Greyhound Run/Schedule Changes

[ns8401]

6 More schedules were abolished in early April:

 

Effective 4/3/20:

4730 Chicago Amtrak, Illinois to Minneapolis, Minnesota

4901 Minneapolis, Minnesota to Chicago, Illinois

 

Effective 4/4/20:

2914 Washington D.C. to New York, New York

 

Effective 4/6/20:

2300 Washington D.C. to New York, New York

3570 Norfolk, Virginia to New York, New York

 

Effective 4/9/20:

2407 New York, New York to Washington, D.C.

http://extranet.greyhound.com/revsup/Schedules2/bulletins/24-20.pdf

 

[MCIBUS]

I wonder if it wasn't for COVID-19, I wonder how many of these schedules that are being dropped would actually be dropped and how many would still be running?

[ns8401]

5 hours ago, MCIBUS said:

I wonder if it wasn't for COVID-19, I wonder how many of these schedules that are being dropped would actually be dropped and how many would still be running?

Few if any would be dropped. But make no mistake... they’ll bring back different runs at different times and at different frequencies with the resultant connection changes. The system is gonna look vastly different than it did going in just based on travel and behavior pattern changes. That’s why it’s worth chronicling it. Of course I’ll mention the additions when things start to open back up to but schedule numbers and such may be different and times and all that. 
 

I’ve been told to keep an eye on May 28th so we’ll see if some sort of major announcement comes on or before then.

[Megabus Rider]

On 4/18/2020 at 5:31 PM, MCIBUS said:

I wonder if it wasn't for COVID-19, I wonder how many of these schedules that are being dropped would actually be dropped and how many would still be running?

I don't think those routes were dropped for financial reasons, it's more related to COVID-19. Those seem like profitable routes.

On 4/11/2020 at 1:30 AM, northwesterner said:

Greyhound owns very few of their terminals nationwide.

The vast majority of them were sold in the wake of the two strikes over thirty years ago. If they're still operating in an old terminal, they're on a long term lease.

The terminals are not baggage. Indeed, the company might actually be worth more if they still owned the terminals, as those are assets that could be sold.

I am not too familiar with the owned locations. While some may have high value than others, those might be easier to sell for other development. As for leases, they have contracts attached, I don't think a new company would want that headache since line runs have moved to curbside module. However, in certain jurisdictions, there are bylaws associated for intercity bus service where they have to use city owned and operated terminals.

[ns8401]

52 minutes ago, Megabus Rider said:

I don't think those routes were dropped for financial reasons, it's more related to COVID-19. Those seem like profitable routes.

I am not too familiar with the owned locations. While some may have high value than others, those might be easier to sell for other development. As for leases, they have contracts attached, I don't think a new company would want that headache since line runs have moved to curbside module. However, in certain jurisdictions, there are bylaws associated for intercity bus service where they have to use city owned and operated terminals.

Greyhound style service isn’t built to go to a curbside format. The clientele isn’t right.. it just wouldn’t work.

[map.man (Darrin)]

10 hours ago, ns8401 said:

Greyhound style service isn’t built to go to a curbside format. The clientele isn’t right.. it just wouldn’t work.

Some stops are nothing more than curbside service with Greyhound.

The tickets can be purchased from a store a couple blocks away, and passengers would board at a different location, a few blocks away.

With the ability too, to purchase tickets online, or pick up at 7-Eleven stores, I don't see what would keep Greyhound from implementing curbside boarding.  Many regional carriers do it, and it's worked.

The only differences would be at locations that would be providing a rest or meal stop for passengers.

[ns8401]

58 minutes ago, map.man (Darrin) said:

Some stops are nothing more than curbside service with Greyhound.

The tickets can be purchased from a store a couple blocks away, and passengers would board at a different location, a few blocks away.

With the ability too, to purchase tickets online, or pick up at 7-Eleven stores, I don't see what would keep Greyhound from implementing curbside boarding.  Many regional carriers do it, and it's worked.

The only differences would be at locations that would be providing a rest or meal stop for passengers.

