Advocates to restore the bus hub at Rodney Square are rallying Thursday despite federal transit officials canceling a meeting to hear their concerns.
John Flaherty, one of the coalition leaders says they wanted show the FTA Philadelphia office that business interests possibly drove Gov. John Carney’s decision last December to reroute buses from Rodney Square. He said he's filed an open records request to try to better determine why the meeting was canceled. Flaherty said he’s hoping the Delaware attorney general will agree Gov. John Carney’s redacted emails should be public.
Flaherty said he’s only heard the governor express empathy for the Wilmington business leaders who wanted the transit hub dismantled.
“I have not heard him express that kind of empathy for the average person that he does for the rich and the powerful in downtown Wilmington,” he said.
But Carney said that is just not true.
“I have met individually with people," he said. "I have walked the bus route changes and the bus stop to respond to the concerns that some people had about having to walk up hills or walk different distances and the like.”
Carney said they’ve also made adjustments to routes to accommodate some individual bus riders.
He adds Flaherty is a transportation advocate, but this issue goes to the economic vitality of the city. He added that he worked with Flaherty in Former Vice President Joe Biden's Senate office.
