Greyhound Lines

For more information on Greyhound Lines, visit Britannica.com.

Type: Subsidiary
On the web: http://www.greyhound.com

If you're going by bus, the old gray dog is likely to be the only one on the track. The only US bus company with a regular nationwide intercity schedule, Greyhound Lines carries some 22 million passengers yearly to more than 3,100 destinations, mainly in the US but also in Canada and Mexico. Some markets are served via partnerships with regional bus lines. The company's fleet includes about 1,250 buses. In conjunction with its intercity passenger service, Greyhound offers express package delivery. It also provides charter bus services. Greyhound is a unit of FirstGroup America.

Officers:
President and CEO: Dave Leach
COO: Bill Blankenship
CFO: Jeff Altizer

Competitors:
Amtrak
Southwest Airlines
Trailways Transportation System

Incorporated: 1926 as Motor Transit Corporation
NAIC: 485210 Interurban and Rural Bus Transportation; 485510
SIC: 4131 Intercity & Rural Bus Transportation; 4141 Local Bus Charter Service; 4142 Bus Charter Service Except Local; 4215 Courier Services Except by Air; 4513 Air Courier Services; 6719 Holding Companies Nec

Greyhound Lines, Inc. is the sole national provider of intercity bus service in the United States. Its fleet of 2,400 buses carries more than 22.5 million passengers each year over a route system that extends for more than 75,000 miles. Greyhound travels to more than 2,600 destinations, with 18,000 daily departures. In addition to its scheduled passenger services, the company offers charter bus service, express package service through Greyhound Package Express, and food service at some of its terminals. Greyhound is also involved in cross-border bus service through joint ventures with Mexican transportation companies. In March 1999 the company became a wholly owned subsidiary of Laidlaw Inc., a Canadian firm involved in bus transportation through its ownership of Greyhound Canada Transportation Corp., which was subsequently merged into Greyhound Lines.

The bus company that became Greyhound was founded in 1913 by Carl Earl Wickman. Wickman was an immigrant who settled in Hibbing, Minnesota, because the weather there reminded him of his native Sweden. Wickman's first ambition was to be a car salesman, but when he could not sell a single seven-passenger 'Hupmobile' he founded the first U.S. bus company.

The company started by transporting miners from Hibbing to Alice, Minnesota, along the Mesaba Iron Range. The first roundtrip fares cost 25 cents. The secret to Wickman's early success was maximizing ridership, which took the form of stuffing 18 miners into a seven-passenger Hupmobile. Wickman's revenues began to increase, and he took on partners who helped him invest in larger vehicles. Since there were no buses in 1914, Wickman had large touring cars, mostly Studebakers and Packards, sawed in half and elongated. In 1916 the company, then known as 'Hibbing Transportation,' had its own bus station which was located in a firehouse.

Wickman and his partners were not the only motor coach entrepreneurs in Hibbing. By 1915 a motorcycle racer named Ralph Bogan began transporting miners from Hibbing to Alice for 50 cents. Hibbing Transport responded by reducing its fares to 40 cents. Thus began the first known price war among bus companies. Wickman eventually offered Bogan a share in Hibbing Transport, establishing a pattern of merging with competitors that would eventually result in the formation of the largest bus company in the world.

By the mid-1920s Wickman's company, renamed Mesaba Transportation Company, was worth several million dollars and had numerous partners. In 1925 the man who had started it all left the company and purchased a fledgling firm known as the White Bus Line. The following year Wickman and his partner, Orville Caesar, merged this company with others to form the Motor Transit Corporation, nicknamed 'Greyhound' because the buses it used, which were built by Safety Coach of Muskegon, Michigan, were sleekly designed and sported gray paint.

Greyhound came along at a time when the idea of the 'vacation' became firmly entrenched in the American psyche. The motorcoach, whose operating costs were a small fraction compared to trains, soon became the transportation of choice for vacationers, salesmen, and even jazz bands.

Despite the popularity of this new form of transportation, Greyhound nearly failed after the stock market crash of 1929. In 1929 Greyhound's net income was $1.3 million, but this dropped to $38,000 in 1930, the year the company changed its name to Greyhound Corporation. By 1932 Greyhound was $140,000 in debt. It was the 1933 World's Fair in Chicago that saved Greyhound by dramatically increasing ridership. Historian Carlton Jackson, in his Hounds of the Road, a history of Greyhound, claimed that ridership also increased after a 1934 movie entitled It Happened One Night was released, in which movie stars Claudette Colbert and Clark Gable take a cross-country bus trip.

During the following years Greyhound revenues climbed steadily, reaching $6 million before the end of the decade. In 1939 management of Greyhound anticipated the coming war, and began to stockpile parts. Greyhound suspected both that its buses would have a part in the U.S. war effort and that its supplier, General Motors, would be busy manufacturing jeeps. Both intuitions were correct.

One of Greyhound's principal duties during the war was to transport workers to shipyards and munitions factories. Military personnel were often transported via Greyhound to their bases. Wartime responsibilities and gas shortages made it difficult for Greyhound to serve all its civilian customers, and the company actually used advertisements to discourage ridership. 'Serve America Now So You Can See America Later' and 'Don't Travel Unless Your Trip Is Essential' were two Greyhound advertisements during World War II.

A 35 m.p.h. speed limit, imposed to save rubber, and a continual shortage of parts vexed Greyhound management throughout the war. America's most well-known motorcoach company found consolation in its balance sheets, however, as profits climbed to $10 million by the mid-1940s. At that time, Greyhound served more than 6,000 towns and carried one-fourth of all U.S. bus passengers--more than any other company. Its bus routes stretched like a net across the continental United States and Canada.

In 1946 Carl Wickman retired as president of Greyhound and returned to Sweden. There he was knighted by King Gustav V 'for serving the unserved.' Upon Wickman's retirement, Orville Caesar became president of Greyhound. Caesar lobbied intensely for wider highways to accommodate his buses and fought to change the laws restricting the length of a bus to 35 feet. His new 'Scenicruisers' were 40 feet long and illegal in certain states.

The growth of Greyhound slowed to two percent a year in the late 1940s. Postwar prosperity brought with it thousands of new passenger cars, and the increase in cars meant fewer bus patrons. In addition, severe labor problems did not help the company. A series of walkouts in 1950 was prompted by a well-publicized incident in which 19 drivers suspected of skimming fares were lured to a hotel and held there against their will for 36 hours. Labor difficulties were nothing new for Greyhound. During World War II the Navy commandeered shipyard buses when the Greyhound drivers decided to strike.

