Any idea what is up with Jefferson Lines/Greyhound (buses)?

[kickysnana]

I took a trip Minneapolis to Kansas City, Kansas City to St Louis this week and in early December. After I got my 21 day advance ticket they dropped two daily buses KC to SL. Those buses ran about 80-90% full making the remaining buses overcrowded. Yesterday to counter for the backlog they had two buses running out of SL at one time on 99% full hte other over 50% full half way to KC. The buses were scheduled to go on to Denver. A decision was made that because they could not get 75% of he second bus full 10 minutes before it got to KC they were going to pull it off and send the driver home. There was a 2 hour lay over and there were already interconnecting and new passengers online. One guy was carted off to jail after threatening the lone ticketing agent because he was being bumped until the next day. Then the rest got together and started talking about filing complaints just 15 minutes before departure they pulled the bus back out and recalled the driver and the bus did leave for Denver.

Ticketing agents sell current and future tickets, handle customer service, police the parking area, handle incoming and outgoing counts and arrival and departure times for the buses and do package shipping. There was one guard and one clean up person but she was staff late last night with about 500 people in the depot. Is that any way to run a bus line?

There was over an hour wait to get checked in in St Paul on Tuesday morning. My bus had been canceled and I had received no notice until I showed up causing me to have to call and try to change an appointment, change a hotel reservation and get back into the hour line. I did not make a bus that might have got me a connection if it came in on time (rare I am told) so I ended up on an overnight and had to go to the appointment without showering. (There was a sign at the depot that said as of March 1st you should call to confirm your itinerary 24 hours before time of departure but since I don't hang around the bus terminal that was not helpful.)

I asked at two depots whether the route cuts were temporary due to rearranging routes due to Spring Break or permanent and I was told they were permanent. It reminded me of the bus service in Mexico in the old movies.

[cutlassmama]

1. Greyhound has been shitty since they broke the union several years back.

[villager]

2. I expect their being a monopoly doesn't help matters much...

n/t

[Berry Cool]

3. They have better service and better buses where they are being forced to compete

with cheaper and nicer bus services like Megabus and Bolt Bus. These buses serve limited parts of the country and limited cities, but are very popular in the East and Midwest, especially with college students. If you make your reservation for one early enough, you can get a seat for $1, and even if you don't, it's still dirt cheap compared to Greyhound. Yet the buses are nice and most offer WiFi.

The only disadvantage they have is that they don't offer stations, just pickup/dropoff points. But really, considering the condition and the characters that hang around many bus stations, you're better off.

Cleveland is served by Megabus. Goes only to Toledo and Chicago, but they have many buses in Chicago to other places in the Midwest. Their pickup/dropoff is by Tower City Center, which is warm, safe and never closes, so it's actually better than a bus station. And their pickup/dropoff in Chicago is only a block south of Union Station.