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Greyhound didn’t innovate. The buses look like they are super old. No wifi. Exorbitant prices. It’s a terrible experience. Pay a bit more and you can take a tra

by moltar 8y ago

Greyhound didn’t innovate. The buses look like they are super old. No wifi. Exorbitant prices. It’s a terrible experience. Pay a bit more and you can take a train. I’ve been on a government bus in Thailand. The seat reclines into almost laying position, comes with built in massager, video games and stewardess service. The cost of non-stop 9 hour ride was $20.

traek 8y ago
> Greyhound didn’t innovate. The buses look like they are super old. No wifi. Exorbitant prices. It’s a terrible experience. Pay a bit more and you can take a train. I don't think this is salient to the discussion specifically of Greyhound shuttering service in rural Canada. There are no train lines that operate connecting most of the outposts described in the article to urban areas.
- frabbit 8y ago
  To add to that, in some places there were both bus and trains and first the train lines were shut to passengers and then the bus service decreased until it was unattractive, and then they shut the bus lines. Specific example that I know of is Acadian Lines operations in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick(1). The availability of hugely subsidised gas and automobiles has seen people hoodwinked into taking their lives in their hands by driving insanely long distances in frequently dangerous weather. It is all part of costs being displaced onto individuals (who often welcome the displacement as they believe it increases their freedom). Some of those costs are of course also externalized into environmental impacts. 1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acadian_Lines https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acadian_Lines
  - yellowapple 8y ago
    I'd come at this from the opposite perspective: being reliant on bus/train companies that can stop serving your town is exactly why an automobile is valuable and essential to anyone not living in a city.
    - ajmurmann 8y ago
      You can always buy the car when the service actually stops, no?
      - crankylinuxuser 8y ago
        If you have the money to buy the car. If you have access to gasoline through hours and hours of wilderness (hint: no gas stations). If the roads are passable. If you have a safe place to stop and sleep during your trip (hint: you don't).
        ajmurmann 8y ago
        Are you describing some kind of apocalyptic prepper scenario?
        vkou 8y ago
        No, just some things that you want to think about before you drive on the Trans-Canada in the middle of January. I mean, you don't need to think about them for very long, but you do want to have a plan for being stuck for hours, or having to turn around in the middle of Nowhere, BC.
        PhasmaFelis 8y ago
        Can a bus make it through those conditions? If not, you're screwed either way.
        ajmurmann 8y ago
        I have to think about having enough money to buy a new car when driving across Canada?
        icebraining 8y ago
        I don't see how this is relevant to the context of the reply. It was the grandparent post who said "an automobile is valuable and essential to anyone not living in a city". If there's no access to gasoline and the roads aren't passable, then it's not that valuable in the first place. In any case, I'm pretty sure a bus needs the roads to be passable as well.
faitswulff 8y ago
> No wifi I know that's not true, at least. I got the best prices and wifi on Greyhound Express buses ~5 years ago.
mlevental 8y ago
this is asinine. firstly what relative purchasing power of 9$ in Thailand vs Canada? secondly in developing countries the market for bus transport is enormous because only very wealthy have cars.
- danbolt 8y ago
  Plus I can imagine the population density of Canada makes a large difference, too.
  - rocky1138 8y ago
    Maybe in some cases, but I've taken multiple hours long buses in Taiwan and multiple hours-long buses here in Canada and price and quality of Canadian buses is way behind the times; inconvenient, expensive, and slow.
    - moltar 8y ago
      And Taiwanese were also able to build a high speed train in mountainous, very seismicacally active terrain. We can’t seem to figure this out in flatlands.
    - madeofmeat 8y ago
      Population density of Taiwan: 650/square km. Canada: 4/square km. Naturally there will be huge differences in what is cost-effective for these two very different countries.
  - moltar 8y ago
    Those people who choose to live in the remote locations can’t expect to get all of the services that people who live in dense areas are getting. It obviously doesn’t make sense to run the buses from/to areas where there’s little ridership. It’s like any other utility. They probably have a septic tank instead of sewer. Slow satellite internet. Pump your own water. Now also lack of bus. The trend is people moving to the cities. It’s undeniable.
- moltar 8y ago
johnny22 8y ago
hmm? whens' the last time you took one? They've revamped their fleet and many routes do have wifi and power outlets. Granted, the wifi isn't great, but it did work.
Theodores 8y ago
Greyhound actually were handicapped when they got started decades ago as GM deliberately downgraded the comfort on the buses they sold. The business logic for this made sense in a way - GM like to sell lots of cars that have to be replaced every few years rather than a small quantity of buses/coaches that are engineered to provide years of reliable service. Once the market had been nobbled this way the passenger numbers dropped meaning that no capital was available for better buses/coaches. So there may be reasons from fifty years ago that led to your observation.
- jpatokal 8y ago
  Citation needed. GM hardly has a monopoly on the bus market, in fact they don't even seem to feature in the top tier: http://www.chinabuses.org/news/2015/0409/article_8844.html http://www.chinabuses.org/news/2015/0409/article_8844.html
GhostVII 8y ago
I think the biggest issue is that the whole process of getting on the bus is terrible. I took a Greyhound from New York, and it was just a disorganized mess the entire time. I waited in a line for over something like 45 minutes to get my luggage tagged, and there were only 20 people in front of me in line. And then when I went to line up for the bus, there were no actual lineups formed, just a mass of people, each waiting for different buses, all crammed into the same place. When I finally got on the bus, it turns out that we had to switch buses part way through, which wasn't on the ticket, so I got bumped and had to wait another hour or two for the next bus, which ended up going a longer route and taking at least an hour longer. Maybe Greyhound elsewhere is different, but for me the entire experience was a nightmare. I took greyhound instead of a plane to save a little money, but I would gladly pay $100 extra just to avoid the whole mess of getting signed in and on the bus.
rocky1138 8y ago
> Greyhound didn’t innovate. The buses look like they are super old. No wifi. Exorbitant prices. It’s a terrible experience. Pay a bit more and you can take a train. It may have been an isolated incident, but the Greyhound bus driver I had the last time seemed to have a really sour attitude and was not helpful at all.
- giarc 8y ago
  I would be too driving from Prince Albert to Flin Flon.
sonnyblarney 8y ago
Greyhound has never 'innovated'. They have regular buses, with Wifi, and it's substantially cheaper than any other form of travel. They don't have 'hostesses' because we don't have cheap labour. This is more about plentiful cars, and expensive gas. 40 years ago not everyone had a car, now they do. Gas was cheap, now it's more expensive driving the prices up somewhat. Also, the economies in those areas have not kept up meaning it's difficult for them to keep up the demand. It's an extremely low margin business any one piece fails, and it's up.