In 1956 the company's president, Arthur Genet, decided to move Greyhound into the car rental business. There were several reasons for this move. One reason was that the car rental offices could operate out of Greyhound's urban terminals. The rental business would allow Greyhound to capitalize on something that had been a problem, namely, the popularity of the automobile. There was an unforeseen problem with the car rental strategy, however, and this was that the typical Greyhound bus passenger, to whom the rental business was geared, was not likely to rent a car. Within two years the car rental division was depressing revenues and had to be abandoned.

Not all of Greyhound's early attempts at diversification were as unsuccessful as the car rental business. Beginning in the 1940s Greyhound established a chain of restaurants, called 'Post Houses,' in its larger terminals. These were successful, as was the express package business, the implementation of which cost almost nothing at all.

Until the mid-1960s, Greyhound was primarily a bus company, and company management did everything it could to prevent passengers from defecting to trains or planes. Studies at the time showed that a large proportion of Greyhound's passengers were African American, and by the early 1960s Greyhound's marketing strategy was oriented toward this demographic. In fact, Greyhound was the transportation of choice for the freedom riders of the civil rights movement, and Greyhound buses were sometimes attacked by the Ku Klux Klan. While the company's promotion of black ridership was motivated by its quest for profits, Greyhound was also one of the first companies to implement something resembling an affirmative action program.

Greyhound began to diversify in earnest during the 1960s. Previously, diversification had been limited to the operation of restaurants in terminals, a van line, the express package service, and the manufacture of buses and bus accessories. All of Greyhound's original expansions were connected to its main business, namely, interurban transportation. Even the unsuccessful car rental business was meant to appeal to bus passengers, who were expected to rent a Greyhound car during their stay in the city. After 1962, however, Greyhound began to diversify into businesses not related to transportation.

In 1962 Greyhound purchased Booth Leasing and soon became the largest industrial leasing company in the world. Among the items offered for leasing were computers, locomotives, and jet airplanes. (In 1966 a separate computer leasing company was formed.) In addition, a money order firm, Traveller's Express, and an insurance company, General Fire and Casualty, had been added to Greyhound's list of purchases by 1965. Greyhound's food services were expanded in 1964 with the acquisition of a roadside restaurant chain, Horne's, and Prophet Foods, a large industrial and institutional caterer. In 1967 Greyhound continued to make acquisitions in the service industry. One of these purchases, Aircraft Services International, provided ground handling and janitorial services. Greyhound also began to provide food for the airlines.

The companies purchased by Greyhound during its 1960s acquisition program were all small, and the majority of Greyhound profits still came from the operation of buses. Even after its expansion, food services only accounted for five percent of profits, and financial and leasing activities for 20 percent.

The diversification of Greyhound into nonbus activity was necessary because the motorcoach industry was steadily shrinking, partly in response to an increase in inexpensive airfares. Even with some lucrative acquisitions, Greyhound lost money because profits from the bus line were down. Bus line profits hit a low point in 1967, when riots after the death of Martin Luther King depressed ridership.

Company management thought that a major acquisition would help Greyhound considerably. As a result, in 1970 Greyhound acquired Armour Foods for $400 million. To reduce its investment Greyhound immediately sold $225 million of Armour assets, leaving only the meatpacking and consumer products operations. Armour's pharmaceutical division was sold to Revlon in 1977. Despite some problems with the low-margin meatpacking business, the two remaining divisions generated a net income of $25 million on an investment that had been reduced to $100 million. Armour's contribution to Greyhound was superseded, however, by the financial services division with 1978 profits of $25.8 million.

Greyhound's success with its expansion into financial services and its initial success with Armour continued to be overshadowed by difficulties with bus operations throughout the 1970s. Though some decline in ridership was inevitable as people chose the convenience of air travel, many of Greyhound's problems resulted from poor management. One major problem was that Greyhound scheduling and routing favored long distance ridership, while over 80 percent of the company's customers used Greyhound for distances of 200 miles or less. This inappropriate routing and scheduling discouraged some short-haul passengers, as did the bus stations themselves, whose interiors were often regarded as uncomfortable and unpleasant; in fact, the washrooms were a major passenger complaint. To aggravate matters, rather than making an investment in upgrading facilities, the bus division engaged in a costly price and advertising war with Trailways motorcoach company.

In 1978 Greyhound's chief executive officer, Gerald Trautman, concluded that the company's health still depended on its bus operations. Since he wanted to leave the company in good financial condition when he retired, Trautman postponed his retirement, demoted his protégé James Kerrigan, and placed himself in charge of the bus operations that Kerrigan had supervised. After Trautman took charge of the bus line, more attention was paid to details such as clean washrooms and bus maintenance. Measures such as these, coupled with the gas shortage (which made car travel less desirable), helped increase bus profits 83 percent between 1978 and 1979.

In 1982 Trautman decided to retire. His successor, John Teets, while not unappreciative of Trautman's final efforts, had a different approach to the management of Greyhound. Upon becoming CEO, Teets immediately began to sell subsidiaries that were not performing well. The meatpacking division, which was earning $10 million on sales of $2 billion, was among the first to be sold. Teets blamed higher than average employee wages for Armour's difficulties; when the unions refused to accept a reduction in pay Teets closed all 29 meat-packing plants in one day.

Teets' handling of the violent 47-day bus driver's strike in 1983 was no different. With the deregulation of the U.S. transportation system leading to cheaper airfares and significant decreases in bus ridership, this strike was precipitated by management's demand that the drivers accept a 17 percent cut in wages and benefits. After a bitter series of negotiation meetings, the drivers were forced to accept a 15 percent wage reduction. Greyhound had won a major concession, but the price was costly--$25 million in lost revenues.

Overall, from 1980 to 1986, Greyhound suffered a decline in ridership of 55 percent. Part of the drop was engendered by Greyhound itself, which took advantage of the deregulated environment by closing unprofitable bus routes. The other factor was, of course, cheaper airfares which were drawing people away from bus lines. Greyhound's package delivery business was also feeling the effects of competition, as Federal Express and United Parcel Service were taking business away by offering faster service.

In March 1987 a Dallas-based investment group led by Fred G. Currey purchased the struggling bus line from Greyhound Corporation through a $350 million leveraged buyout (LBO). The bus operations were renamed Greyhound Lines, Inc., the headquarters of which were relocated to Dallas. Currey served as chairman and CEO of the now privately held company. (Greyhound Corporation continued as a separate firm involved in consumer products and services. It changed its name to the Dial Corporation in 1991, then divided into two companies in 1996, with the services operations becoming Viad Corp. and the consumer products businesses continuing as Dial.)

