Greyhound shutting down up here .....

Crazy Horse

Well-known Member
Talk about the times changing, Greyhound Bus Lines is shutting down their passenger and freight operations up here in Western Canada when October rolls around.
Most of us here on the YT forum likely have more than one story of a bus ride on Greyhound (for better or worse). Either way, a lot of people without their own
vehicle for one reason or another are going to be affected and it's a bit of a sad story when you think of it. I guess business is business and I'm sure they
are struggling in other places as well. Here's a quick bit of Greyhound history from Wikipedia ....

"Greyhound Lines, Inc., usually shortened to Greyhound, is an intercity bus common carrier serving over 3,800 destinations across North America. The company's
first route began in Hibbing, Minnesota in 1914, and the company adopted the Greyhound name in 1929. Since October 2007, Greyhound has been a subsidiary of
British transportation company FirstGroup, but continues to be based in Dallas, Texas, where it has been headquartered since 1987. Greyhound and sister
companies in FirstGroup America are the largest motorcoach operators in the United States and Canada."
 
The reason they're shutting down is because there aren't enough people without their own vehicle to sustain the business. Yes it will be terribly inconvenient for those few, but Greyhound isn't a charity and to their credit they've kept it together for a long long time in the face of ever-diminishing ridership.

My guess is the loudest wailers will be the ones who have never ridden the bus, and drive Cadillacs to work.
 
Here in Ohio I have not seen a bus in years. Did not even think about them still being in bussiness. All they can even think about is building high speed rail to do what the bus did. I don't think the majority believes spending road tax dollars on that dangerous rail system is wise. How would you ever be able to safly cross a grade crossing with trains running over a hundred miles per hour? What about the dammage a deer could do to the train at that speed?
 
Sorry to see them go, but times are changing.

My father was the field engineer for GM Truck and Coach for 30 years before retiring in 1969.

When young, one of my special treats was traveling with him for a week in the summer as he made his stops at various coach operators to address maintenance and training issues. I learned a great deal about GM coaches and Detroit Diesel engines in the process.

After retirement, he was recruited by Continental Trailways to manage their Indianapolis garage for awhile.

Dean
 
(quoted from post at 05:26:19 07/10/18) The reason they're shutting down is because there aren't enough people without their own vehicle to sustain the business. Yes it will be terribly inconvenient for those few, but Greyhound isn't a charity and to their credit they've kept it together for a long long time in the face of ever-diminishing ridership.

My guess is the loudest wailers will be the ones who have never ridden the bus, and drive Cadillacs to work.

Mass transit demands like that has diminished sense the end of WWII in the US and Canada. Somewhere floating around the net is a pair of pictures from a train station. Both were taken on the same day of the week during "rush hour". One during WWII when gas and tires were rationed and a national 35 MPH peed limit was in place and the other about a year after WWII was over. The difference is amazing. But the freedom of having a vehicle at your disposal is now well ingrained to most of us. The ability to stop and pick things up from the way home from work you know.

I think the loudest wailers will be the tree huggers. They want mass transit because it reduces the number of vehicles on the road.

I've myself have never ridden Greyhound. The army did make me ride Trailways from Ft Polk LA to Ft Knox Ky in 74. Darned seating was designed for little people.

Rick
 
Buses killed the rail road passenger system , cars and airlines are killing off the buses. Just can?t wait for Mr Scott and his ? transporter beam? . lol Amish here either go by buggy, or hire a driver. And that?s what folks that are loosing their bus will have to do, hire a driver.
 
About 10 years ago Greyhound announced they were dropping service north from Syracuse NY up through northern NY, and we were a bit worried since we use that line occasionally and fairly often have visitors coming and going that way. Before the service end date some kind of deal was reached where NY Trailways took over the line. Now they often run two buses on the same schedule because of the increasing number of Amish riders. Sometimes there will be a busload of Amish all going to one stop that they will send straight through to that stop, and all the other stops get sent on the other bus on the regular schedule. I hope that someone will be able to keep bus service going out there, it can be a big help to some people.
Zach
 

My guess would be that there will be no wailers, and the business will end with little more than a whimper. If it's not making money, there is no reason for it to exist.

Uber and similar are filling the void already.
 

Theys till run limited service in/out of Wichita and they have a nice station, but the Mexican line, Los Paisanos, has more ridership. Those go all the way into Mexico.
 
