Travel Centers of America is failing and will declare bankruptcy within five years.

The older TA's were the Union 76 truckstops. They have the spiral staircase from the convenience store to the 2nd floor where the driver's lounge and showers are. All those rooms were originally roomettes for drivers. I used to get one at many 76's when out of hours. They had a single bed, chair and wake up alarm on the wall. Probably cost $5-10 back then like 40 years ago. Hell, the Secondi Bros. Truck Stop in Milford, Ct. had a large bunk room on second floor with cots spread out and they were free if you needed a nap.

 

Liked hearing about the nostalgia

 

I was in a Petro 2 nights ago near Rochester. When you walk in on the right, bathroom, lounge, theater, kitchen, restaurant.

but on the left? A long hallway with about 6 offices. SIX! All closed and empty. Sign just said “employees only.” (I did catch a view on my way out, at least two of them are combined and used for storage, maybe more?) So let’s assume the owner of the truckstop and maybe the head manager/payroll whatever gets an office each. I still wonder why the other offices were ever made? Why not blow out the walls and make a decent stock room? Or just open space?

 

Those offices used to be rented out to trucking companies. The trucking company got an affordable office where they could park trucks, the truck stop got the rent plus all the fuel/repairs. A nice symbiotic relationship. Doesn't make sense in today's market, but it used to be a solid idea.

 

I think I did see a recruiter set up in an office once.

On the other hand I’ve seen cellphone companies set up kiosks in hallways. With some poor shlub standing there like a carnival barker. “Step right up, buy a Bluetooth! You sir! You look like a man that needs a magnetic dash mount! Hurry hurry hurry, we’ve got adapters, guaranteed to last at least a week!”

 

The TA in Porter, Indiana has a similar setup except all of them are still currently rented out by trucking companies/brokers...

 

The sure sign of their demise, as I've stated before, is NO COUNTERS in the showers.

 

If Travel Centers of America does go under, gets bought out by some investment firm or takes another direction, several things will likely happen. Many of the locations are far more valuable for another use, look for those locations to be closed and redeveloped. If someone wants to string the others together in a chain still it could be done, and the new management will have to decide what pattern they will take. The full service truck stop, fuel, sit down restaurant, service facilities, large parking area all in one place is dead. The various entities, parking, service, place to eat are going to be decentralized, some of which won't have any fuel or truckstop feel at all.
And besides, an autonomous truck doesn't care.

 

I absolutely agree. But it is really strange how local/state government works. If given the opportunity to get rid of a major troublemaking business(truck stops are simply not welcome almost anywhere), traffic, drugs, prostitution( whether true or not, it is the perception) and put something more pleasant in it's place, it will happen with warp speed.
Here is my favorite example of local government repurposing a property improperly, the City View Mall built right on top of a retired landfill in Garfield Heights OH. 5 major tenants moved out within a year because methane gas was accumulating in their buildings. Opened in 2006 with much fanfare, now a dead mall.
City View Center - Wikipedia