Currey's first major move was to acquire archrival Trailways Lines, Inc. and merge it into Greyhound. Upon the completion of the acquisition in July 1987, Greyhound Lines became the only national provider of intercity bus service in the United States, although it continued to face competition from regional lines. Currey moved quickly to revamp Greyhound, spending $30 million to renovate dilapidated terminals and to open new ones; increasing the company's advertising budget 50 percent to $27 million; and installing a computerized reservations and ticketing system to increase ridership and decrease the amount of time customers had to wait in lines. Ridership did in fact increase in both 1988 and 1989, and the company was able to post a small profit in the latter year on sales of nearly $1 billion. The turnaround proved short-lived.

When Greyhound headed into contract talks with its unionized employees (members of the Amalgamated Transit Union) in early 1990, Currey decided to take a hard line, telling the union that the company would hire permanent replacement workers if the union went out on strike. Underscoring his approach, he began hiring replacement workers even before the union decided to strike. The strike quickly turned violent, with drivers angered by some of Currey's proposals, most notably a route consolidation that would lead to the elimination of 2,000 jobs. Currey anticipated being able to maintain 80 percent of the bus line's routes by the end of March, but because of difficulty finding replacement workers and because very few of the unionized drivers elected to cross the picket lines, Greyhound was operating at only 36 percent of its normal capacity by that time. In early May the company, which was saddled with $340 million in debt from the LBO and the acquisition of Trailways, announced that it was near bankruptcy after suffering losses of $55.8 million during the first quarter of 1990. Having missed a $9.8 million interest payment due on June 1, Greyhound filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection a few days later.

While the company attempted to reorganize, its creditors engineered the ouster of Currey. Frank J. Schmieder took over leadership of the company in July 1991. Three months later Greyhound emerged from bankruptcy as a publicly traded company with a restructuring plan that centered on cutting costs, including workers, routes, and the bus fleet itself, which was reduced from 3,700 to 2,400. In emulation of the airline industry, Schmieder adopted a hub-and-spoke system, which eliminated numerous long-haul--and direct--routes, forcing many travelers to take longer trips to reach their destinations. In July 1993 Greyhound launched a nationwide rollout of a computerized reservation system called 'Trips,' which executives viewed as the key to the company's future. Trips turned out to be a disaster: 80 percent of the reservations were for passengers who did not show up, the system's computers were quickly overloaded from the sheer complexity of the bus line's routes, the company's toll-free customer service center was understaffed and overwhelmed, and numerous passengers missed connections and lost luggage because of ticketing delays in the terminals. Customers were further alienated by a two-tier fare system charging passengers more for walk-up tickets than those made in advance. From a passenger standpoint, the new reservation system made little sense, given that most bus travelers make last-minute decisions to travel.

Greyhound's difficulties continued into 1994, when it posted a net loss of $65.5 million and carried only 14.9 million passengers, a steep decline from the 16.2 million figure of two years earlier. The company was near bankruptcy again when Schmieder resigned under pressure from shareholders in August 1994. Thomas G. Plaskett took over on an interim basis, before Craig R. Lentzsch was named president and CEO in November of that year. Lentzsch was a former executive of bus manufacturer Motor Coach Industries International and was part of the investor group that purchased Greyhound Lines from Greyhound Corporation in 1987, working at Greyhound Lines as vice-chairman and executive vice-president from 1987 to 1989. In early 1995 Plaskett was named chairman of Greyhound.

The new management team quickly secured an out-of-court refinancing with the company's creditors, thereby avoiding another bankruptcy filing. They also scaled back the reservation system, eliminated the hub system, fixed the phone system, reduced walk-up fares for long trips, brought back many of the long-haul routes that had been eliminated, increased departures, purchased more buses, and hired more drivers. The result was steadily increasing revenues, from $616.3 million in 1994 to $846 million in 1998. In addition, ridership increased to 22.5 million passengers by 1998. That year, the company posted net income of $35.2 million--its first full-year profit since 1993 and its most profitable year since the 1987 LBO.

Meantime, Greyhound entered the growing market for U.S.-Mexico cross-border bus service through joint ventures it set up with Mexican transportation companies. The Mexican market was an attractive one because many Mexicans working in the United States rode buses home to visit their families and because 98 percent of long distance trips in Mexico occurred via buses, compared to less than two percent in the United States. Greyhound also beefed up its U.S. network through the 1997 and 1998 acquisitions of Valley Transit, Carolina Trailways, and Golden State, the last of these a southern California line providing service to cities on the Mexican border. Additionally, Greyhound began seeking out alternative ways to grow its passenger volume and started delivering passengers to special destinations, such as casinos, airports, and Amtrak stations. The growth of the gambling market made casino service particularly lucrative and Greyhound carried more than 1.2 million passengers to casinos in 1998, garnering $30 million in revenue in the process.

It was thus a revitalized Greyhound that reached an agreement in October 1998 to be acquired by Laidlaw Inc., a Canadian firm based in Burlington, Ontario. Completed in March 1999 at a cash plus debt price of about $650 million, the transaction turned Greyhound into a wholly owned subsidiary of Laidlaw. At the time of the acquisition, Laidlaw owned Greyhound Canada Transportation Corp., an intercity bus operation serving five Canadian provinces from Ontario to British Columbia and the Yukon Territory. Greyhound Canada, which Laidlaw had acquired in October 1997, was subsequently merged into Greyhound Lines, creating the largest intercity bus line in North America. Laidlaw announced in September 1999 that it planned to focus on its bus passenger operations, which included school and municipal bus operations in addition to Greyhound. The company would divest its other interests, which included emergency and nonemergency ambulance services, a physician practice management service, and a minority interest in an environmental services firm. As part of Laidlaw, Greyhound would have access to increased capital to make further expansionary moves and to maintain its vastly improved level of customer service.

