1914–1930: early years , In 1914,
Eric Wickman, a 27-year-old Swedish immigrant, was laid off from his job as a drill operator at a mine in
Alice, Minnesota. He became a
Hupmobile salesman in
Hibbing, Minnesota, and, when he could not sell the first seven-passenger Hupmobile that he received, he began using it along with fellow Swedish immigrant Andy "Bus Andy" Anderson and C. A. A. "Arvid" Heed to transport iron ore miners two miles from Hibbing to Alice for 15 cents per ride. Wickman made $2.25 on his first run. and
The Pickwick Corporation. Also in 1930, the company moved from
Duluth, Minnesota to
Chicago, Illinois. The business suffered during the
Great Depression, and by 1931 was over $1 million in debt. As the 1930s progressed and the economy improved, Greyhound began to prosper again. — has been credited by the company for spurring bus travel nationwide. In 1935, national intercity bus ridership climbed 50% to 651,999,000 passengers, surpassing the volume of passengers carried by the Class I railroads for the first time. In 1935, Wickman reported record profits of $8 million. In 1936, already the largest bus carrier in the United States, Greyhound began taking delivery of 306 new buses. For terminals, Greyhound retained architects including
William Strudwick Arrasmith and
George D. Brown. Multiple Streamline Moderne-style Greyhound stations are listed on the
National Register of Historic Places, including stations in
Blytheville, Arkansas;
Cleveland, Ohio;
Columbia, South Carolina;
Evansville, Indiana,
Jackson, Mississippi, and
Washington, D.C. Greyhound worked with the
Yellow Coach Manufacturing Company for its streamlined
Series 700 buses, first for
Series 719 prototypes in 1934, and from 1937 as the exclusive customer for Yellow's
Series 743 bus (which Greyhound named the "Super Coach"). Greyhound bought a total of 1,256 buses between 1937 and 1939. By the beginning of
World War II, the company had 4,750 stations and nearly 10,000 employees.
1945–1983: expansion, desegregation, and diversification PD-3751
Silversides in the 1950s livery|right|thumb Wickman retired as president of the Greyhound Corporation in 1946 and was replaced by his long-time partner Orville S. Caesar. Wickman died at the age of 66 in 1954. , designed by Roland E. Gegoux and manufactured exclusively for Greyhound Greyhound commissioned industrial designer
Raymond Loewy and
General Motors to design several distinctive buses from the 1930s through the 1950s. Loewy's first was the Yellow Coach PDG-4101, the Greyhound
Silversides produced in 1940-1941. Production was suspended during
World War II. When the "Silversides" buses resumed production in 1947, it was renamed GM PD 3751. PD 3751 production continued through 1948. In 1954, the first of Greyhound's distinctive hump-backed buses was introduced. In 1944, Loewy had produced drawings for the GM GX-1, a full double-decker parlor bus with the first prototype built in 1953. The
PD-4501 Scenicruiser was designed by Roland E. Gegoux and built by
General Motors as model PD-4501. The front of the bus was markedly lower than its rear section. After
World War II, and the building of the
Interstate Highway System beginning in 1956, automobile travel became a preferred mode of travel in the United States.
Freedom Rides and the civil rights movement In 1955, the
Interstate Commerce Commission ruled in the case of
Keys v. Carolina Coach Co. that U.S. interstate bus operations, such as Greyhound's, could not be segregated by race. In 1960, in the case of
Boynton v. Virginia, the U.S. Supreme Court found that an
African American had been wrongfully convicted for
trespassing in a "whites only" terminal area. In May 1961,
Civil Rights Movement activists organized interracial
Freedom Rides as proof of the desegregation rulings. On May 14, a mob attacked a pair of buses (a Greyhound and a
Trailways) traveling from Washington, D.C., to New Orleans, Louisiana, and slashed the Greyhound bus's tires. Several miles outside of
Anniston, Alabama, the mob forced the Greyhound bus to stop, broke its windows, and firebombed it. caused the mob to retreat. When the riders escaped the bus, the mob beat them, while warning shots fired into the air by highway patrolmen prevented them from being
lynched. Additional Freedom Riders were beaten by a mob at the
Montgomery, Alabama station. PD-4106, ready for boarding in
Salem, Oregon, for a trip north to
Seattle on the then-new
Interstate 5, in the fall of 1965 The
Civil Rights Act of 1964's
Title II and
Title III broadened protections beyond federally regulated carriers such as Greyhound, to include non-discrimination in hotels, restaurants, and other public accommodations, as well as state and local government buildings.
