Ah, yes. I once left my mother-in-law's suitcase behind in the Harrisburg suburbs, discovering this only once I got back to Maryland. My brother-in-law kindly dropped it at Greyhound, and we had it the next day.
It's not as good of a deal as it used to be. It used to be a great replacement for LTL freight for all the "this doesn't deserve a pallet but I can't reasonably ask the postal service to handle this" type items.
When I worked in television, satellite time was very expensive, and microwave links were scarce. We very often would send videotapes between stations and bureaus via Greyhound freight.
Interesting story. Failed as a car salesman, the Swedish entrepreneur created an option for inter-city travel where none existed.
> Wickman decided to start transporting workers between Hibbing and Alice, a mining town two miles away. Cramming 15 passengers into his eight-seat “touring car,” the 27-year-old charged 15 cents a ride. On his first trip, in 1914, Wickman collected a grand total of $2.25.
This is the car he used for the first few rides [0].
The last time I rode a Greyhound was in 2003 to go pick up a car I was buying. It was still in the "Dirty Dog" era, and it was memorable for the acute hearing the driver had, able to pick up someone in the 12th row listening to music without headphones, and his subsequent yelling at them to turn it down.
I think they're heading in the right direction these days. I have seen reviews that say the buses are clean, generally on time, and pretty nice with leather seats.
It's okay, don't think it's gotten better since. Until I graduated a few years ago, I'd take the Vancouver to Seattle route about once a year to meet friends or interview and can't say I've ever had anything I would describe as a good experience in my dozen or so trips.
First, there seemed to some major issue with every other ride. One time the vents started leaking, in another the shocks were absolutely horrid, sometimes the bus reeked, sometimes the seats were dirty or you could feel the seat springs. One time the driver just didn't show up and our bus departed 4 hours after the scheduled time.
Second, more minor issues were always abundant. Things like broken or glacial wifi, power not working, stench, dirty terminals, dirty washrooms, annoying passengers, late departures/arrivals or general confusion from poorly documented check-in/pickup/dropoff locations.
My last Greyhound ride was also in 2003, a cross-country trip from Phoenix to Atlanta. It was three days of sheer hell and I couldn't feel my butt (from all the vibration; that was NOT a smooth ride) for over a day afterwards. Didn't help that every single bus stop along the way was in the worst neighborhoods in town, too.
It was enough of an experience that I've been loathe to consider giving them another shot.
Forty-odd years ago, I rode Greyhound a fair bit. It was before deregulation brought airline fares down. The buses were reasonably clean, not that smelly unless you sat way back by the restroom. I wouldn't care to do it today--the 20-year-old back can tolerate what the 60-year-old back can't, or anyway would rather not.
But it wasn't that bad. I would stand at the end of the line for a bus. The worst outcome was sitting next to the person nobody else wished to sit next to. The best and more common outcome was that the bus would have filled up before I boarded, and Greyhound would bring out another bus--I could ride in a nearly-empty bus.
I rode Greyhound a few times in the year before the pandemic. Cincinnati to Indianapolis. Los Angeles to Las Vegas. Chicago to Madison. My experience was the same as yours: It's not as bad as everyone makes it out to be.
I think people just have a worst case scenario in their minds that keeps them away. I understand that. I feel the same way about airplane travel over the last decade or so.
No, it's not. Greyhound regularly simply cancels trips in order to fill more seats on the next trip over the same route. The result is that people who don't have any other choice end up traveling e.g. for 20 hours instead of 8 as the published schedule would suggest. They wouldn't get away with this if their customers were people whose complaints have the attention of officialdom. I don't really believe the "it would cost more if they didn't jerk you around or if they ever cleaned the terminal" excuse either.
For the most part, yes, Greyhound is a solid service. I have been across more than 20 states on Greyhound buses and it is generally a great service that provides excellent value. That said, I also have about 2 drinks worth of seriously messed up stories associated with some of these travels. As a man under 40 with a reasonable build and plenty of patience, everything will probably be fine, but I would not necessarily recommend this mode of transportation to everyone.
My travels have tended toward trips that are too long for Greyhound to be an option. NC-TX or NC-MN are more expensive than even non-discount airfare and take more than a day vs less than half a day...