by moltar 8y ago

traek 8y ago

> Greyhound didn’t innovate. The buses look like they are super old. No wifi. Exorbitant prices. It’s a terrible experience. Pay a bit more and you can take a train. I don't think this is salient to the discussion specifically of Greyhound shuttering service in rural Canada. There are no train lines that operate connecting most of the outposts described in the article to urban areas.

frabbit 8y ago
To add to that, in some places there were both bus and trains and first the train lines were shut to passengers and then the bus service decreased until it was unattractive, and then they shut the bus lines. Specific example that I know of is Acadian Lines operations in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick(1). The availability of hugely subsidised gas and automobiles has seen people hoodwinked into taking their lives in their hands by driving insanely long distances in frequently dangerous weather. It is all part of costs being displaced onto individuals (who often welcome the displacement as they believe it increases their freedom). Some of those costs are of course also externalized into environmental impacts. 1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acadian_Lines https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acadian_Lines
- yellowapple 8y ago
  I'd come at this from the opposite perspective: being reliant on bus/train companies that can stop serving your town is exactly why an automobile is valuable and essential to anyone not living in a city.
  - ajmurmann 8y ago
    You can always buy the car when the service actually stops, no?
    - crankylinuxuser 8y ago
      If you have the money to buy the car. If you have access to gasoline through hours and hours of wilderness (hint: no gas stations). If the roads are passable. If you have a safe place to stop and sleep during your trip (hint: you don't).
      - ajmurmann 8y ago
        Are you describing some kind of apocalyptic prepper scenario?
        vkou 8y ago
        No, just some things that you want to think about before you drive on the Trans-Canada in the middle of January. I mean, you don't need to think about them for very long, but you do want to have a plan for being stuck for hours, or having to turn around in the middle of Nowhere, BC.
        PhasmaFelis 8y ago
        Can a bus make it through those conditions? If not, you're screwed either way.
        ajmurmann 8y ago
        I have to think about having enough money to buy a new car when driving across Canada?
      - icebraining 8y ago
        I don't see how this is relevant to the context of the reply. It was the grandparent post who said "an automobile is valuable and essential to anyone not living in a city". If there's no access to gasoline and the roads aren't passable, then it's not that valuable in the first place. In any case, I'm pretty sure a bus needs the roads to be passable as well.