It doesn’t really work that well. What happens way too much ia that they don’t have a printer and they just have a confirmation number on a scrap piece of paper and on and on. So then we have to spend time calling in confirmation numbers. Do that to a Greyhound driver and you’ll be left on the side of the road. I don’t have that luxury. And then when they can pull up the print at home on their phone a lot of them don’t even have a smartphone, or they don’t have Internet Even if they do have one so they know how to get to it but can’t. Greyhound is serving those with no other choice and those folks resources are less than Ideal for that kind of a system. I know it’s going towards an agentless model in places where they can’t find anybody to bother with it, but if it fully went to curbside only it would be a disservice to a lot of their passengers is all I’m saying.

 

The 7-11 tickets are great until the receipt gets exposed to something and the ink fades... you know how receipts are. Then you can’t read the darn thing. 
 

Speaking as a driver the online ticketing has been a nightmare for us because of the clientele and their lack of understanding of how even this basic system works. Greyhound refuses to share its ticketless scanning system with the partner carriers and as a result we get inferior versions of it. The whole things is a mess. We can’t even do etickets like they can. The entire business model really isn't built for full online curbside Only Service as it is presently Constructed and the clientele are so problematic that trying to get them to go buy tickets somewhere else and show up at a spot... please... no.

 

Which regional carriers are you referring to that have implemented 100% curbside agentless service?

[Tcmetro]

The other difference is that Greyhound's system is set up for people to transfer between buses. This means waiting rooms are needed with restrooms, food service, baggage, etc. Otherwise there'll be a hundred people waiting on a street corner with their belongings, while the surrounding property gets trashed. 

Megabus can use street corner stops because they are point to point services. Very few of their ticketing options allow a transfer, so people show up a few minutes before the bus leaves, and take off once the bus drops them off. Still, there are some issues about not providing a waiting area. In Chicago, Megabus was moved from the street near Union Station (they weren't paying anything towards operations) to a corner in an relatively vacant area. Other cities, most notably Boston and Washington DC have forced carriers like Megabus into government-operated bus terminals. 

[ns8401]

35 minutes ago, Tcmetro said:

The other difference is that Greyhound's system is set up for people to transfer between buses. This means waiting rooms are needed with restrooms, food service, baggage, etc. Otherwise there'll be a hundred people waiting on a street corner with their belongings, while the surrounding property gets trashed. 

Megabus can use street corner stops because they are point to point services. Very few of their ticketing options allow a transfer, so people show up a few minutes before the bus leaves, and take off once the bus drops them off. Still, there are some issues about not providing a waiting area. In Chicago, Megabus was moved from the street near Union Station (they weren't paying anything towards operations) to a corner in an relatively vacant area. Other cities, most notably Boston and Washington DC have forced carriers like Megabus into government-operated bus terminals. 

Very good point that’s another issue that would stand in the way of this. 

[metrolinecoach111]

On 4/18/2020 at 5:31 PM, MCIBUS said:

I wonder if it wasn't for COVID-19, I wonder how many of these schedules that are being dropped would actually be dropped and how many would still be running?

If not for Covid, none of these schedules would've dropped.  Perhaps adjusted, as they periodically do to re time connections or scheduled running times.

In the US, Greyhound currently operates 35% (average) of the their normal service.  Naturally, some areas saw more reductions than others.

[metrolinecoach111]

8 hours ago, ns8401 said:

It doesn’t really work that well. What happens way too much ia that they don’t have a printer and they just have a confirmation number on a scrap piece of paper and on and on. So then we have to spend time calling in confirmation numbers. Do that to a Greyhound driver and you’ll be left on the side of the road. I don’t have that luxury. And then when they can pull up the print at home on their phone a lot of them don’t even have a smartphone, or they don’t have Internet Even if they do have one so they know how to get to it but can’t. Greyhound is serving those with no other choice and those folks resources are less than Ideal for that kind of a system. I know it’s going towards an agentless model in places where they can’t find anybody to bother with it, but if it fully went to curbside only it would be a disservice to a lot of their passengers is all I’m saying.

 

The 7-11 tickets are great until the receipt gets exposed to something and the ink fades... you know how receipts are. Then you can’t read the darn thing. 
 

Speaking as a driver the online ticketing has been a nightmare for us because of the clientele and their lack of understanding of how even this basic system works. Greyhound refuses to share its ticketless scanning system with the partner carriers and as a result we get inferior versions of it. The whole things is a mess. We can’t even do etickets like they can. The entire business model really isn't built for full online curbside Only Service as it is presently Constructed and the clientele are so problematic that trying to get them to go buy tickets somewhere else and show up at a spot... please... no.

