Adventure on the Greyhound
Story by Cindi Soo Hoo     

What is my experience riding on the Greyhound? Well, it has been ten years since I last rode this bus going anywhere. I started to ride the bus going to visit my family and so far it has not changed in comfort. Still, there is no improvement in legroom. It still feels like you are in a can of sardines. You would think after 10 years, transportation on a bus would improve. I thought the ride would be comfortable but apparently no changes. Like there is 3 feet of leg space on a jet. But why not on a bus? I would hope they would put more effort in installing stronger shocks so there would be less bouncing on the road. People complain of backaches, neck and leg pain. I am surprised that people don't make a customer complaint for such things. Is it probably because of the low bus fares? Or do you pay for what you get? Sometimes you see the Greyhound commercials and then it disappears off the air. And then people take advantage of the low fares and jump on the bus and go. I know that people who ride the bus feels it is cheaper and safer and less scared than flying on a plane. But who knows a bus cannot be safe either all the time.

My bus was late, and I thought this is the first time it was late until a couple of people said, “Here we go again!” This is the third time in the past three weeks this has happened. I was shocked to hear this. Well, finally the bus came in 45 minutes. And then it dropped the first set of passengers off that were on that bus, only come to find out that one of the passengers shouted,   “We get on first, we have a pre-boarding pass!” The driver is only cleaning the bus, so he said we, the people who had been waiting at the station, are getting back on first. Apparently, the line I was standing in were waiting for two hours and standing at the gate entrance. All of a sudden, a mad rush of people who came from Alabama was pushing their way to the front. And about five of us said they are stupid people. Of course we all looked at each other and decided to push them back. Finally a service agent came and told them these people, referring to us, have been standing in line for two hours! The Alabama crowd still kept screaming about how they get the seats first. It is first come first serve The agent who stands at the door said that actually it was first come first serve. There was no security around to assist. The agent left, so it was up to us.  

As that crowd pushed us out the door, the bus driver came, and he yelled, “All of you who rode with me, back at the end of the line! You people should know better you are adults not children.” He went on to tell the ones with the pre-boarding pass that they will wait until their attitude changes. Apparently, someone talked back at him and the driver told him he was getting on this bus.

Well, some of us got on but we had to wait for 25 minutes before we could take off. So now on to the next destination – San Jose. Time was getting late and when it came to the last stop, we ended up in Oakland? There are no agents here at this station. The driver said; all those going to San Jose you have to go with me to San Francisco. People started saying, “What?!” We finally made it there and the next bus wouldn't run till 6:30 a.m. So the agent at the counter said; I can give you a refund of $7.50 and you can take the SAMS Tran to Menlo Park then transfer to the VTA to get to San Jose. Well ten of us took that transfer and made it back at 5:00 a.m. That was a long 12 hour trip back to San Jose. The Greyhound definitely needs to improve their customer services, to assist passengers, improve station security, and have a better organization over all.

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