Large cans of biscuits, crowded hallways, and long lines at the ticket booths.

These were the usual scenes at the Araneta City Bus Terminal for over a decade every All Souls’ Day break or any long holiday.

However, this part of the terminal will soon be replaced by almost empty walkways and dark empty ticket booths as the management decided to transfer all of its provincial bus routes to a nearby bus port starting October 26.

Araneta City Bus Terminal’s property manager Mon Legazpi said the terminal served the passengers well, but it is time to move to a location with better facilities.

The terminal used to accommodate 5,000 to 7,000 passengers daily until the Department of Transportation opened provincial routes to other bus terminals.

“Long long time year 2019 talaga pag ganitong panahon Halloween all the holidays jampacked dito. The only traffic that we had before kapag nagta-traffic ang mga bus o kaya mga tawid-dagat at naipon ang mga pasahero dito," he said.

The new location of the Araneta City Bus Port is a few minutes away from the old terminal. It is at the lower ground floor of Manhattan Heights Tower D Romulo Avenue, Araneta City in Quezon City across Ali Mall.

The building features better seats, a concierge, air conditioned terminal, nursing room, and cleaner toilets.

It also has a centralized ticketing booth. The management said they wanted their provincial bus riders to have a better and comfortable commuting experience.

“So that the passenger will enjoy more of our facilities that we have there. Hanggang sa makasanayan na nila, not only Undas na baka before Christmas,” Legazpi said.

Araneta City Bus Port management said they are hoping the new LTFRB officials will consider their appeal to give the terminal back its old and longer routes to and from Bicol and Visayas Regions.

These routes account for 90 percent of their previous commuter volume. With the current routes, the terminal management said they only serve around 1,000 daily. The management also said that the new bus port is designed to accommodate longer routes.

The management said they will open the new bus port at 4 in the morning Wednesday. The old provincial bus terminal site will be used by jeepneys and some city buses.