Lackawanna Transit Center is the main bus station and a proposed train station in Scranton, Pennsylvania, operated by the

County of Lackawanna Transit System The County of Lackawanna Transit System (COLTS) is the operator of public transport for the city of Scranton urban area and its surrounding area of Lackawanna County, Pennsylvania. It began operations in 1972, largely using routes established by p ...

(COLTS). Opened in 2015, the transit center features an indoor

waiting area Queue areas are places in which people queue (first-come, first-served) for goods or services. Such a group of people is known as a ''queue'' (British usage) or ''line'' (American usage), and the people are said to be waiting or standing ''in ...

, covered bus bays, a park-and-ride lot, and pick-up/drop-off lanes. , it is served by COLTS,

Luzerne County Transportation Authority The Luzerne County Transportation Authority (LCTA) is the operator of mass transportation in the city of Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, and portions of surrounding Luzerne County. Services provided by the LCTA replaced previously offered services of ...

(LCTA), Amtrak Thruway,

Greyhound Lines Greyhound Lines, Inc. (commonly known as simply Greyhound) operates the largest intercity bus service in North America, including Greyhound Mexico. It also operates charter bus services, Amtrak Thruway services, commuter bus services, and pac ...

Martz Trailways Martz Group is a bus company headquartered in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, operating intercity commuter buses, charter buses, and tours. The company operates Martz Trailways, which is a part of the Trailways Transportation System. Martz Trailways ...

New York Trailways Trailways of New York is one of the largest privately held transportation companies based in New York State. It employs over 450 people and carries passengers more than 80 million miles annually. TrailwaysNY, as it is known, operates over 150 tr ...

, and

Fullington Trailways The Trailways Transportation System is an American network of approximately 70 independent bus companies that have entered into a brand licensing agreement. The company is headquartered in Fairfax, Virginia. History The predecessor to Trailwa ...

. Located at the corner of Lackawanna and Cliff avenues in downtown Scranton, the transit center is close to

Steamtown National Historic Site Steamtown National Historic Site (NHS) is a railroad museum and heritage railroad located on in downtown Scranton, Pennsylvania, at the site of the former Scranton yards of the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad (DL&W). The museum is buil ...

, the

Electric City Trolley Museum The Electric City Trolley Museum is a transport museum located in downtown Scranton, Pennsylvania, next to the Steamtown National Historic Site. The museum displays and operates restored trolleys and interurbans on former lines of the Lackawanna ...

, and the Marketplace at Steamtown. The site is also adjacent to the Pocono Mainline of the Delaware-Lackawanna Railroad, and is intended to accommodate proposed expansion of the bus station into an intermodal train and bus terminal with rail service to New York City via the Lackawanna Cut-Off.

History

A groundbreaking ceremony for the Lackawanna Transit Center took place on August 1, 2014. Plans for the project were said to have been "18 years in the making." A ribbon-cutting occurred on November 20, 2015, and the station first served buses on December 7. The total cost came to $12.5 million.

Proposed train station

From 1908 through 1970, passenger trains to Scranton used the Lackawanna Railroad's large station, now a

Radisson hotel Radisson Hotels is an international hotel chain headquartered in the United States. A division of the Radisson Hotel Group, it operates the brands Radisson Blu, Radisson Red, Radisson RED, Radisson Collection, Country Inn & Suites, and Park In ...

. The

Lackawanna Cut-Off Restoration Project The Lackawanna Cut-Off Restoration Project is a New Jersey Transit and Amtrak effort to restore passenger service to the Lackawanna Cut-Off in northwest New Jersey. Begun in 2011 and underway as of 2022, the project's Phase 1 is meant to exten ...

is an ongoing effort to revive passenger rail from New York to Scranton, with construction already underway on Phase I: an NJ Transit extension from Lake Hopatcong to Andover, New Jersey. The bus station was built on the site that had long been considered for Scranton's new train station. In spring 2021, Amtrak announced plans for a potential New York–Scranton route.

References

External links

* {{NJT stations navbox Proposed NJ Transit rail stations Railway stations in Pennsylvania Buildings and structures in Scranton, Pennsylvania Transportation buildings and structures in Lackawanna County, Pennsylvania