and see that Willamette University will continue
to push the AMTRAK parking out of the north lot.

It has gone on so long that I don't think Greyhound wants to move. Do like they did in Roseburg, just drop Salem as a stop. Or
do like they are presently doing in San Jose. Let the AMTRAK agents sell the Greyhound tickets. What they presently have now
is working.

jb

jdb Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> asheldrake Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > it always, I think, helps to hear the real
> story.
> thanks! Arlen
>
> The "real" story is great but is that depot the
> best place in Oregon to throw 2.7 million?
> Schools,
> roads, homeless...
>
> A couple of other things. Concrete was poured
> where the busses run. Then it was taken up and
> poured again.
>
> A fence was installed between the Greyhound
> station and railroad tracks. It was a great idea
> because some of those riders get to shoving each
> other out on to the tracks. Or, use the platform
> as a seat with their feet on the rails. But they
> put the fence too close to the track and had to
> take it out. All the new paving has created a new
> "route" for the bicycle riders and the fence
> should keep them out. Instead it has created an
> area at the north end where they ride/walk their
> bikes down the middle of the railroad tracks.
>
>
> The state doesn't want to provide security at the
> AMTRAK station but has given in to doing it in the
> afternoon. At the recent dedication the
> dignitaries showed up at 10:00AM in their Sunday
> go to meeting clothes and there was a panhandler
> greeting them. Now they want security and can't
> believe that sort of thing happens all the time,
> so nothing will change.
>
> There is a pay phone outside on the corner nearest
> the new Greyhound station but it doesn't work.
> The handset has been broken in half. I have seen
> an individual break the doors to the station off
> their hinges. But there isn't a problem that
> needs to be addressed.
>
> Inside the AMTRAK station is a historic picture of
> the freight station and a sign on it with San
> Francisco and Portland. Fractions or decimals are
> not used.
>
> jb

Yes, some of the poured concrete was removed and redone at the contractor's expense because it cracked. The state was not going to accept poor quality. And the fencing contractor did install one section of fence in violation of the minimum required clearance and it was removed the following day. The bio-swales have been fenced where possible to prevent people from falling in.

As for the bicyclists and others who might be trespassing on the track -- well, sometimes you just can't fix stupid.

There is a photograph of a McKeen car in front of the Salem station circa 1914 and the station sign on the south end of the building does incorporate fractions in the mileage to both San Francisco and Portland. It is in a TIF format so it can't be attached here. The SP Common Standard adopted for station signs in 1897 specified using fractions for mileage rather than decimals. It's in a PDF format so can't be attached either.