When discussing Greyhound, it's important to specify exactly when your experience was, because things have changed a lot over time. When I used Greyhound in the 1980s, buses were clean and on time, and passengers were clean and well behaved. My experience traveling by bus then was better than my experience traveling by air now.
Greyhound: a tour of the worst part of every city in North America. During less lucrative times in my life I used to ride on Greyhound (and Bolt & Megabus) semi-frequently. It is a good deal if you don't mind spending an extra 6 hours waiting around and are willing to risk being decapitated to save ~$50-200 (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Killing_of_Tim_McLean). One thing that I will say is that intercity bus travel in North America is much nastier than comparable services in Latin America or East Asia. I feel like this is primarily a socio-economic issue stemming from the fact that middle class Americans do not like to ride a bus so Greyhound is much worse than equivalent services in Mexico. I recall once riding a bus from Texas to California, and the greyhound was being too exceptionally sketchy in terms out the amount of drugs and pornography in use before sundown. In El Paso I transferred to a Mexican bus service to go the rest of the way to LA, and I was very grateful for the massive improvement in hygiene, noise and sanity on the Mexican bus line.
When I was younger, I used to take the Greyhound a lot between my home town and the town I was doing an internship. The stations were definitely in the not so great parts of town. If you were there after dark, it just did not feel safe.
Of course, you rode it because it was cheap vs. your other options. Eventually, I got wise to the slightly pricier competitor in the area and started using that. I have to admit that now I would not bat an eye at spending the extra $25 on the ride, but back then it felt like a luxury.
I'm in Western Canada and Greyhound is gone now. A couple of replacement bus lines started up prior to the pandemic, but I don't know if they've survived.
I never had a problem with the depots, though they definitely weren't classy places. If you knew the towns along the route, it was usually easy to walk to a better restaurant, store, etc.
I continued to ride the bus long after my economic situation improved, because I actually enjoyed it. I met a lot of interesting characters taking the bus. I've heard a lot of "Greyhound stories," smoked a bit of weed with strangers, and found myself in some unexpectedly cool situations. Always an adventure. Air travel is so sterile in comparison.
I completely agree, and I'm very glad to see this perspective in this thread. I used to ride cheap buses because I didn't have much money, now (pre-corona) I still ride them even though I'm doing well. You meet people, hear fun stories, find yourself in interesting situations... There are "filters" on the population that rides airplanes or trains, but all of humanity rides the bus. And while the chance that a grandma unpacks her food and shares some with you on the plane is nil, I've had it happen to me multiple times on the bus, so there's that :)
> There are "filters" on the population that rides airplanes or trains
You're on to something here. It's hard to explain generally without sounding like a tool. I occassionaly ride the bus because for the same reasons you mentioned - it's alive in there for some reason. Same with bars and taverns. Blue collar workers have stories for days and make good friends with just about anyone as long as you have a respectful and decent way about you.
One of the sketchiest places in downtown Houston is the greyhound station. There is a 2-3 block radius in downtown that I won’t walk through anchored by that greyhound station.
What is it like for people in this ‘sketchy place’ when you walk through their neighborhood?
If in your eyes they contribute to making a place ‘sketchy’ - what could their perspective be on you?
How do they see you?
I am asking because to me your comment seems devoid of empathy towards others, and I’m curious how you came to be. I’d like to learn more about your perspective if possible.
I've taken Bolt buses now and again, usually to go from NYC -> Philly, which is kind of a pain by train. Didn't even realize they were a Greyhound brand! I'm not a very finnicky public transit user and while not fancy, the buses I was on were usually pretty clean and spacious. I do wish Americans were more willing to utilize buses, as often times they are a very economic way of getting around (both for the individual, the environment and congestion on the roads).
There is a very similar style bus service in Europe called FlixBus that I have fond (nostalgic) memories of as an incredibly cheap way to get around Europe. Was it fun trying to sleep on a cramped 12 hour bus ride? No. But you can't beat getting from Bratislava to Zagreb for only 20 euro!
Yeah in my experience riding Greyhound in the Great Lakes late 2000s-mid 2010s it's not as bad as people made it out to be, if you got a newer bus. Service was frequent and cheap and I never faced a cancellation that wasn't due to snow. Though it may be because the New York - Chicago routes are heavily used.