Late 1960s, 1970s, and early 1980s Later in the 1960s, Greyhound ridership declined and Greyhound used the profitable bus operations to invest in other industries. In 1970, the company acquired
Armour and Company meat-packing company, which owned the
Dial deodorant soap brand, for $400 million. and airliner leasing. In the late 1970s, Greyhound began hiring African American and female drivers for the first time. In 1972, Greyhound introduced the unlimited mileage Ameripass. The pass was initially marketed as offering "99 days for $99" or, transportation to anywhere at any time for a dollar a day. For decades, it was a popular choice for people traveling across the U.S. on a budget. Over time, Greyhound raised the price of the pass, shortened its validity period and rebranded it as the Discovery Pass, until it was discontinued in 2012. Between 1985 and 1993, Premier operated as the "Official Cruise Line of
Walt Disney World" with onboard Disney characters.
1983–2001: consolidation, strikes, and bankruptcies 1983 Greyhound drivers' strike In 1983, Greyhound operated a fleet of 3,800 buses and carried about 60% of the intercity bus-travel market in the United States. Starting November 2, 1983, Greyhound suffered a major and bitter drivers'
strike action. A fatality occurred in
Zanesville, Ohio, when a replacement driver ran over a striking worker at a picket line. A new contract was ratified on December 19, 1983 and drivers returned to work the next day.
1986–1990: spin-off, merger, and first bankruptcy In early 1987, the bus line was acquired by an investor group led by Fred Currey, a former executive of rival
Continental Trailways, who became CEO of Greyhound and relocated its headquarters to
Dallas, Texas. In February 1987, Greyhound Lines' new ownership and the
Amalgamated Transit Union (ATU) agreed on a new, 3-year contract. In June 1987, Greyhound Lines acquired Trailways, Inc. (formerly Continental Trailways), the largest member of the rival
Trailways Transportation System, effectively consolidating into a national bus service. Greyhound was required by the
Interstate Commerce Commission to maintain coordinated schedules with other scheduled service operators in the U.S. Between 1987 and 1990, Greyhound Lines' former parent continued to be called The Greyhound Corporation, confusing passengers and investors alike. The Greyhound Corporation retained
Premier Cruise Lines and ten non-bus subsidiaries using the Greyhound name, such as Greyhound Leisure Services, Inc. (an operator of airport and cruise ship duty-free shops), and Greyhound Exhibits. In March 1990, The Greyhound Corporation changed its name to Greyhound Dial Corporation. Because Greyhound Dial's switchboard continued to get questions from misdirected bus passengers, it changed its name to The Dial Corporation in March 1991, to eliminate any association with bus travel.
1990 Greyhound drivers' strike In early 1990, the drivers' contract from 1987 expired at the end of its three-year term. In March, the ATU began a
strike action against Greyhound. The 1990 drivers' strike was similar in its bitterness to the strike of 1983, with violence against both strikers and their replacement workers. One striker in California was killed by a Greyhound bus driven by a strikebreaker, and a shot was fired at a Greyhound bus. While Greyhound CEO Fred Currey argued that "no American worth his salt negotiates with terrorists," ATU leader
Edward M. Strait responded that management's failure to negotiate amounted to "putting the negotiations back into the hands of terrorists." During the strike by its 6,300 drivers, Greyhound idled much of its fleet of 3,949 buses and cancelled 80% of its routes. At the same time, Greyhound was having to contend with the rise of low-cost
airlines such as
Southwest Airlines, which further reduced the market for long-distance inter-city bus transportation. Without the financial strength provided in the past by a parent company, the strike's lower revenues and higher costs for security and labor-law penalties caused Greyhound to file for
bankruptcy in June 1990. The strike was not settled until May 1993, 38 months later, under terms favorable to Greyhound. While the
National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) had awarded damages for unfair labor practices to the strikers, this liability was discharged during bankruptcy reorganization. Greyhound agreed to pay $22 million in back wages to union drivers, recall 550 of the remaining strikers, reinstate most of the 200 strikers who were fired for alleged misconduct, and increase hourly pay for drivers to $16.55 from $13.83 by March 1998.