 

Which regional carriers are you referring to that have implemented 100% curbside agentless service?

Agreed. Rollout of e-ticketing to affiliates has been extremely uneven and the standalone "app" is very glitchy.

That said, the old system of lifting tickets to batch and send to Dallas for accounting wasn't exactly simple.  

The industry in general is behind on technology, as most innovations brought on fail to consider how the systems work with the front line staff.   Greyhound took 2-3 years to fully implement e-ticketing because of that.

 

Regional carriers that are "agentless" & self-operated:

- Vonlane - TX & OK

 

Regional carriers operating as brands & contract/partner with charter operators without an "agent seller" or "company operated agency:"

- OurBus (multiple contractors by route) - MA, NY, NJ, PA, MD, VA, FL

- TripperBus (independent brand, contracted by Gunther Charter in MD) - MD & VA

- Vamoose (independent brand, contracted by DC Trails & Academy) - MD & VA

8 hours ago, Tcmetro said:

The other difference is that Greyhound's system is set up for people to transfer between buses. This means waiting rooms are needed with restrooms, food service, baggage, etc. Otherwise there'll be a hundred people waiting on a street corner with their belongings, while the surrounding property gets trashed. 

Megabus can use street corner stops because they are point to point services. Very few of their ticketing options allow a transfer, so people show up a few minutes before the bus leaves, and take off once the bus drops them off. Still, there are some issues about not providing a waiting area. In Chicago, Megabus was moved from the street near Union Station (they weren't paying anything towards operations) to a corner in an relatively vacant area. Other cities, most notably Boston and Washington DC have forced carriers like Megabus into government-operated bus terminals. 

It works when you don't have a volume of routes and connections to manage.  For example, Greyhound in Portland, OR operates curbside and facilitates transfers right next to FlixBus.  Is it ideal?  No, but it proves that it can (and does) work within the confines of how Greyhound operates.

That said, one of the big "public perception" issues of Greyhound are the terminals themselves.  You can make an argument for and against the infrastructure, but we can't deny that it is a substantial sticking point for why many people do not Greyhound today.

[ns8401]

21 minutes ago, metrolinecoach111 said:

Agreed. Rollout of e-ticketing to affiliates has been extremely uneven and the standalone "app" is very glitchy.

That said, the old system of lifting tickets to batch and send to Dallas for accounting wasn't exactly simple.  

The industry in general is behind on technology, as most innovations brought on fail to consider how the systems work with the front line staff.   Greyhound took 2-3 years to fully implement e-ticketing because of that.

 

Regional carriers that are "agentless" & self-operated:

- Vonlane - TX & OK

 

Regional carriers operating as brands & contract/partner with charter operators without an "agent seller" or "company operated agency:"

- OurBus (multiple contractors by route) - MA, NY, NJ, PA, MD, VA, FL

- TripperBus (independent brand, contracted by Gunther Charter in MD) - MD & VA

- Vamoose (independent brand, contracted by DC Trails & Academy) - MD & VA

It works when you don't have a volume of routes and connections to manage.  For example, Greyhound in Portland, OR operates curbside and facilitates transfers right next to FlixBus.  Is it ideal?  No, but it proves that it can (and does) work within the confines of how Greyhound operates.

That said, one of the big "public perception" issues of Greyhound are the terminals themselves.  You can make an argument for and against the infrastructure, but we can't deny that it is a substantial sticking point for why many people do not Greyhound today.

The other big one is the tracking. Is it really too much to ask them to put GPS receivers on all interlining coaches so all schedules across the network show regardless of carrier. Most people don’t even realize they aren’t on Greyhound and I’ve seen numerous complaints online about not being able to track a bus. 

[metrolinecoach111]

6 minutes ago, ns8401 said:

The other big one is the tracking. Is it really too much to ask them to put GPS receivers on all interlining coaches so all schedules across the network show regardless of carrier. Most people don’t even realize they aren’t on Greyhound and I’ve seen numerous complaints online about not being able to track a bus. 

Right now the system is push button through the driver app, where the driver needs to input the schedule number and match to the bus in order to track.  That said, it's completely dependent on the wifi signal and integration between partner carriers and the Greyhound system would require money that neither the company nor its partners have.  

