Greyhound bus experiences

RonnieRocket

I’ve had the dubious pleasure of riding the Greyhound bus around a dozen times during my various sojourns in the States. My trips have included Las Vegas to LA (7 hours), LA to Phoenix (8 hours), Dallas to Austin (5 hours), amongst many others. Each time I tell myself “never again” but sometimes your wallet just can’t stretch enough to afford the flights unfortunately. My biggest gripes are:

1. The bus stations are normally in the most ghetto areas of the city. I remember arriving in LA around midnight and having to walk from the Greyhound bus station to the nearest metro station. I passed LOTS of homeless people either passed out on the footpath, shouting amongst themselves or pushing trolleys full of their life’s possessions. I was harassed for change several times during the walk. I didn’t mind too much since I was by myself but I’d hate to have my girlfriend go through it.

2. The prison system uses Greyhound buses to transfer low-risk prisoners between prisons. How do I know this? I over-heard a convict brag about his convictions to a fellow passenger, who was also a convict incidentally. There are no security checks like at airports so your seatmate could be packing a machete or an Uzi. Google “Greyhound decapitation” for more stories of psycho passengers.

3. The buses are filthy. People bring in smelly junk food all the time and leave a disgusting mess behind while they pig-out. Make sure you’re not sitting near the toilet either. Imagine the stench after an 8 hour journey.

4. There is no polite way to phrase this point: the poorest in society frequent Greyhound bus. Imagine a bus full Irish scumbags, shouting and cursing on their mobile phones. Well, in America the “lower classes” happen to be black and latino (again no polite way to phrase this). I’ve been on many bus journeys where I was the only white passenger.

5. Their customer service is infamous. Good luck ever getting a refund or trying to locate lost luggage.

Luckily in the Northeast corridor there are other low-cost bus transport options such as Megabus and Bolt bus. I’ve never used these as most of my US travels have been in the sprawling Western cities designed for cars. Would anybody care to share their experience on the Greyhound?

InTheTrees

I really cant imagine any circumstance where I'd take a greyhound bus.

As you point out the ordeal starts just getting to the bus station.

Not fun.

its also a shame that greyhound is sometimes considered a holiday travel option by tourists from outside the USA.

JohnMearsheimer

I've taken a few Greyhounds in the US and Canada in the past mainly due to budgeting. I didn't find it awful or anything, it got me where I wanted to go.

Murt10

Boston-New York return with family.

Cheaper than flying or the train.

Bus driver gave the wife a right dose of the the heebeegeebees when he announced that there would be people in uniform looking to take your luggage to a bus or taxi. That these people had no standing and were not officials and that you shouldn't allow a random stranger take your baggage. She was scared stiff.

Anyway, nothing happened. Got our cases, a taxi and were in our hotel in no time.

jjbrien

Done Toronto to NYC trip took 11.5 hours never again. The bus had those new leather seats which make you feel very hot and sweaty after an hour. The bus only stopped once for food after 3 hours and then drove for 8 hours picking up passengers along the way. Had a return ticket with them to go back to Toronto opted then to fly jetblue to Buffalo and take megabus from Buffalo Airport to Toronto.

JohnMearsheimer

jjbrien wrote: »

Done Toronto to NYC trip took 11.5 hours never again. The bus had those new leather seats which make you feel very hot and sweaty after an hour. The bus only stopped once for food after 3 hours and then drove for 8 hours picking up passengers along the way. Had a return ticket with them to go back to Toronto opted then to fly jetblue to Buffalo and take megabus from Buffalo Airport to Toronto.

Ha, I've stood on my own at that bus stop at an empty Buffalo airport late at night wondering if that bus would show up.

dave2pvd

jjbrien wrote: »

Done Toronto to NYC trip took 11.5 hours never again. The bus had those new leather seats which make you feel very hot and sweaty after an hour. The bus only stopped once for food after 3 hours and then drove for 8 hours picking up passengers along the way. Had a return ticket with them to go back to Toronto opted then to fly jetblue to Buffalo and take megabus from Buffalo Airport to Toronto.

New leather seats?

RonnieRocket

dave2pvd wrote: »

New leather seats?

Yes, some of the newer buses have leather seats, plug sockets and wi-fi, although the wi-fi can be slow and intermittent, like on all public transport I guess. Most people have internet on their smartphones these days anyway. While these recent improvements are welcome, they are not enough to make me want to spend 8 hours sitting on a bus beside a convicted rapist who is eating a smelly bucket of KFC. These newer buses are used on 50% of routes, I'd estimate.

lc180

jjbrien wrote: »

Done Toronto to NYC trip took 11.5 hours never again. The bus had those new leather seats which make you feel very hot and sweaty after an hour. The bus only stopped once for food after 3 hours and then drove for 8 hours picking up passengers along the way.

I've done this journey before and was pleasantly surprised compared to other greyhound experiences. I liked the new buses, sockets and weak wi-fi. Luckily I was sitting beside a nice guy and I was able to sleep for a good chunk so that helped. At the same time, NOT A HOPE IN HELL would I do it again, 11.5 hours is bat crazy! The gripe everyone has with the stations being in ghettos is completely true, sadly as off late Bus Aras in Dublin is not much better than a greyhound station, I avoid it if at all possible!

I used to live in Vancouver so I did VAN - Seattle(4hrs+) and VAN - Kelowna(6hrs) a few times. The buses were run down and the clientèle were.... how you say - interesting! Although security was pretty full on in Vancouver, used to rummage through my bag to check for banned items and wouldn't let you store the bag yourself. This was shortly after the infamous 'greyhound decapitation' mentioned in a previous post.

Fun times

yew_tree

There is no polite way to phrase this point: the poorest in society frequent Greyhound bus. Imagine a bus full Irish scumbags, shouting and cursing on their mobile phones. ?

First thing I though of to compare was the Luas red line....except the junkies shout at each other. That said at least you are not on the Luas for many hours.

clairefontaine

I took Greyhound once, only because I had no other choice. It's a no other choice means of travel.

catreelo11

Yeah I took the Greyhound once, or I guess twice: Santa Barbara to San Francisco and back. Never, ever again! It was through the night and my friend was in tears at one point cos she got stuck beside someone dodgy, popping tons of pills, asking her for some of her water and making her super uncomfortable. Luckily, the driver moved him when we told him how bad it was. But yeah, not the best mode of transport for sure.