The State College Borough Council and the Downtown Improvement District, along with downtown businesses, are weighing the advantages and disadvantages of possibly moving the Atherton Street bus station to a location downtown.

The idea of combining the Greyhound, Fullington and Centre Area Transportation Authority (CATA) bus stations is a great idea. And right now, the focus of the discussion has been on two locations: one is between Garner and Hiester streets on Beaver Avenue, and the other would be at the intersection of High Street and College Avenue. This move would not be completed until sometime between 2009 and 2012. The idea to create a combined bus station downtown, though, may not be the best of ideas. We don't think it is too soon to start expressing concern over this proposed move. Right away, we have to ask, is the Atherton Street location that far out of the way for students and townspeople? There are Loop stops close to the station that allow students and State College residents to take the bus if they have a lot of luggage. The Downtown Improvement District executive director Teresa Sparacino said that the station would help downtown businesses, and create more parking spaces on that side of town.

But, buses do give off a lot of exhaust, and depending on the amount of traffic, the bus station may actually harm downtown businesses and create unnecessary congestion where there is usually a lot of pedestrians.

Imagine enjoying your hamburger or wings at the G-Man or The Deli, and suddenly having a face full of putrid black exhaust from a bus. Not exactly the most pleasant dining experience now, is it?

Crossing Beaver and College avenues is already dangerous with CATA buses, and with Greyhound and Fullington buses having to go downtown, traffic could become more of a deadly situation.

It's hard enough for cars to pull out at Beaver Avenue, think about how bad it will be for a Greyhound bus.

We do not think that downtown is the place for a bus station, or at least in the heart of residential or commercial areas. The Atherton Street location is surrounded by the Penn State campus, and out of the way to limit pollution and traffic that a bus station would cause if in the downtown area.

Because students are the ones who mostly live in the downtown areas proposed, we need to express our concern that the pollution (noise and environmental) should not be so close to residential and commercial areas. While this move may sound good in theory, practicality should definitely come into play with the decision on where the bus station should be located.