Principal Subsidiaries

Amarillo Trailways Bus Center, Inc.; Atlantic Greyhound Lines of Virginia, Inc.; Continental Panhandle Lines, Inc.; Gateway Ticketing Systems, Inc.; Greyhound de Mexico, S.A. de C.V.; Peoria Rockford Bus Lines, L.L.C.; Transportation Realty Income Partners L.P.; Union Bus Station of Oklahoma City, Oklahoma; Wilmington Union Bus Station Corporation; GLI Holding Company; ASI Associates, Inc.; Carolina Associates, Inc.; Carolina Coach Company; Red Bus Systems, Inc.; Seashore Transportation Company; LSX Delivery, L.L.C.; On Time Delivery Service, Inc.; Peoria Rockford Bus Lines, L.L.C.; Texas, New Mexico, & Oklahoma Coaches, Inc.; T.N.M. & O. Tours, Inc.; Valley Garage Company; Valley Transit Co., Inc.; Vermont Transit Co., Inc.; Sistema Internacional de Transporte de Autobuses, Inc.; American Bus Sales Associates, Inc.; Americanos U.S.A., L.L.C.; Autobus Leasing Co., L.L.C.; Autobuses Americanos, S.A. de C.V.; Autobuses Amigos, L.L.C.; Autobuses Amigos, S.A. de C.V.; Autobuses Crucero, S.A. de C.V.; Gonzalez, Inc. (dba Golden State Transportation); Los Buenos Leasing Co., Inc.; Los Rapidos, Inc.; Omnibus Americanos, S.A. de C.V.

Principal Competitors

America West Holdings Corporation; AMR Corporation; National Railroad Passenger Corporation; Coach USA, Inc.; Continental Airlines, Inc.; Delta Air Lines, Inc.; FDX Corporation; The Hertz Corporation; Northwest Airlines Corporation; Roadway Express, Inc.; Southwest Airlines Co.; Trans World Airlines, Inc.; United States Postal Service; UAL Corporation; United Parcel Service, Inc.; US Airways Group, Inc.; Yellow Corporation.

Further Reading

Allen, Margaret, 'Bus Company Gets Back on Profit Road,' Dallas Business Journal, April 25, 1997, pp. 1+.

------, 'Greyhound: Teaching the Old Dog Some New Tricks,' Dallas Business Journal, May 15, 1998, pp. 1+.

Bernstein, Aaron, and Jim Bartimo, 'Wrong Time for Scare Tactics?,' Business Week, April 16, 1990, p. 27.

David, Gregory E., 'Greyhound Lines: Goodbye, Dog Days?,' Financial World, July 5, 1994, p. 16.

De Santis, Solange, and Robert Tomsho, 'Laidlaw Agrees to Acquisition of Greyhound,' Wall Street Journal, October 20, 1998, p. A4.

Geer, John F., Jr., 'Why Greyhound Is No Longer a Dog,' Financial World, January 30, 1996, pp. 64-66.

'Greyhound Lines: Bused Again?,' Economist, November 12, 1994, p. 81.

Hamilton, Martha M., 'Regaining Stride at Greyhound Lines,' Washington Post, June 16, 1992, p. C1.

Henderson, Barry, 'Go Greyhound: Long-Beleaguered Bus Line Is Finding the Route Back to Profitability,' Barron's, May 11, 1998, pp. 24, 26-27.

Jackson, Carlton, Hounds of the Road: A History of the Greyhound Bus Company, Bowling Green, Ohio: Popular Press, 1984, 214 p.

Kelly, Erin, 'Greyhound Ignores Wall Street and Thrives,' Fortune, April 26, 1999, pp. 48+.

Kelly, Kevin, 'Greyhound Is Bringing Travelers Down to Earth Again,' Business Week, June 19, 1989, p. 52.

------, 'Greyhound May Be Coming to the End of the Line,' Business Week, May 21, 1990, p. 45.

Lee, Louise, 'Greyhound CEO, Schmieder, Quits Under Pressure,' Wall Street Journal, August 10, 1994, p. B8.

Maxon, Terry, 'On Eve of Sale, Greyhound Turns First Profit Since 1993,' Dallas Morning News, February 17, 1999.

Schisgall, Oscar, The Greyhound Story: From Hibbing to Everywhere, Chicago: J.G. Ferguson, 1985, 309 p.

Sherer, Paul M., 'Greyhound and Laidlaw's Pact to Alter Deal Is a Lesson for Issuers of Convertible Shares,' Wall Street Journal, November 6, 1998, p. C2.

Tomsho, Robert, 'Craig Lentzsch Returns As Chief of Greyhound,' Wall Street Journal, October 21, 1994, p. B5.

------, 'Greyhound Drives Down New Road in Quest for Success,' Wall Street Journal, February 25, 1998, p. B4.

------, 'Greyhound Files for Chapter 11 to Guard Assets,' Wall Street Journal, June 5, 1990, p. A3.

------, 'Greyhound Lines Files Revamp, Giving Unsecured Creditors Notes, 95% Stake,' Wall Street Journal, November 20, 1990, p. A11.

------, 'Real Dog: How Greyhound Lines Re-Engineered Itself Right into a Deep Hole,' Wall Street Journal, October 20, 1994, p. A1.

Zellner, Wendy, 'Another Dogfight at Greyhound?,' Business Week, September 2, 1991, p. 43.

------, 'Greyhound Is Limping Badly,' Business Week, August 22, 1994, p. 32.

------, 'Leave the Driving to Lentzsch,' Business Week, March 18, 1996, p. 66.

— Updated by David E. Salamie

This article is about the US bus line. For Greyhound bus lines in other countries, see Greyhound (disambiguation).

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Greyhound Lines

Greyhound Lines #8879, a Prevost Le Mirage XL, in the new blue-and-silver livery, departs New York City on Schedule 8535.
Slogan	Greyhound, Brought to you by First.
Parent	FirstGroup
Founded	1914 by Carl Wickman
Headquarters	Dallas, Texas
Service area	United States  Canada  Mexico
Service type	Intercity coach service
Alliance	Interline services with Capitol Motor Lines Carl R. Bieber (Capitol Trailways) Colonial Trailways Jefferson Lines Kerrville Bus Company Orange Belt Stages Peter Pan Bus Lines Southeastern Stages Trailways of New York
Routes	130 regular routes 3 BoltBus routes 1 NeOn route
Destinations	3,700+
Stations	2,400+
Fleet	MCI MC-12, 102D(L)3, G4500 Prevost X3-45, Van Hool C2045L
Chief executive	David Leach
Web site	Greyhound Lines

Greyhound Lines, Inc., based in Dallas, Texas, USA, is an intercity common carrier of passengers by bus serving over 3,700 destinations in the United States, Canada and Mexico, operating under the well-known logo of a leaping greyhound. It was founded in Hibbing, Minnesota, USA, in 1914 and incorporated as "Greyhound Corporation" in 1929. Today, it is headquartered at 350 North St. Paul Street in Downtown Dallas, Texas,^[1] and under the ownership of Scottish transport firm FirstGroup, which operates Greyhound as an independent subsidiary.