Here in Western Canada, Greyhound is not just a passenger carrier. Freight was a large part of their business. I can't remember seeing a Greyhound bus NOT pulling a freight trailer in decades. If you needed parts or materials brought out from the city, the bus could get it to you the same day, sometimes in a few hours. Perhaps we shouldn't have ripped up the railway tracks back in the nineties. unc
 
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More people have cars today and a lot of people fear for their life getting on a bus. In my town the bus doesn't really have a bus station, the bus stops behind a convenience store. There also isn't any shelter there for people. If the store is closed people just have to wait outdoors.
 
The last time I was at a bus station was probably 25 years ago in Dallas. Suddenly, about 5-6 cops showed up and tackled a passenger to the ground and drug him outside. On a bright note, at least it didn't take too long and then it was business as usual.
There's not a bus depot within an hour of me.
 
My boss sent me on a Greyhound bus to factory service school at Harley-Davidson in Milwaukee once. Two fat chicks got in a knife fight and the driver stopped in the middle of farm country to wait for the state police. Needless to say I spent my own money to fly home.
 
Well, considering Vince Li is out and about now and free to ride on the bus again, maybe it?s a good the Greyhound is shutting down out west.
 
(quoted from post at 10:11:00 07/10/18) Well, considering Vince Li is out and about now and free to ride on the bus again, maybe it?s a good the Greyhound is shutting down out west.


Now Steve- that's very cynical. The powers-that-be say he's been rehabilitated. I'm sure he's no longer a menace. :roll:
 
That just happened around here last month on a mega bus! They were from Chicago going to Memphis and pulled off here for the cops to get them and the guy they were fighting over, all looked like real winners!
 
I guess beheading people and then snacking on them on public transport is just phase people go through and grow out of, no need for concern
then eh? Considering when he was released he refused to abide by the drug regime that was set out for him, and the gov?t doesn?t want to
tread on his individual rights, all must be good.
 
(quoted from post at 11:03:22 07/10/18) Must have been Canada only thing with pulling trailers.

Maybe so. They had 12 or 14 foot covered cargo trailers on a short tongue. Made me think that freight was an important part of their business on the prairies. unc
 
My better half is from Hibbing. Yes, Iron Ranger, and now she is deRanged! There is a small Greyhound museum in Hibbing- pics of early busses are neat to look at. I was raised in Stearns County, and our farm was split by the railroad and highway 55...Liederbach, then Zephyr bus would stop in town at the Standard station, but my sister would go back and forth to the Cities, and she got on/off at the farm driveway.
 
Starting in about 5th grade, I left school about 20 minutes early every Tuesday- walked to the bus stop at the Jiffy Lunch Caf? (motto- "Watch it cook") in Tenino, Washington, got a ticket on the Greyhound and rode, by myself, about 10 miles to Centralia, where I got off out in the country and walked a quarter mile to my violin lesson. Would sit by some interesting characters- once by an intoxicated cowboy, in full fringed white leather jacket, neckerchief, silver-tipped boots, the whole 9 yards, who claimed to have been Roy Roger's horse trainer. How silly was that- Trigger was so smart he didn't need a trainer!

Another time, by Mr. McDaniel, who claimed to own the telephone company in a neighboring small town. I managed to keep a straight face, but was really yucking it up when telling the folks that night- nobody "owns" a telephone company, its just something that's there, right? Dad went and got a phone book, and I'll be dipped, under the name of that town it showed "McDaniel Telephone Company". Years later, I lived near that town, and told the story to McDaniel's son, who was then running the company. He got a real kick out of it- he asked his dad if he remember the incident, but of course he didn't remember that, or much else, at that point in his life. He was able to find his way to and from the local restaurant every noon for lunch. Everybody knew his car, and quietly turned off onto side streets or people's driveways when they saw him coming, because you never knew what portion of the road he would be using that particular day. His son likened it to a daily "parting of the Red Sea".

As for my youthful bus rides, I wonder how many years in prison my folks would get these days for letting me do that?
 
In my little Texas town. We had both. If you needed them to stop. We hung a red flag on the post out front. No flag and they went right through. They used to stop if you waved them down.
 

From what I read yesterday about many 'boomers not having money to retire, Greyhound should be getting busy pretty soon.
 
Another "notable" figure that was raised in Hibbing, Minnesota - Robert Allen Zimmerman....

Later to be known as Bob Dylan
 
Dachshund ....... that explains why he was always off tune to my ears, trying to compose music with all that background diesel noise interfering.
 
My memories of bus rides, San Diego, CA to Wichita Falls, Texas and then two weeks later Wichita Falls, Texas to San Francisco, CA. That second bus broke down at the AZ/CA state line and we had to wait on a replacement. This was 1959, don't ya know.
 

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