 

[ns8401]

11 minutes ago, metrolinecoach111 said:

Right now the system is push button through the driver app, where the driver needs to input the schedule number and match to the bus in order to track.  That said, it's completely dependent on the wifi signal and integration between partner carriers and the Greyhound system would require money that neither the company nor its partners have.  

 

I always found that rather odd since they use Saucon. They don’t seem to have the ELD screen in the buses and just use the phones for logs. When I enter a trip code on our Saucon box the tracker does all of the rest automatically. I’m surprised Greyhound never invested that far into it. Having the driver enter it every time seems rather burdensome.
 

I kind of get the feeling that the companies have backed themselves into a corner to where it would be prohibitively expensive to modernize properly.

[traildriver]

16 hours ago, metrolinecoach111 said:

Regional carriers that are "agentless" & self-operated:

C&J uses paper tickets on some routes, but online only at New York's PABT...

https://www.ridecj.com/tickets/

I have seen driver's sell cash fares in NY, occasionally if seats are available, as well....

[ns8401]

 11 More schedules abolished.

Effective 4/17/20:

1002 Richmond, Virginia to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

1054 Richmond, Virginia to Baltimore Downtown, Maryland

2008 New York, New York to Springfield, Massachusetts

2015 Springfield, Massachusetts to New York, New York

3005 Philadelphia, Pennsylvania to Virginia Beach, Virginia

3041 Philadelphia, Pennsylvania to Richmond, Virginia

A8982 ??? Related to US-Mexico operations.

9302 Los Angeles, California to Sacramento, California

9453 Los Angeles, California to Tijuana Central Bus Terminal, Mexico

9478 San Ysidro, California to Los Angeles, California

9603 Sacramento, California to Los Angeles, California

 

1 New Schedule added.

Effective 4/17/20:

3007 Richmond, Virginia to Norfolk, Virginia

http://extranet.greyhound.com/revsup/Schedules2/bulletins/25-20.pdf

[FLtransitPhotos]

Schedule GLI 1013 Dropped Due To Corona. It Will Return After.

 

[ns8401]

1 hour ago, CATMAN MEDIA GROUP said:

Schedule GLI 1013 Dropped Due To Corona. It Will Return After.

 

As demand permits. That one is New York, New York to Orlando, Florida.

[FLtransitPhotos]

4 hours ago, ns8401 said:

As demand permits. That one is New York, New York to Orlando, Florida.

Yes. Its A Busy Route. Arriving In Florida In The Early Morning. Which Most Commuters To Orlando Like.

 

[ns8401]

2 hours ago, CATMAN MEDIA GROUP said:

Yes. Its A Busy Route. Arriving In Florida In The Early Morning. Which Most Commuters To Orlando Like.

 

Where are they commuting from exactly? 
 

The real question is how fast it returns... they may even use this to restructure the system. They’ve already significantly adjusted times on remaining schedules to form a new backbone to the system. 

[FLtransitPhotos]

On 5/2/2020 at 12:22 AM, ns8401 said:

Where are they commuting from exactly? 
 

The real question is how fast it returns... they may even use this to restructure the system. They’ve already significantly adjusted times on remaining schedules to form a new backbone to the system. 

Usually Daytona Beach.

[ns8401]

3 hours ago, CATMAN MEDIA GROUP said:

Usually Daytona Beach.

Interesting. Wouldn’t think to commute on the dog but I suppose.

[FLtransitPhotos]

3 hours ago, ns8401 said:

Interesting. Wouldn’t think to commute on the dog but I suppose.

Its Because Its Hard To Get To The Train Using Our Public Transit. We Also Have No Transit To Orlando.

 

 

[Tcmetro]

There's a few other intra-metro trips that can only be done by Greyhound. Until recently, Dallas to Ft Worth on Sundays had to be done by Greyhound (now the DART orange line connects to the TEX train at the airport). Tampa to St Pete on weekends is also only doable by Greyhound, although there is a ferry part of the year. 

Greyhound also does the Mt Laurel NJ - NYC commute run. 

[FLtransitPhotos]

21 hours ago, CATMAN MEDIA GROUP said:

Its Because Its Hard To Get To The Train Using Our Public Transit. We Also Have No Transit To Orlando.

 

 

I Have No Idea How They "Commute" Though. Because It Comes Back At 10:00 PM Which Means It Arrives In Daytona Around 11:00PM/11:30PM