Contents 1 History 1.1 Early years 1.2 Postwar expansion and diversification 1.3 Spin-off from Dial Corporation 1.4 Laidlaw ownership and reorganization of the route network 1.5 FirstGroup ownership 2 Partnership and competition 2.1 Discount services 2.1.1 NeOn 2.1.2 BoltBus 3 Notable incidents and accidents 4 Security 5 Greyhound Community Reflections Mural Program 6 Fleet 7 Nicknames of past coaches 8 See also 9 References 10 External links

History

Former logo of Greyhound Lines.

Early years

Carl Wickman was born in Sweden in 1887. He moved to the Jamaica Plain, and in 1914 began a bus service with Andy (Bus Andy) Anderson in Minnesota where he transported iron ore miners from Hibbing to Alice at 15 cents a ride in a 1914 Hupmobile.^[2]

In 1915, Wickman joined forces with Ralph Bogan, who was running a similar service from Hibbing to Duluth. The name of the new organization was the Mesaba Transportation Company, and it made $8,000 in profit in its first year.

By the end of World War I Wickman owned 18 buses, and was making an annual profit of $40,000. In 1922, Wickman joined forces with Orville Caesar, the owner of the Superior White Bus Lines. Four years later, Wickman reached an agreement with two West Coast operations, the Pickwick Lines and the Pioneer Yelloway System.^{[clarification needed]}

In 1926, Wickman's bus operations became known as the Greyhound Lines. Ed Stone, who set up a new addition from Superior, WI to Wausau, WI, - during his inaugural run, passing through a small northern WI town saw the reflection of the 20's era bus in a store window - it reminded him of a greyhound dog and he renamed that segment of the "Bluegoose Lines", as the Wickman lines were known - later the entire system became Greyhound. Mr. Stone later became General Sales Manager of GM's Yellow Truck and Coach division, which built Greyhound buses. (At the Greyhound Bus Museum in Hibbing, MN, a plaque displays this information.) Wickman, who was president of the company, continued to expand it, and by 1927 his buses were making transcontinental trips from California to New York.

Wickman's business suffered during the Great Depression, and by 1931 was over $1 million in debt. However, with the improvement in the economy, the Greyhound Corporation began to prosper again. In 1935, Wickman was able to announce record profits of $8 million. By the outbreak of World War II the company had 4,750 stations and nearly 10,000 employees.

Wickman retired as president of Greyhound Corporation in 1946, and was replaced by his long-time partner, Orville Caesar. Carl Wickman died at the age of sixty-seven in 1954.

Postwar expansion and diversification

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A Greyhound GMC PD-3751 "Silversides" the 1950s livery.

An ole GMC PD4106, ready for boarding in Salem, Oregon for a fast trip north on new Interstate 5 in Autumn 1965.

After World War II, and the building of the Interstate Highway System beginning in 1956, automobile ownership and travel became a preferred mode of travel in the United States. Along with a similar downward trend in public transportation in general, ridership on Greyhound and Trailways bus routes began a long decline.

For many young people from Europe, Greyhound was the way they got to know America because of a special unlimited mileage offer: "99 days for $99" or, in other words, a dollar a day, anytime, anyplace, and anywhere. However, young African-Americans faced segregated buses and facilities in the South, as well as intolerant bus drivers. Prior to the Civil Rights reforms of the sixties, black passengers were often forced to give up their seats to white riders and stand by until a seat became available in the back of the bus. In 1961, Freedom Riders boarded Greyhound and Trailways buses to test court-ordered desegregation of buses, trains and planes, because previous Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC) rulings and Presidential mandates to integrate interstate travel had been largely ignored by southern carriers. Black and white integration activists faced persecution and violence, and buses which attempted to conform to the new rulings were, in some cases, burned by pro-segregationist mobs.

Greyhound leadership saw the trend, and began significant changes including using the profitable bus operations to invest in other industries. By the 1970s, Greyhound had moved its headquarters to Phoenix, Arizona, and was a large and diversified company, with holdings in everything from the Armour meat-packing company (which in turn owned the popular Dial deodorant soap brand), acquired in 1970; Traveller's Express money orders, MCI bus manufacturing company, and even airliner leasing. Indeed, Greyhound had entered a time of great change, even beginning to hire African American and female drivers in the late seventies.^[3]

Greyhound established the Premier Cruise Line in 1983. It would last until 2000, and at one time billed itself as the "Official Cruise Line of Walt Disney World".

In late 1984, Greyhound had a major driver's strike, typified as bitter, with one fatality in Zanesville, Ohio.^{[citation needed]} By the time contract negotiations were due again, three years later, the bus line had been spun-off from the parent company to new owners. This resulted in Greyhound Lines becoming solely a bus transportation company headed by Fred Currey, a former executive with the largest member of the National Trailways Bus System. Greyhound's corporate headquarters then relocated to Dallas, Texas. The old parent changed its name to the Dial Corporation.

Spin-off from Dial Corporation

Greyhound MCI MC-12 Americruiser #2119 in Indiana, summer 2003.

Greyhound station in Columbia, South Carolina, built in 1938-1939 and shot here in November 1986. Greyhound stopped using it the next year.

Under new ownership in 1987, led by Currey, Greyhound Lines acquired Trailways, Inc. in June of that year (formerly Continental Trailways), the largest member of the rival National Trailways Bus System, effectively consolidating national bus service. Greyhound was required by the ICC in their action approving the merger, to maintain coordinated schedules with other scheduled service operators in the U.S.

Three years later there was another costly strike beginning in March 1990. It was during that strike, combined with the loss of diversification and strength of the former parent company, and labor-law violations, that caused Greyhound to file for bankruptcy in June 1990. This strike was as bitter as the strike of the 1980s with violence against both strikers and their replacement workers, with one striker in California killed by a Greyhound bus hired by a strikebreaker.^[4] At the same time, Greyhound had to contend with the rise of low-cost airlines like Southwest Airlines, which reduced further the market for long-distance inter-city bus transportation. The strike would not be settled for 38 months, under terms favorable to Greyhound, as while the National Labor Relations Board had awarded damages for unfair labor practices to the strikers, this liability was discharged during bankruptcy reorganization.^[4][5]

In 1997, Greyhound Lines acquired Carolina Trailways, one of the largest members of the National Trailways Bus System. Following the acquisition, most of the other independent members of the Trailways System began interlining cooperatively with Greyhound, discontinued their regular route services, diversified into charters and tours or went out of business.

