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The Rosa Parks Hempstead Transit Center is the Long Island Bus system's indoor customer facility between Jackson and West Columbia Streets in Hempstead, Long Island. Serving 21 of the 54 routes, the transit center is the major transfer point for customers using a second Long Island Bus route or the Long Island Railroad. Offering a waiting area, transit information, MetroCard vending machines, a newsstand and restrooms; the Hempstead Transit Center was designed to be the largest, most thoroughly developed of all of the bus terminals in the Long Island Bus system.[1][2]
History
In 1993, construction on the Hempstead Transit Center was completed and it was opened to the public. In conjunction with the new railroad station, it's construction was part of a plan by Mayor James A. Garner to redevelop Hempstead and help bring it back to prominence as "Long Island's hub".[3] The original Hempstead bus terminal was located across Jackson Street on the corner of Jackson and Main Streets. That area is now occupied by the Greyhound bus stop and various businesses. The new transit center can accommodate many more buses than the original terminal and allows almost half of the Long Island Bus system's routes to run through Hempstead. Although Hempstead has never reached it's former level of prominence, the new terminal and railroad station, along with the establishment of many new businesses, have helped to reestablish Hempstead as the hub of Long Island.
The "Rosa Parks" Name
On February 14, 2006, Nassau County Executive, Thomas Suozzi announced that Hempstead Transit Center would be renamed in honor of civil rights pioneer Rosa Parks. Suozzi said, "“To honor her memory and that of her important work, today we are renaming this vital transit hub for one of the most important figures in American history.” In addition to the renaming of the terminal, a permanent exhibit of the civil rights movement will be constructed, telling the story of the struggle for equality through the photographs of photojournalists and artists who covered the unrest of that era, including the late Moneta Sleet, Jr., Jim Peppler (a photographer for Newsday), and Herbert Randall.[4] So far, a column in the back of the bus terminal has been rennovated with black marble, engraved with a large image of Rosa Parks and her story below.
MTA Long Island Bus Connections
The following bus routes terminate or stop at the transit center:
Behind the Hempstead Transit Center is Jackson Street, where Hempstead's nearby Greyhound Bus Terminal is located. This terminal serves not only Greyhound buses, but Trailways buses, Adirondack buses, Pine Hill buses, ShortLine buses and Greyhound affiliated Vermont Transit.
References
External links
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