Early 1990s: bankruptcy and antitrust cases In August 1991, Greyhound emerged from bankruptcy by which time it had shrunk its overall workforce to 7,900 employees from 12,000 pre-bankruptcy, and trimmed its fleet to 2,750 buses and 3,600 drivers. In August 1992, Greyhound canceled its bus terminal license (BTL) agreements with other carriers at 200 terminals, and imposed the requirement that Greyhound be the sole-seller of the tenant's bus tickets within a 25-mile radius of such a Greyhound terminal. In 1995, the
United States Department of Justice Antitrust Division brought suit to stop this practice, alleging that it was an illegal restraint of trade, bad for consumers, and reduced competition. Greyhound's total revenues in 1994 were $616 million. In September 1998, Greyhound promised to make accommodations for disabled passengers, including equipping most buses with wheelchair lifts.
2001: Trailways-Laidlaw mergers and bankruptcy MC-12
Americruiser in
Fremont, Indiana, August 2003|thumb In the late 1990s, Greyhound Lines acquired two more members of the National Trailways Bus System. The company purchased Carolina Trailways in 1997, followed by the intercity operations of Southeastern Trailways in 1998. Following the acquisitions, most of the remaining members of the Trailways System began interlining cooperatively with Greyhound, discontinued their scheduled route services, diversified into charters and tours, or went out of business altogether. On September 3, 1997,
Burlington, Ontario–based transportation conglomerate
Laidlaw announced it would buy
Greyhound Canada, Greyhound's Canadian operations, for US$72 million. In October 1998, Laidlaw announced it would acquire the U.S. operations of Greyhound Lines, Inc., including Carolina Trailways and other Greyhound affiliates, for about $470 million. The acquisition was completed in March 1999. In June 2001, after incurring heavy losses through its investments in Greyhound Lines and other parts of its diversified business, Laidlaw filed for bankruptcy protection in both the U.S. and Canada.
2002–2007: Laidlaw ownership G4500 in the early 2000s livery in
Atlantic City, New Jersey Naperville, Illinois–based Laidlaw International, Inc. listed its common shares on the
New York Stock Exchange on February 10, 2003 and emerged from re-organization on June 23, 2003 as the successor to Laidlaw Inc. By 2003, Greyhound faced significant competition in the northeast from
Chinatown bus lines. More than 250 buses, operated by competitors such as
Fung Wah Bus Transportation and Lucky Star Bus were competing fiercely from curbsides in the
Chinatowns of
New York City,
Boston,
Philadelphia, and
Washington, D.C. In 2003, Greyhound expanded its QuickLink service, Greyhound's brand of commuter bus service that runs frequently during the peak weekday commuting hours. Routes were operated from Sacramento, California to the San Francisco Bay Area and Macon, Georgia to Atlanta. In 2004, Greyhound dropped low-demand rural stops and started concentrating on dense, inter-metropolitan routes. It cut nearly 37% of its network. This marked the closure of the company's facility called Post House Cafeteria in
Breezewood, Pennsylvania. In some rural areas, particularly in the Plains states, parts of the upper Midwest (such as Wisconsin), and the Pacific Northwest, local operators took over the old stops, often with government subsidies.
2007–2021: FirstGroup ownership , on the morning of May 24, 2010 , station , on the afternoon of May 26, 2010. A bus in the background on its way to pick up passengers at another gate at this station is bound for
Los Angeles, California. X3-45 with leather seats On February 7, 2007, Scottish transport group
FirstGroup announced the acquisition of Laidlaw International for $3.6 billion, which closed on October 1, 2007. Almost immediately after acquiring the carrier, FirstGroup sought to improve Greyhound's image by refurbishing many terminals, expanding the fleet with new buses, refurbishing old buses, and retraining customer service staff. Greyhound also started a new advertising campaign with
Butler, Shine, Stern & Partners aimed at attracting 18- to 24-year-olds and Hispanics. Although FirstGroup's interest was primarily the school and transit bus operations of Laidlaw, FirstGroup retained the Greyhound operations and in 2009 exported the brand to the United Kingdom as
Greyhound UK (unrelated to bus operator
Greyhound Motors which operated from 1921 to 1972). In 2008, Greyhound's three regional bus operations (Carolina Trailways, based in Raleigh, N.C.,
Vermont Transit Lines of Burlington, Vermont, and Texas, New Mexico & Oklahoma Coaches of Lubbock, Texas ["T.N.M.&O."]) were consolidated into Greyhound Lines. On March 27, 2008, Greyhound launched service under the
BoltBus brand. The first buses started running between
Boston,
New York City, and
Washington, D.C. In the Northeastern U.S., BoltBus was originally operated in partnership with
