4 ms·

I consider greyhound an essential service but it is fully private. They can sell off their stations piece by piece, gut whats profitable, stop service, etc. le

I consider greyhound an essential service but it is fully private. They can sell off their stations piece by piece, gut whats profitable, stop service, etc. leaving downtowns or just stopping service to a destination is the same thing. What can be done to stop this? Why should it be stopped? I also consider greyhound bus stops social blight, they're pretty scary because of the clientelle. Many passangers are being bussed out from the city on one way tickets (https://www.9news.com/article/news/local/next/city-of-denver-giving-homeless-people-one-way-bus-tickets-out-of-town/ https://www.9news.com/article/news/local/next/city-of-denver...) , out of jail/prison with one way tickets https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-prison-releases-bus-met-20150317-story.html https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-prison-releases-bus-m...), etc. This will be a pollarizing post, but whats there to be done with this? Can you force greyhound not to sell their real estate? Nationalize it? Subsidize it more to keep their real estae. Enforce that they have minimum for a bus stop in the USA? Is there a minimum for the local transit authority that has bus stops e.g. a literal sign and maybe a shelter and a bench? They are apparantly pushing record profits: https://www.reuters.com/business/autos-transportation/flixbus-greyhound-owner-reports-record-revenue-forecasts-20-growth-2023-2023-02-15/ https://www.reuters.com/business/autos-transportation/flixbu... not the first time to nationalize it came up: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/may/20/the-us-should-nationalize-the-greyhound-bus-company-hear-me-out https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/may/20/the-us... pandemic would've been the time. So what's next? At what point would it be cheaper to discontinue greyound bus service, gut real estae for it's value and leave?

csomar 3y ago
Greyhound is not the problem here and not sure why you are expecting them to solve this (a social problem). Forcing them will just ensure that once they fail no other private entity will get in this space ever again.
- 4765688555 3y ago
  Yeah! That'd be a real tragedy if companies whose specialize in shipping junkies around the country died forever.
  - pixel8account 3y ago
    That sounds pretty condescending. Do you mean "poor people"? I'm not familiar with the company (as an EU citizen), but I believe a good public transport is something that should be encouraged and supported, not scoffed at.
    - junofan 3y ago
      Poor people generally fly budget airlines like Spirit or spend a few extra dollars to ride with a more reliable bus company. Greyhound is the safest way to get from state A to state B with an arrest warrant. It’s often exactly as bad as advertised. A Greyhound rider should not be surprised to encounter suffering, disease, violence, or intense emotional disturbances on a 20+ hour journey.
      - datavirtue 3y ago
        This.
    - microtherion 3y ago
      It's an interesting experience; I think tourists should try it at least once. We (as recent immigrants) used Greyhound some 20 years ago for a trip from San Jose to Las Vegas. My recollections were: * Several of the stations were in very scary areas of the cities (I particularly recall the one in Los Angeles). * Most of the passengers seemed quite decent people, but very poor. * In many of the Central Valley stops, there was indeed somebody in clean but shabby clothes with minimal luggage waiting to board, with an uniformed officer next to them making sure they got on. Many of these cities house state prisons, and the practice seems to be to supply prisoners who served their sentence with a one way ticket somewhere. * There were no problems with violence or disruptive behavior; the passengers pretty much kept to themselves. And there was a complete absence of the entitlement problems that sometimes plague airline travel. I've heard since that Greyhound on the East Coast was a bit less blighted than on the West Coast.
      - xrd 3y ago
pkulak 3y ago
You fund Amtrak properly. Greyhound should not be essential.
cdelsolar 3y ago
Wow poor people are scary now?
- amanaplanacanal 3y ago
  Poor people aren’t necessarily scary, but scary people (meth heads and folks with untreated mental health issues) are overwhelmingly poor. People tend to paint with a broad brush, unfortunately.

csomar 3y ago

Greyhound is not the problem here and not sure why you are expecting them to solve this (a social problem). Forcing them will just ensure that once they fail no other private entity will get in this space ever again.

4765688555 3y ago
Yeah! That'd be a real tragedy if companies whose specialize in shipping junkies around the country died forever.
- pixel8account 3y ago
  That sounds pretty condescending. Do you mean "poor people"? I'm not familiar with the company (as an EU citizen), but I believe a good public transport is something that should be encouraged and supported, not scoffed at.
  - junofan 3y ago
    Poor people generally fly budget airlines like Spirit or spend a few extra dollars to ride with a more reliable bus company. Greyhound is the safest way to get from state A to state B with an arrest warrant. It’s often exactly as bad as advertised. A Greyhound rider should not be surprised to encounter suffering, disease, violence, or intense emotional disturbances on a 20+ hour journey.
    - datavirtue 3y ago
      This.
  - microtherion 3y ago
    It's an interesting experience; I think tourists should try it at least once. We (as recent immigrants) used Greyhound some 20 years ago for a trip from San Jose to Las Vegas. My recollections were: * Several of the stations were in very scary areas of the cities (I particularly recall the one in Los Angeles). * Most of the passengers seemed quite decent people, but very poor. * In many of the Central Valley stops, there was indeed somebody in clean but shabby clothes with minimal luggage waiting to board, with an uniformed officer next to them making sure they got on. Many of these cities house state prisons, and the practice seems to be to supply prisoners who served their sentence with a one way ticket somewhere. * There were no problems with violence or disruptive behavior; the passengers pretty much kept to themselves. And there was a complete absence of the entitlement problems that sometimes plague airline travel. I've heard since that Greyhound on the East Coast was a bit less blighted than on the West Coast.
    - xrd 3y ago

pkulak 3y ago

You fund Amtrak properly. Greyhound should not be essential.

cdelsolar 3y ago

Wow poor people are scary now?

amanaplanacanal 3y ago
Poor people aren’t necessarily scary, but scary people (meth heads and folks with untreated mental health issues) are overwhelmingly poor. People tend to paint with a broad brush, unfortunately.