Laidlaw ownership and reorganization of the route network

A Greyhound MCI G4500 in the early 2000s livery.

In 1999, Burlington, Ontario-based transportation conglomerate Laidlaw Inc. acquired Greyhound Lines, Inc. (U.S. operations) including Carolina Trailways and other Greyhound affiliates. It had previously acquired Greyhound Canada.

After incurring heavy losses through its investments in Greyhound Lines and other parts of its diversified business, Laidlaw Inc. filed for protection under both U.S. and Canadian Bankruptcy laws in June 2001 .

Naperville, Illinois-based Laidlaw International, Inc. listed its common shares on the New York Stock Exchange (Ticker: LI), on February 10, 2003, and emerged from re-organization on June 23, 2003, as the successor to Laidlaw Inc. In the wake of this bankruptcy filing, Greyhound would exit a number of areas, particularly rural areas, turning routes in those areas over to local operators (often with government subsidies), particularly in the Plains states^[6], parts of the upper Midwest such as Wisconsin, and the Pacific Northwest. ^[7] During these route changes in 2004 and 2005, a number of routes were eliminated altogether, most notably the Interstate 90 route between Chicago and Seattle.^[8][9]

FirstGroup ownership

A Greyhound MCI 102DL3 in the Western United States. The latest branding has not yet been introduced outside of the Northeast.

On February 7, 2007, FirstGroup plc of Scotland, agreed to purchase Laidlaw International for US$3.6 billion (£1.9 billion). The deal closed on September 30, 2007.^[10] The Greyhound name has been retained by FirstGroup; the brands of its subsidiaries, however, are not being retained and will disappear as buses are retired.^[11]

Under the ownership of FirstGroup, other concerns have also been addressed. Greyhound had come under criticism for its bus assignment practices. Although bus tickets have times and dates printed on them, seating is not guaranteed, and is first-come, first-served. Greyhound will add additional "sections" (buses) in periods of high demand, but the threshold required to trigger an additional section varies. Passengers may have to wait for the next bus departure time.^[12] Shortly after the sale to FirstGroup closed, Greyhound began a program in select markets, most notably in the northeastern United States, where riders could reserve a seat for an additional $5. However, the $5 fee would have to be paid at the terminal, even if the ticket was bought online, and only a limited number of seats could be reserved.^[13]

Also under First ownership, Greyhound has sought to improve its image, spending $60 million to refurbish many terminals, add new buses, and staff terminals with associates who are able to help those who have questions about the bus system. Greyhound is initiating an advertising campaign with Butler, Shine, Stern & Partners aimed at attracting 18-24 year olds and Hispanics.^[14] As a result, after the FirstGroup acquisition, Greyhound began advertising as "The New Greyhound".

The "New Greyhound" also saw the introduction of a new livery with a navy blue and dark gray base (such as #8879 at the top of the article), with no white in the livery, which is currently in use on the Prevost fleet originating from New York City on routes to Toronto, Montreal, Boston, and Washington, D.C. (and in Canada within the province of Ontario), and which will be introduced in the rest of the United States in the future. In addition, the service, now marketed as Greyhound, Brought to You by First, saw a change in the logo for Greyhound. Buses in the new livery, like those in BoltBus service also in the Northeast, are also equipped with Wi-Fi, power outlets, and larger seat pitches, which reduce the seat count to 51, like buses in BoltBus service, making the paint the only material difference between those buses.

In 2009, the Greyhound brand along with the new livery introduced out of New York was exported to the United Kingdom, with parent FirstGroup to use the Greyhound nameplate for services designed to compete against its primary competitors in the British intercity bus travel market, National Express and Stagecoach's Megabus, with the first routes there operating from London to Southampton and Portsmouth.^[15]

Partnership and competition

Greyhound's scheduled services compete with the private automobile, low-cost airlines and other intercity coach companies. Greyhound is one of the major operators of Amtrak's Thruway Motorcoach service even though the two are competitors in some markets. The service compensates for lost intercity rail service in many instances and provides access to locations away from Amtrak's rail lines. In some cases the added convenience of through-ticketing is available for connecting passengers.

Discount services

Since the purchase of Greyhound Lines by FirstGroup, Greyhound has initiated two discount bus services, both radiating from New York City and servicing major cities in the northeastern United States, both of which began operations in 2008 and are operated in conjunction with other traditional operators. These services are designed to compete with Chinatown bus carriers, and more directly with Megabus. Both services offer Wi-Fi and outlets into which equipment can be plugged at every seat. Each service is offered in conjunction with another local bus carrier.

NeOn branding

NeOn

On May 29, 2008, a service based on the Megabus model used in the United Kingdom and United States and also the BoltBus service used by Greyhound in the US, was initiated to and from Toronto in association with Trailways of New York, operating between street stops at Penn Station in Manhattan and the Fairmont Royal York Hotel in Toronto. The service was originally designed to attract a new demographic of traveler who had long ago stopped taking intercity buses but who had grown comfortable with the low cost and convenience of the Chinatown bus services in the northeastern US. NeOn was initially set up to directly compete with the Megabus M24 and M26 routes operating twice daily between New York and Toronto making very few stops (Buffalo twice-daily, and to Syracuse once-daily).

Poor performance led Greyhound to make adjustments to the service until the NeOn name became purely superficial, a marketing name for what was otherwise the exact same intercity local bus service that had always existed. Many departure times are now available as a result, though travel times have increased considerably. A "NeOn" bus will often physically be a New York Trailways bus, albeit with Wifi, making stops in, for example, Binghamton, Syracuse, Rochester, Buffalo Airport, Buffalo, Customs/Border, Fort Erie, St. Catharines, Mississauga and finally Toronto. The name NeOn is now even used on completely different routes such as to Plattsburgh and Montreal, further reducing the brand differentiation. Many runs also terminate at the Trailways gates at the Port Authority rather than the former streetside drop off at Penn Station. With the loss of more direct, customized travel has come a reversion to the more traditional demographic of local bus traveler, the very sort of traveler that NeOn was supposed to grow beyond.

The service continues to be a joint operation between sister companies Greyhound Lines and Greyhound Canada, and Trailways of New York, the major inter-city bus carrier within most of New York State.

