First Bus Departs From Revamped Franklin Street Station In Reading

Map of Berks County, Pennsylvania, United States with township and municipal boundaries (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The final step toward Reading’s iconic Franklin Street Station once again serving passengers came in the form of a message.

BARTA officials arranged for the message to flash on the first bus to leave the station since its rebirth: “Thanks Dennis; You gave it all.”

It was for Dennis D. Louwerse, BARTA’s executive director, who died Thursday after 30 years leading the county transit agency.

“This is the culmination of a dream,” Ryan Furgerson, BARTA’s deputy executive director, said of the first bus departing from the former train station.  “This is something Dennis would very much wanted to have seen.”

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Death Leaves BARTA With Big Hole To Fill

English: BARTA bus in downtown Reading, Pennsylvania, July 2007. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

BARTA will send off the first bus from its restored Franklin Street Station in Monday, taking the final step in realizing its dream of reopening the once-abandoned city transportation hub.

But agency officials who have been scrambling to start the new Reading-Lebanon route will have something else on their minds: the man whose vision for the station started it all.

Dennis D. Louwerse, BARTA’s longtime executive director, died Thursday night from complications related to a respiratory infection, according to agency officials.  He was 68.

He took the helm of the then-financially troubled bus agency 30 years ago and transformed it into an organization that’s recognized in the national transportation industry.

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