faitswulff 8y ago

> No wifi I know that's not true, at least. I got the best prices and wifi on Greyhound Express buses ~5 years ago.

mlevental 8y ago

this is asinine. firstly what relative purchasing power of 9$ in Thailand vs Canada? secondly in developing countries the market for bus transport is enormous because only very wealthy have cars.

danbolt 8y ago
Plus I can imagine the population density of Canada makes a large difference, too.
- rocky1138 8y ago
  Maybe in some cases, but I've taken multiple hours long buses in Taiwan and multiple hours-long buses here in Canada and price and quality of Canadian buses is way behind the times; inconvenient, expensive, and slow.
  - moltar 8y ago
    And Taiwanese were also able to build a high speed train in mountainous, very seismicacally active terrain. We can’t seem to figure this out in flatlands.
  - madeofmeat 8y ago
    Population density of Taiwan: 650/square km. Canada: 4/square km. Naturally there will be huge differences in what is cost-effective for these two very different countries.
- moltar 8y ago
  Those people who choose to live in the remote locations can’t expect to get all of the services that people who live in dense areas are getting. It obviously doesn’t make sense to run the buses from/to areas where there’s little ridership. It’s like any other utility. They probably have a septic tank instead of sewer. Slow satellite internet. Pump your own water. Now also lack of bus. The trend is people moving to the cities. It’s undeniable.
moltar 8y ago

johnny22 8y ago

hmm? whens' the last time you took one? They've revamped their fleet and many routes do have wifi and power outlets. Granted, the wifi isn't great, but it did work.

Theodores 8y ago

Greyhound actually were handicapped when they got started decades ago as GM deliberately downgraded the comfort on the buses they sold. The business logic for this made sense in a way - GM like to sell lots of cars that have to be replaced every few years rather than a small quantity of buses/coaches that are engineered to provide years of reliable service. Once the market had been nobbled this way the passenger numbers dropped meaning that no capital was available for better buses/coaches. So there may be reasons from fifty years ago that led to your observation.

jpatokal 8y ago
Citation needed. GM hardly has a monopoly on the bus market, in fact they don't even seem to feature in the top tier: http://www.chinabuses.org/news/2015/0409/article_8844.html http://www.chinabuses.org/news/2015/0409/article_8844.html

GhostVII 8y ago

I think the biggest issue is that the whole process of getting on the bus is terrible. I took a Greyhound from New York, and it was just a disorganized mess the entire time. I waited in a line for over something like 45 minutes to get my luggage tagged, and there were only 20 people in front of me in line. And then when I went to line up for the bus, there were no actual lineups formed, just a mass of people, each waiting for different buses, all crammed into the same place. When I finally got on the bus, it turns out that we had to switch buses part way through, which wasn't on the ticket, so I got bumped and had to wait another hour or two for the next bus, which ended up going a longer route and taking at least an hour longer. Maybe Greyhound elsewhere is different, but for me the entire experience was a nightmare. I took greyhound instead of a plane to save a little money, but I would gladly pay $100 extra just to avoid the whole mess of getting signed in and on the bus.

rocky1138 8y ago

> Greyhound didn’t innovate. The buses look like they are super old. No wifi. Exorbitant prices. It’s a terrible experience. Pay a bit more and you can take a train. It may have been an isolated incident, but the Greyhound bus driver I had the last time seemed to have a really sour attitude and was not helpful at all.

giarc 8y ago
I would be too driving from Prince Albert to Flin Flon.

sonnyblarney 8y ago

Greyhound has never 'innovated'. They have regular buses, with Wifi, and it's substantially cheaper than any other form of travel. They don't have 'hostesses' because we don't have cheap labour. This is more about plentiful cars, and expensive gas. 40 years ago not everyone had a car, now they do. Gas was cheap, now it's more expensive driving the prices up somewhat. Also, the economies in those areas have not kept up meaning it's difficult for them to keep up the demand. It's an extremely low margin business any one piece fails, and it's up.