Peter Pan Bus Lines, but this arrangement ended on September 27, 2017, with Greyhound continuing the brand alone. BoltBus expanded to the West Coast in May 2012 with a route in the
Pacific Northwest between
Vancouver, BC,
Seattle, and
Portland. Service was expanded again in October 2013 with a route between the two largest metropolitan areas in
California,
Los Angeles and the
San Francisco Bay Area (
San Jose and
Oakland). A stop in
San Francisco was added in December 2013 along with a route between Los Angeles and
Las Vegas. Beginning in 2009, all buses purchased have three-point seat belts installed. In 2010, in response to competition from
Megabus and
Chinatown bus lines, the company launched "Greyhound Express", featuring newer buses and fewer stops. In February 2013, in partnership with
DriveCam, Greyhound deployed video cameras across its entire fleet to increase safety and driver compliance by combining data and video analytics with real-time driver feedback and coaching. As of 2014, Greyhound's 1,229 buses served over 3,800 destinations in North America, traveling 5.5 billion miles (8.8 billion km) on North America's roads. Before 2014, Greyhound was criticized for
overbooking, often leaving passengers to wait for the next bus departure. Shortly after the sale to FirstGroup closed, Greyhound began a program in select markets, where riders could reserve a seat for an additional $5. However, only a limited number of seats could be reserved and the fee would have to be paid at the terminal's ticketing counter, even if the ticket was bought in advance online. In 2014, Greyhound rolled out a new
yield management computer system, enabling the company to more closely manage the number of tickets sold for each departure and dynamically adjust pricing based on sales. Although the amount of overbooked buses has been sharply reduced with this new system, Greyhound still does not explicitly guarantee a seat to everyone with a ticket (except on Greyhound Express routes). In 2014, Greyhound reported a profit of $73 million on revenues of $990.6 million, and attributed the company's success to a mix of changing urban populations and a focus on more profitable routes with higher demand. In 2013–2015, Greyhound expanded its Greyhound Connect service, which operates shorter routes to take passengers from stops in smaller, rural cities to stations in larger, urban cities. Some routes are operated using funds from the "Federal Formula Grant Program for Rural Areas" from the
Federal Transit Administration. In July 2015, the company announced that it would open terminals in
Monterrey and
Nuevo Laredo, Mexico, and begin service between the two cities and Texas, claiming to be the first American bus company to operate an intra-Mexican route. In September 2015, Greyhound announced expanded service in Missouri and Kansas shortly after Megabus announced that it would be ending service to several cities and college campuses. The company's Lucky Streak brand is for routes to/from cities with casinos. All fares are sold as open-ended round-trips, with passengers allowed to return to their origin at any time. On the Atlantic City routes, casinos offer special bonuses (gambling credit, room/dining discounts) to Lucky Streak passengers. In December 2020, the company sold the customer terminal facility in Los Angeles, as well as facilities in Denver, Colorado, and Ottawa, Canada for a total of $137 million. The facility in Denver was sold for $38 million. In May 2021,
Greyhound Canada shut down all of its bus routes in Canada. Greyhound Lines continues to operate four cross-border routes that either start or finish in the U.S. from
Toronto,
Montreal, and
Vancouver: the company also placed 38 buses used by its Canada division up for auction. In July 2021, BoltBus suspended operations indefinitely and Greyhound took over all routes. was sold in 2021 and replaced by a smaller facility (pictured) in the suburb of
Arlington Heights In July 2021, the bus station in
Columbus, Ohio, was sold to the
Central Ohio Transit Authority for $9.5 million. In October 2021, the bus station in
Downtown Louisville was sold for $2.8 million. The bus station in
Cincinnati was sold to a real estate company for $4.25 million, with plans to convert it to parking. In September 2021, the company agreed to pay $2.2 million to settle a lawsuit over its practice of allowing
U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents to board its buses in
Washington State to conduct warrantless immigration sweeps. The company had been criticized for allowing government officials to arrest its customers who were illegally in the country.
2021–present: FlixMobility On October 21, 2021,
Munich-based acquired Greyhound for $78 million. In 2022, FirstGroup sold almost all its remaining Greyhound properties to Twenty Lake Holdings LLC, a subsidiary of
Alden Global Capital, for approximately $140 million. Several bus stops were relocated, leading to criticism. ==Notable incidents and collisions==