BoltBus

Main article: BoltBus

In March 2008, Greyhound announced a new service titled BoltBus into the Boston-NYC-DC megalopolis, modeled on the Megabus system in use at the time in Chicago metropolitan area and in the United Kingdom, offering fares as low as $1 USD, with lowest fares depending on how far in advance a trip is booked and demand for the trip, with fares increasing for trips booked closer to departure. On each trip, one seat is sold for $1, with prices increasing up to a maximum of $25 for a one way trip.^[16] The service began on March 27, 2008, with a New York City-Washington, D.C. route, with service to Boston and Philadelphia following soon after. Offered in partnership with Peter Pan Bus Lines, it (along with NeOn described above, offered in conjunction with Trailways of New York) competes directly with Coach USA's own discount express bus service, Megabus.

At the time of its introduction, the BoltBus fleet had features not on mainline Greyhound buses. Greyhound buses in the Northeast United States that are painted navy blue have been reformatted to match the BoltBus fleet (except for the paint).

Notable incidents and accidents

This transport-related list is incomplete; you can help by expanding it.

Below is a list of major incidents and accidents on Greyhound buses and buses of subsidiaries in the United States.

• August 4, 1952: In Greyhound's deadliest accident, two Greyhound buses collided head-on along the then-U.S. Route 81 near Waco, Texas. The fuel tanks of both buses then ruptured, bursting into flames. Of the 56 persons aboard both coaches, 28 were killed, including both drivers.^[17][18]
• August 28, 1965: A timber truck rammed head-on into a stopped Greyhound Scenicruiser near Vinton, Louisiana along US 90 while the truck was attempting to pass a car. Eleven people on the Greyhound bus died.^[17]
• May 13, 1972: In Bean Station, Tennessee, a Greyhound Scenicruiser hit a tractor-trailer head on. Fifteen people on the bus were killed, including the driver.
• May 9, 1980: A freight ship collided with the Sunshine Skyway Bridge, resulting in several vehicles including a Greyhound bus falling into Tampa Bay. All 26 people on the bus perished, along with nine others. This is the largest loss of life on a single Greyhound coach to date.
• October 3, 2001: At approximately 4:15 a.m. local time, a passenger, Damir Igric attacked the driver of his bus, attempting to slit his throat, and causing the bus to crash near Manchester, Tennessee, killing Igric and five other passengers and injuring 32 others. As the incident occurred weeks after the September 11 terrorist attacks, Greyhound shut down its entire system as soon as the company learned of the incident for fear that it may have been part of a larger co-ordinated attack. After investigation by the company and the FBI, it was confirmed that Igric had acted alone, and service resumed later that afternoon.^[19] After the incident, Greyhound bus stations increased security, though not nearly to the same level as airports or train stations.
• September 30, 2002: Arturo Martinez Tapia attacked another Greyhound driver near Fresno, California, resulting in two passenger deaths after the bus then rolled off an embankment and crashed.^[20] Following this attack, driver shields were installed on most Greyhound buses that now prevent passengers from directly touching the driver while the bus is in motion, even if the shield is forced open. On buses without the shield, the seats behind the driver are normally off-limits.^[21]
• October 10, 2005 - A Greyhound bus on charter flips near Williams, California at approximately 6:12 p.m. local time, killing at least five and injuring at least 30.^[22]
• November 27, 2005: At approximately 7:10 a.m. local time, a Greyhound bus traveling from Los Angeles to San Francisco crashed near Santa Maria, killing two people, one of whom was a 7-month-pregnant woman. While the cause remains unknown, at the time of the crash, driver fatigue was suspected.^[23] Later, an epileptic seizure was cited as a possible cause.^[24]
• August 28, 2006: At approximately 6:45 p.m. local time, a Greyhound bus traveling from New York City to Montreal overturned on the Adirondack Northway in Westport, New York after suffering a blown tire, killing five and injuring 48.^[25]
• July 3, 2007- ^[26] Around 10:45 AM EST a Greyhound bus headed to Baltimore from New York caught fire. All 48 passengers were evacuated safely.
• January 2, 2008: A Greyhound bus traveling from Richmond to Raleigh rear-ended a tractor trailer on U.S. Route 1 in Henderson, NC that had slowed to make a turn. At least 50 people were injured.^[27]
• February 24, 2008 - A Greyhound coach with at least 50 passengers aboard crashed and rolled over in the early morning hours on the median of Interstate 380 near Scranton, Pennsylvania. Forty-one passengers were injured, two seriously.^[28]
• July 30, 2008 - Tim McLean, a 22-year-old Canadian man, was stabbed and beheaded while riding a Greyhound Canada bus about 18 miles west of Portage La Prairie, Manitoba on the Trans Canada Highway. On March 5, 2009, McLean's killer, 40-year-old Vince Weiguang Li, was found to be not criminally responsible for the murder.^[29]

Security

Increasingly, concern has been given to bus security. As a result of the September 11, 2001 attacks, train and airplane security have been substantially increased, but the same increase has not been provided to bus security. Baggage is not inspected, nor is identification checked. Greyhound says that metal detector wands have been deployed on buses, but they do not appear to be routinely used.^[30]

Greyhound announced in a press conference in 2007 that a pilot program to test various security measures would be implemented at select stations and on select coaches starting later in the year. Some of the stations included in this project, are in Boston, Cleveland, Dallas, and St. Louis. Measures may include:

• Requiring photo ID to be displayed by all adult passengers prior to boarding. Minors, in accordance with Greyhound's policy, must either have to be accompanied by a parent or a legal guardian, or to obtain permission to travel from one ^[31], and when unaccompanied, have restrictions on traveling.
• In the United States, passengers who are not citizens will be screened to determine the legality of their presence within the country's borders. Also, some may be checked for outstanding felony warrants, and boarding may be denied to those who fit into one of these categories.^{[citation needed]}
• Passengers may have their luggage visually searched. Devices similar to those used at airports may be used to check passengers and luggage prior to boarding buses for various banned items, including firearms, explosives, or other hazardous materials.
• On all newer coaches, operators are shielded from passengers while the coach is in motion. A gate prevents passengers from entering the driver's area. Though the gate does not prevent an emergency exit, it will continue to shield the driver if opened by a passenger while the coach is in motion. Shields were installed after two attacks on drivers in the early 2000s. In the absence of a driver shield, passengers are normally not permitted to occupy the seats behind the operator.^[21]
• Installing video surveillance on coaches and at stations.
• Installing GPS tracking devices on select coaches. In addition to providing emergency location of the vehicle, this may also alert supervisors of unsafe driving behavior on part of the operator, including speeding.
• Operators, at their own discretion, now reserve the right to prohibit or limit the use of cell phones while the coach is in motion.
• Greyhound already prohibits taking photographs, videotaping, or audiotaping while on board its own coaches or within its owned stations.^[32]
• As currently as 2009, it does not appear that any of these changes have taken effect.^{[citation needed]}

