100 Years on a Dirty Dog: The History of Greyhound (2013)

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.

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.

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!

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.

Freight is also a good part of their business much like the airlines. No mention of that in the article.

http://www.shipgreyhound.com/

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.

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].

[0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hupmobile

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.

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.

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.

I used them a lot in the past. Man did they stink!