I would rank it around the same as budget airlines like Spirit. Maybe better because there were rarely infants traveling IME.
Still no public transport beats a train for me, even Amtrak. You can't beat the space and comfort.
I used to regularly ride Flixbus in the US from San Francisco to Fresno, CA. Definitely not glamorous but also a very cheap and accessible way to get around! Much better than Greyhound.
I used to love riding the Greyhound, ... that is until that beheading in 2008. That was ..... that was ... messed up.
I used to ride that bus to Edmonton too. Hit a little too close to home for me. Never rode the Greyhound again after that. Now every drunk or drug addled person was suspect for me and Greyhounds had no shortage of them.
And ... yes I know the guy was a schizo ... but still.
Frequently rode greyhounds from Vancouver up through northern BC when I was young. About 1/5 rides would have some memorable event. A drunk yelling slurs at no one in particular, a mother screaming at her kids to the point the driver is threatening to call child services if she doesn’t calm down. Police pulling the bus over in the middle of nowhere and arresting someone. These kind of things.
Generally it was only the poorest people who would be riding Greyhounds up north, or those unfortunate enough not able to drive themselves.
The bad reputation of Greyhound bewilders me. I've taken it from NYC to Baltimore (5 or so times that trip), Columbus, and somewhere I forget in NJ. The buses are never dirty, never had an issue with passengers, there are usually outlets to use, and there's free wifi albeit with some services like video streaming blocked. I always found it a good value for the price and it remains my go-to bus service. Maybe crazy things just happen on busses sometimes, Greyhound picked up some cultural momentum for being associated with this through coincidence or more people using it than competitors, and there are 1000 people who had a good ride and didn't post about it for every 1 person with a weird story.
In the US, the experience of what you get goes so strongly downhill the lower the ticket price, it seems more so than in other countries.
As others have pointed out, in other countries the wealth gaps aren't as large, and for example in Chile, the bus system is relatively luxurious (and a necessity) for even average passengers. Probably due to competition as well.
In the US it seems, the cost of vehicles, drivers, overhead staffing, etc. is large enough that they cannot but make the experience horrible -- in terms of routes, seating configurations, schedules.
And as a result there are 2 issues with buses that just make me swear off them, not because of the other passengers or anything:
1) The stop and go nature of navigating in cities just to get to the open road, or to make any kind of stop, and the jostling of the highway -- you just cannot feel at ease or relaxed that the journey is underway and calm.
2) The back-breaking discomfort of the seats that Greyhound installs to reach the passenger density needed to break even. Knees crammed against the hard plastic back of the seat in front of you, and no recline for 6 hours. In other countries, they have buses with sleeper seats and cabins for godssake.
I will go out of my way to take a train even if it's slightly longer, to avoid buses.
One of my kids took the Dog from Toronto to Calgary where I had moved. His motivation was to see Canada. He also shipped all his stuff by bus, but we had to pick it up later. I remember losing my rental car keys in the mountains and talking the agency into shipping them to Lk. Louise where I retrieved the parcel and boarded the bus back to West Louise. The driver dropped me off at the turn-off.
Sadly Greyhound dropped their Western Canada services and none of this is now possible. Saskatchewan dropped their rural bus service not long ago; so granny has to hitchhike to see the doctor.
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[ 3.2 ms ] story [ 94.2 ms ] threadhttp://www.shipgreyhound.com/
When I worked in television, satellite time was very expensive, and microwave links were scarce. We very often would send videotapes between stations and bureaus via Greyhound freight.
> Wickman decided to start transporting workers between Hibbing and Alice, a mining town two miles away. Cramming 15 passengers into his eight-seat “touring car,” the 27-year-old charged 15 cents a ride. On his first trip, in 1914, Wickman collected a grand total of $2.25.
This is the car he used for the first few rides [0].
[0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hupmobile
I think they're heading in the right direction these days. I have seen reviews that say the buses are clean, generally on time, and pretty nice with leather seats.
First, there seemed to some major issue with every other ride. One time the vents started leaking, in another the shocks were absolutely horrid, sometimes the bus reeked, sometimes the seats were dirty or you could feel the seat springs. One time the driver just didn't show up and our bus departed 4 hours after the scheduled time.
