Small Towns Losing Their Greyhound Service

[barbaraann]

Bus carrier says it has to drop lines to stay in business

By Joseph B. Frazier, Associated Press
August 1, 2004

GOLDENDALE, Wash. — Twice a day a Greyhound bus emerges from the wheat and alfalfa fields of eastern Washington and cruises into the parking lot of John Willsey's bowling alley.

Some days there are no passengers in this farm town of 3,700, so the bus doesn't bother to stop. But those who use it often rely on it.

Goldendale is among 267 communities in 18 states across the West and Midwest that will be losing Greyhound service Aug. 18, leaving 99 communities in the northern region where the interstate bus line will pick up passengers.
...

http://www.dailycamera.com/bdc/state_news/article/0,1713,BDC_2419_3079787,00.html


If the GOP wins in its quest to privatize everything, only the wealthy will have services and resources. This is so, so sad.

[htuttle]

1. This has been happening for awhile

My mother lives in a college town of about 30,000. There is absolutely no way for her to go to another city other than call an out-of-town cab company for a very expensive ride. There's no bus service at all, and hasn't been for a couple of yeears.

[hadrons]

2. read "What's the Matter with Kansas" to find out about small-town U.S.

not a pretty picture

[BrotherBuzz]

7. Good book recommendation

Bernie Ward interviewed the author last week in it sounds like a very interesting book. I'm waiting for my copy thru inter-library loan.

edited to add full title: What's the matter with Kansas?: how conservatives won the heart of America - by Thomas Frank.

[geek tragedy]

3. The local and state governments should step in and run these lines

Either that or they should subsidize Greyhound.

[htuttle]

5. Kind of a double standard isn't it

While the government seems to believe that having public airline transportation is so vital that it would give the airline companies billions in grants, bus service has pretty much disappeared for most of the rural US, stranding millions.

One rule for the rich. Another rule for the poor.

[SemperEadem]

9. the rich deserve their welfare because they pay more

the poor don't pay taxes, so they don't deserve anything... that's the RW reasoning.

Meanwhile, camels are leaping through the eyes of needles...

[SharonAnn]

21. Actually, the poor pay quite a few taxes. Here in Tennessee

they pay a sales tax as high as 9.75%. If they're working, they pay Social Security/Medicare which is close to 9%. So, they're paying 17% - 18.75% on every dollar of income (and all their income is outgo).

[Elginoid]

24. i think you missed the sarcasm...

nobody here would ever seriously say that the poor don't pay taxes-
he was explaining the repuke mentality.

[Rose Siding]

4. It's hard to watch a society collapse

[donsu]

8. yes, watching america crumble is horrifying

nt

[Judi Lynn]

6. It's so wrong! How could things get this rotten so fast?

From the article:

The vast majority of the cuts are to communities that have no commercial rail or air service, causing potential problems for people wanting to get to places that do. Greyhound says it has to streamline operations to stay in business. But cutting 267 communities — from busy towns like Steamboat Springs to more obscure places such as Big Timber, Mont. — weakens a web that has held the small towns of America together for decades.
(snip)

Six U.S. senators signed a letter to Greyhound President and CEO Stephen Gorman urging the line to cut fewer stops.

"As you know many people are not able to or do not wish to drive and rely on the bus as a vital transportation mode," the letter said, adding the cuts "will have a negative impact on many of our constituents."

Geoffrey Stuckart, a spokesman for U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., one of the six, said many veterans from northeast Oregon use the bus to get to a Veterans Affairs hospital in Walla Walla, Wash.

"We just got an extension on the facility; now we may lose the bus connection," he said of Walla Walla, where service will be axed.
(snip)

Surely this won't be the last word. I truly hope something can be done.

The article explains very adequately what brings a lot of Americans to rely on buses, rather than maintain cars, themselves.

Our whole country needs reworking. People are being left out of a system that used to work JUST FINE for them.

[NMDemDist2]

10. we have lots of little entrepunurial van services in AZ

runs between the small towns and the city

Az Shuttle
Open Road Tours
Prescott/Phoenix Shuttle

and lots more. This is an opportunity for the folks in the area to make a little $$ and give service to their community as well. 15 passenger vans making round trip runs...

edit to add: crap forgot to run spell check and never could spell "entrepenurial" :spank:

[barbaraann]

11. But

AZ Shuttle is an airport shuttle service and Open Road is a tourist thing. Actually, it looks like most of the shuttles are airport-oriented:
http://www.ci.phoenix.az.us/AVIATION/park_trans/shuttles_city.html

[NMDemDist2]

12. ORT is running the old Nava-Hope route from Phx to Flag

they took it over after 9/11

while for most shuttles the airport is the final destination, most make several stops in the city which is more than getting dumped at the bus station can offer

[barbaraann]

13. Ah

I hope the dropped routes are getting picked up in other states, too.

[NMDemDist2]

15. it's an opportunity for folks to start a little biz in the areas no longer

being served. I would jump all over it if I was in one of the areas...

[cap]

16. when you count up the price of gas and the customers

it is not a profitable business. that's why there's no private takers.

[NMDemDist2]

17. you can't run a bus, but a van could probably do it esp is you had

a certain schedule that folks could plan around

[customerserviceguy]

20. Vans are a part of the solution

But you still have to figure out how to pay a licensed, bondable, qualfied driver a living wage. It might be good for one of the affected states to figure out how to simplify rules for running a private "taxi" business. There are private shuttles that take people from small towns to faraway airports, but the passengers are able to pay for them (if you can afford airline tickets, you're probably not dirt poor). Some tax subsidization can and should occur to make it feasible to provide "feeder" van service to the places where the Greyhound still runs.

I've lived in small towns for over half of my life, and the reality is, if you don't drive, you just don't get around. This is just an extension of that, I guess.

[gulliver]

14. "Kathy," I said as we boarded a Greyhound in Pittsburgh

"Michigan seems like a dream to me now
It took me four days to hitchhike from Saginaw
I've come to look for America."

-- Paul Simon's "America"

[KT2000]

18. Happened here years ago

Private companies have come and gone over the years with vans and very high costs - very high!
I imagine the insurance rates for a small company with few routes will pay some high rates while Greyhound spread the insurance over the entire system.

The county bus system also cut back and does not come to my area any more. There is a cab company that sometimes won't answer their phone!

[HysteryDiagnosis]

19. Our route....

now goes between Calcutta and New Delhi.... (outsource humor) what the heck.

[depakid]

22. The stupidity of rural voters is hard to underestimate

Rural voters and their representatives consistently vote against their interests on all sorts of measures and as a result, they suffer disproprtionately in terms of health care services, school programs, insurance rates and road repairs.

I read an article last week about people in South Carolina(?) complaining loudly about how their farmland and open spaces are being consumed by megastores and strip malls- yet these very same people are vehemently against zoning laws- the very things that might actually afford them some protection.

It's really hard for me to have much sympathy for them, even though it's obvious that many of them are simply not capable of thinking rationally about public policy.

[Baltimoreboy]

23. Question

If this is wildly unprofitable, why should Greyhound keep these stops going? I don't see anyone here contributing to the fund to pay for it.

[depakid]

25. I think the questions are being framed

more as to whether and how rural transportantion services ought to be implemented.

And, actually, yes- many people are willing to pay for public transportation.

[Baltimoreboy]

26. Good way to frame the issue

:)