U.S. bus passengers experience an unregulated travel industry firsthand
Photo Credit: The welcome sign at the Greyhound bus station in San Jose, California. Flickr / Dave
Skift Take
Air passenger rights have attracted much attention and lawmaking in recent years while bus travel was largely overlooked. Its rebound in popularity is already bringing consumers’ issues to the forefront.
Ankur Singh and about 10 other Greyhound bus passengers huddled outside a locked terminal at 4 a.m. in Des Moines, Iowa. The wind chill was -17 degrees Fahrenheit (-27 degrees Celsius), and their connection wouldn’t arrive for five hours.
Traveling from Minneapolis to Bloomington, Illinois, on Feb. 1, Singh, 18, had no idea he’d be waiting outside when he bought his ticket on Greyhound’s website. He assumed he’d sleep in a chair inside a lighted, heated station. Instead, he layered on clothes from his suitcase to stave off frostbite.
“Greyhound didn’t tell any of us we’d be outside,” Singh said.
Greyhound Lines Inc., a unit of Aberdeen, Scotland-based FirstGroup Plc, said March 27 it would ensure its terminals’ and agents’ hours correspond with scheduled arrivals and departures, after Singh started an Internet petition that’s attracted more than 90,000 signatures.
The Des Moines incident nonetheless showed intercity bus passengers aren’t covered by U.S. cons