Second, more minor issues were always abundant. Things like broken or glacial wifi, power not working, stench, dirty terminals, dirty washrooms, annoying passengers, late departures/arrivals or general confusion from poorly documented check-in/pickup/dropoff locations.
It was enough of an experience that I've been loathe to consider giving them another shot.
But it wasn't that bad. I would stand at the end of the line for a bus. The worst outcome was sitting next to the person nobody else wished to sit next to. The best and more common outcome was that the bus would have filled up before I boarded, and Greyhound would bring out another bus--I could ride in a nearly-empty bus.
I rode Greyhound a few times in the year before the pandemic. Cincinnati to Indianapolis. Los Angeles to Las Vegas. Chicago to Madison. My experience was the same as yours: It's not as bad as everyone makes it out to be.
I think people just have a worst case scenario in their minds that keeps them away. I understand that. I feel the same way about airplane travel over the last decade or so.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3gAeVysCIl8
Of course, you rode it because it was cheap vs. your other options. Eventually, I got wise to the slightly pricier competitor in the area and started using that. I have to admit that now I would not bat an eye at spending the extra $25 on the ride, but back then it felt like a luxury.
I never had a problem with the depots, though they definitely weren't classy places. If you knew the towns along the route, it was usually easy to walk to a better restaurant, store, etc.
I continued to ride the bus long after my economic situation improved, because I actually enjoyed it. I met a lot of interesting characters taking the bus. I've heard a lot of "Greyhound stories," smoked a bit of weed with strangers, and found myself in some unexpectedly cool situations. Always an adventure. Air travel is so sterile in comparison.
You're on to something here. It's hard to explain generally without sounding like a tool. I occassionaly ride the bus because for the same reasons you mentioned - it's alive in there for some reason. Same with bars and taverns. Blue collar workers have stories for days and make good friends with just about anyone as long as you have a respectful and decent way about you.
I would have replied earlier, but I've been digitally detoxing for the last few months, so I'm fairly inactive.
If in your eyes they contribute to making a place ‘sketchy’ - what could their perspective be on you?
How do they see you?
I am asking because to me your comment seems devoid of empathy towards others, and I’m curious how you came to be. I’d like to learn more about your perspective if possible.
There is a very similar style bus service in Europe called FlixBus that I have fond (nostalgic) memories of as an incredibly cheap way to get around Europe. Was it fun trying to sleep on a cramped 12 hour bus ride? No. But you can't beat getting from Bratislava to Zagreb for only 20 euro!
I would rank it around the same as budget airlines like Spirit. Maybe better because there were rarely infants traveling IME.
Still no public transport beats a train for me, even Amtrak. You can't beat the space and comfort.
(I've never used the service on either continent, I usually take trains if there's a reasonable option.)
https://global.flixbus.com/bus-routes
I used to ride that bus to Edmonton too. Hit a little too close to home for me. Never rode the Greyhound again after that. Now every drunk or drug addled person was suspect for me and Greyhounds had no shortage of them.
And ... yes I know the guy was a schizo ... but still.
Generally it was only the poorest people who would be riding Greyhounds up north, or those unfortunate enough not able to drive themselves.
As others have pointed out, in other countries the wealth gaps aren't as large, and for example in Chile, the bus system is relatively luxurious (and a necessity) for even average passengers. Probably due to competition as well.
In the US it seems, the cost of vehicles, drivers, overhead staffing, etc. is large enough that they cannot but make the experience horrible -- in terms of routes, seating configurations, schedules.
And as a result there are 2 issues with buses that just make me swear off them, not because of the other passengers or anything:
1) The stop and go nature of navigating in cities just to get to the open road, or to make any kind of stop, and the jostling of the highway -- you just cannot feel at ease or relaxed that the journey is underway and calm.
2) The back-breaking discomfort of the seats that Greyhound installs to reach the passenger density needed to break even. Knees crammed against the hard plastic back of the seat in front of you, and no recline for 6 hours. In other countries, they have buses with sleeper seats and cabins for godssake.
I will go out of my way to take a train even if it's slightly longer, to avoid buses.
Sadly Greyhound dropped their Western Canada services and none of this is now possible. Saskatchewan dropped their rural bus service not long ago; so granny has to hitchhike to see the doctor.