Greyhound Community Reflections Mural Program

"The Heart of Tex Mex," a mural that is a part of the Greyhound Community Reflections Mural Program - It is located in the Austin Greyhound Station in Austin, Texas

Greyhound Lines and the National Council for La Raza (NCLR) sponsor the Greyhound Community Reflections Mural Program, in which it has Latino American student artists paint murals reflecting the contributions of Latino Americans that are posted in Greyhound Stations across the United States.^[33] The bus line has had three painted in Texas by 2003.^[34]

Fleet

• Motor Coach Industries 102D(W)3
• Motor Coach Industries 102DL(W)3
• Motor Coach Industries MC-12
• Motor Coach Industries D4500
• Motor Coach Industries D4505 (Cruceros only)
• Motor Coach Industries G4500
• Prevost Car X3-45 (northeastern United States)
• Setra S217HDH (on lease)
• Van Hool C2045 (Michigan DOT and TMN&O only)

Nicknames of past coaches

• General Motors PD-4501-Scenicruiser
• Motor Coach Industries MC 6-Supercruiser
• Motor Coach Industries MC 7-Scenicruiser Super 7
• Motor Coach Industries MC 8-Americruiser
• Motor Coach Industries MC 9-Americruiser II (aka Crusader II)

Later models such as the A series and the MC-12 bore only the Americruiser name. MCI D and G series, Prevost, and Van Hool coaches coaches do not carry nicknames.

See also

• BoltBus
• Southeastern Greyhound Lines
• Capitol Greyhound Lines
• Dixie Greyhound Lines
• Teche Greyhound Lines
• Great Lakes Greyhound Lines
• Greyhound Mexico
• Florida Greyhound Lines
• Atlantic Greyhound Lines
• Tennessee Coach Company -- an independent carrier which cooperated with Atlantic GL and Southeastern GL (1928-56)
• Greyhound Bus Museum
• Peter Pan Bus Lines – interline partner in the northeastern United States
• Trailways Transportation System
• Greyhound Air – Defunct low-cost airline in Canada
• Greyhound Australia
• Greyhound Canada – related carrier
• First Avenue, a nightclub that currently operates out of a former Greyhound Bus Terminal in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
• BusJunction, a bus ticket search engine that includes Greyhound tickets

References

1. ^ "Route Map" Greyhound Lines. Retrieved on May 4, 2009.
2. ^ Greyhound Bus Museum
3. ^ Jackson, Carlton. Hounds of the Road: a history of the Greyhound Bus Company. Bowling Green, Ohio: Bowling Green University Popular Press, 1984.
4. ^ ^{a b} The Great Greyhound Strikes, accessed 2008-11-22
5. ^ Greyhound Bus Drivers End 3-Year Strike With New Pact, New York Times, 1993-05-09, accessed 2008-11-22
6. ^ USA Today - Some left in lurch as Greyhound cuts stops, July 19, 2004, accessed 2008-11-22
7. ^ " New York Times - As Greyhound Cuts Back, The Middle of Nowhere Means Going Nowhere, 2004-09-06, accessed 2008-11-22
8. ^ The Greyhound doesn't stop here anymore, Mike Bucsko and Cindi Lash, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, November 13, 2005
9. ^ Doghouse On Wheels, Emily Lambert, Forbes.com, January 31, 2005
10. ^ Laidlaw International Announces Agreement to Be Acquired by FirstGroup, SEC filing
11. ^ FirstGroup intro page regarding acquisition
12. ^ News-Leader.com | Sarah Overstreet
13. ^ Reserve seat on Greyhound for $5 - Yahoo! News
14. ^ "Greyhound Gets A Makeover". CBS News (CBS Corporation). 2007-11-12. http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/11/12/business/main3488817.shtml. Retrieved 2007-11-12. 
15. ^ http://www.greyhounduk.com
16. ^ "Beating $4 Gas with a $1 Bus". Time, Inc.. 2008-06-06. http://www.time.com/time/business/article/0,8599,1812012,00.html?imw=Y. Retrieved 2008-06-08. 
17. ^ ^{a b} Hounds of the Road, by Carlton Jackson, accessed November 2, 2008
18. ^ My Turn: He's still walking tall, and grateful to be alive, by Allen Richards from the Daily Breeze, Oct. 21, 2008, accessed Nov. 2, 2008
19. ^ FBI say bus attack wasn't terrorism, CNN.com, October 4, 2001; date accessed: July 9, 2007
20. ^ Knife attack on California bus BBC.co.uk, October 1, 2002, date accessed: May 28, 2008
21. ^ ^{a b} Greyhound faces lawsuits over '01 wreck Passengers say line kept quiet about attacks on drivers, from the Atlanta Journal Constitution, accessed May 28, 2008
22. ^ Five dead, many injured in Colusa County bus crash, accessed 2008-10-06
23. ^ Police: Driver fatigue likely factor in fatal bus crash, CNN.com, November 28, 2005; date accessed July 9, 2007
24. ^ Lawsuit settled in bus crash, Samantha Yale, Santa Maria Times, March 17, 2007; date accessed: July 9, 2007
25. ^ Les survivants terrifiés par l'expérience - LCN - Faits divers
26. ^ http://abclocal.go.com/wpvi/story?section=news/local&id=5444941
27. ^ 50 Injured In Bus, Tractor-Trailer Crash - Winston-Salem News Story - WXII Winston-Salem
28. ^ Passenger bus flips near Scranton
29. ^ http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/08/02/world/main4316984.shtml
30. ^ Cleveland.com's Printer-Friendly Page
31. ^ Greyhound.com : Travel Information : Children Traveling
32. ^ Greyhound.com : Travel Information : Traveling by Bus
33. ^ "Mural Created by UTB/TSC Student Artists is Unveiled." University of Texas at Brownsville and Southmost College. September 19, 2002. Retrieved on September 5, 2009.
34. ^ Faires, Robert. "Greyhound Mural." The Austin Chronicle. August 22, 2003. Retrieved on September 5, 2009.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Greyhound Lines

• Greyhound Lines home page
• Greyhound lines, non-flash homepage
• Greyhound Canada
• Greyhound Mexico
• Greyhound UK
• Greyhound Lines timetable

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