Rural Greyhound passengers get last boarding call

[Conservativesux]

Rural Greyhound passengers get last boarding call

By Patrik Jonsson, Correspondent of The Christian Science Monitor

Fri Aug 26,2005

WINDSOR, N.C. - For the first time in as long as most people can remember, the old "silver dog" failed to stop last week in Hollywood, Fla.; Hurricane Mills, Tenn.; and Ludlow, Vt. - just a few of close to 1,000 out-of-the-way hamlets where residents can no longer leave the driving to Greyhound.

So far, 750 rural towns - and hundreds of more in-between "flag stops" in even smaller places - have lost their Greyhound connection this year. Service stopped at 81 locales last week alone, and hundreds more are expected to be dropped as the Dallas-based carrier and its subsidiaries roll out new routes across the country into 2006.

It's part of a broad restructuring of the 91-year-old long-distance carrier, which is trying to regain traction after losing $22 million in the first quarter of this year. Left in a puff of exhaust are the small towns that helped define the image of the Greyhound as a low-rent hitch that appealed to Americans' sense of adventure and earned it broad cultural recognition in everything from country songs to movies like "Midnight Cowboy."

Greyhound's new strategy: adopt faster and more direct urban routes.

But in bypassed towns like Windsor, N.C., one of 31 stops in this state that lost bus service last week, the decision compounds a sense of dislocation and increasing distance from the country's booming urban centers - not to mention the loss of a cheap ticket to the big city for many rural poor, especially in the South, for whom the Greyhound remains an important connector to country roots.

More at:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/csm/20050826/ts_csm/aruralbus

[Horse with no Name]

1. They pulled out of our town at the first of this year

Is a hardship because this is a poor town and the kids that are fortunate to go away to college and don't have cars...now have a hard time getting home as frequently as they could before.
I would think these type of people would be the heart of Greyhound's base of support.
I wonder if it will end up hurting their business in the long run?
:shrug:

[Conservativesux]

3. I dont know, but I suppose if gasoline get high enough people will travel

by bus and train again.

Right now people are still willing to shell out 2.75 a gallon so on and on it goes. :(

[longship]

4. What busses? What trains?

They are closing down bus routes and Amtrak is going broke.

If you have to go somewhere, drive there. Can't drive? Then, walk. It's part of Chimpy's new national fitness program.

[Conservativesux]

6. Build them and they will come. We need smaller buses for short hops in

rural America. The train system can be rebuilt as well.

If fuel gets high enough there will be no choice in the matter.

[pitohui]

9. oh come on

so you're going to wait several yrs or decades to go to work while they re-institute bus or train service

i gotta eat more often than that, sorry

[Kali]

10. along with the UNdocumented migration from Mexico and elsewhere

there has been a big increase in legal movement as well. I have noticed a huge increase in private, mostly Mexican shuttle-van services here in AZ. I fact I may be using that to go down to Chihuahua in October. They stop anywhere along the way and run at least daily between the border (and below) and Phx.

[Conservativesux]

11. Bingo. Thats how poor people get places in Latin America. Buses.

Its easy to build small fuel economy buses that could take people where they need to go.

[pitohui]

8. yep it's rails to trails, there is no more train access

ppl are rilly not paying attention

higher gas prices has meant less bus routes not more

& train routes have been disappeared for yrs

[ThoughtCriminal]

2. Same story here - small town, no way to get anywhere else

except by private car. Another "Mission Accomplished".

[Kali]

5. They need to get a clue from other countries

where bus travel is actually a pleasant experience - better than flying is now.

[pitohui]

7. no more greyhound here either as of several weeks ago

& yet idiots tell me it's ok to pay more for gas to drive my car

after all they pay more for gas in europe

[FlemingsGhost]

12. Rural? Haven't the gated-communities rechristened it, "Exurbia"?

Oh well, since they won't be traveling as much, this is a great opportunity to spend more time with the charming local "color," eh soccer mom?

Remember, you have to unlock the gates.