A more appropriate name for the Greyhound company could be “Slowhound” or “Stayhound”. I have travelled twice with a Greyhound bus in the last 3 years and both times the bus has broken down before we have reached our destination. Three years ago it was on the way from Milwaukee, Wisconsin to Minneapolis, Minnesota and this time between Washington DC and Atlantic City.

A report from the bus in real time:

A boy who’s mother brought him to the bus depot is calling the friend who is going to pick him up in Atlantic City. “Remind me never to ride on a Greyhound bus again.  I was fine the first 1.5 hours but now…. I am starting to get aggregated. I have finished my book. I am going to fill out to form to get compensated…. The bus is on its way to pick us up but it is stuck in traffic”.

A British girl who is travelling with her boyfriend asks the driver: “Can’t you tell us nothing at all, has the driver left from DC?”

“Yes”

“Why don’t you tell us anything?”

“I don’t want to give you false hopes”

“How does nobody know?  It is a company! No water and no food, we are stuck.”

Others mutter:

“It is not treating us right”

“A limousine should pick us up”

“We should be refunded for this trip”

“It was the first time I have taken the bus because is 50 $ cheaper than the train. Never again!”

“I am glad it is not really hot outside today” (82 F) says someone who is trying to be optimistic.

The British couple had read many bad reviews about Greyhound but took a chance and will never do it again.

I am sitting on the bus right now and the bus driver is calling the Greyhound office telling them it was the forth breakdown this week. We have already sat here 1.5 hours and a buss is said to be on its way. People are getting restless.

Now the buss driver on the substituting buss is lost on highway I 95. Our driver does not tell us that but I overheard the phone conversation.

“What did I do to deserve this?” a woman behind me utters.

“I will fly or take an Amtak next time” another one responds.

Two people have already called to ask friends to pick them up and a Chinese woman is right now calling a friend to pick her up.  Five people were picked up by another bus; they had a connecting buss to fetch in Baltimore.

The driver is now telling a woman passenger a story about his dog.  He has just told us he will take all the way to Atlantic City, no matter what.

The driver is hiding in his seat and does not want to get involved in discussions and estimates about when the substituting buss will arrive.

It was quiet in the bus when the it first broke down but now everybody is sharing their frustration and anger and some try to cheer us up with jokes.

Passenger 1: “Where the hell is the bus?”

Driver: “On the way”.

Passenger 2: “So is Christmas”.

Greyhound costumer service had a taped message which said we can send an e-mail and they will respond in 4-6 weeks! All the offices were closed at 3 pm.

Now the driver is telling us we have to get off the bus to another scheduled Greyhound bus…

Ok, now all our luggage is in another bus (the rain was pouring) but the new bus which was promised never came. We had waiting for over 2 hours by the roadside. We got to ride with the next scheduled bus which left 2 hours later than ours from Washington DC. Ten of us had to stand in the bus for 30 minutes on the way in to Baltimore. We unloaded the luggage and waited 25 more minutes and were told to get on a new bus, all the luggage in again. Then we were told we would leave in 10 minutes, 20 minutes passed – to our surprise we had Wi-Fi on board – luxury, then the supervisor came and asked us to get off and switch bus once more!! Unbelievable! Fourth bus!!

We are now on a very jumpy bus without Wi-Fi on our way to Atlantic City with 20 other passengers most of them are on their way to try their luck in the gambling parlors of Atlantic City.

Two hours later: We came to Atlantic City and the casino has its own bus depot! We were all given a 25$ coupon for the casino.

The Greyhound logo says – “We are on our way” – yes you are on your way but do you ever get there?

Never Greyhound again!

PS. While we were travelling for 10 hours in Greyhoundland Jonas, Marijke and friends were deer and elk watching in the cool Finnish night – they spotted 3 elk! We got our reward when we after getting a ride with friends and arrived at Long Beach Island  where we could take a evening walk accompanied by the sound of the ocean surf and now in the morning while at the beach when we spotted 3 jumping dolphins.

Related articles

• Greyhound: Piss Poor (seattleweekly.com)
• Greyhound bus engine fire causes stir on I-40 (amarillo.com)
• Greyhound Drivers Union Says Texas Buses Are Being Driven by Crappy Drivers. Huh? (blogs.dallasobserver.com)