Greyhound Abandons 60 Passengers In Seattle, Locks Up For The Night
Unsafe road conditions in Seattle brought Greyhound's fleet to a standstill on Sunday, which apparently is why they abandoned riders outside in 25 degree weather last night.
According to the Seattle PI, the bus dropped off the passengers outside a shelter at the Seattle Center, but the shelter turned them away because it was full. Before they could get back on the bus, it had left. The passengers called the police, who responded to the Greyhound bus station and found it closed for the night.
Luckily for Greyhound's customers, the Seattle Police Department stepped in to find shelter:
The officers then responded to the Seattle Center, and with the assistance from Seattle Police Communications, found available shelters. Three families with young children were transported to the YWCA. The rest of the displaced individuals (about 40), were taken to “DESC” at 517 3rd Avenue.
Metro or Greyhound were not available to assist with the transportation, so all transports were completed by patrol and West Anti Crime Team. They were all in shelters, 1 ½ hours after the original call.
A Greyhound spokeswoman told the Seattle PI that the company has no plans to issue refunds to any of their passengers, although they will allow them to sleep in "heated buses" until they're allowed to depart again. (No buses are leaving today, either.)
"Snow: Update on stuck Greyhound passengers" [Seattle PI] (Thanks to John!)
"SPD Officers Find Shelter For 60 Displaced People" [SPDBlotter]
(Photo: jakesmome)
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Comments:
the Pacific Northwest is a freaking mess right now. We rarely get snowstorms, so the infrastructure for dealing with it just isn't here. In Chicago or NYC this would hardly be a big event. But when snow accumulates out here the only way its getting off the streets is when it melts. Unfortunately the forecast looks like that won't be happening anytime soon.
How nice.
So if its not a psycho cutting off your head and feasting on it, its freezing outside in a snow storm, followed by Greyhound's PR nonchalantly stating that they will not be issuing a refund. Nice.
Greyhound is bullshit. I rode from Orlando to Corpus Christi, Texas for about 2 days in August without AC. Then when I left to go back to Orlando 2 weeks later, the bus drove half the route, then drove ALL THE BACK TO TEXAS because the hurricanes flooded/blocked some roads. Why not drive another route or have everyone wait at a station until the roads were OK? On top of that, I had to pay for ANOTHER ticket back to Orlando. Finally, on the way back, the bus was overcrowded, because it picked up a bunch of convicts just RELEASED FROM PRISON! I am never taking another fucking Greyhound again.
Heh, a local limo company (Portland, OR) is offering rides in their Hummer Stretch for $150 to Seattle, WA and Salem, OR.
Greyhound is one of the worst companies I've ever encountered. For various reasons that could not be avoided my gf has had to use them a few times and every single experience has been one problem after another. I am not surprised for a second by the treatment these passengers received. I saw nothing in this post about an apology and if there isn't going to be one that is the norm for this horribly run company. Their excessive chargers (for example charging $15 if someone else purchases the ticket) and horrible customer service (refusing to give me information when the bus my gf was on had still not shown up an hour later then it was scheduled to arrive). Never expect anything but the worst from this company. I hope some of those passengers find a way to get a refund but I seriously doubt it with this terrible company.
Planes, Trains and Automobiles finally found its missing scene.
Greyhound still exists?
They need to have their noses rubbed in greyhound poop. Bad dog.
I'm shocked anyone uses greyhound anymore. I'm 25, male, and in great physical shape, and I don't feel physically safe anywhere within a two block radius of our local greyhound station. Drug dealers? Check. Pimps?Check.
@Ninja007: And what does this have to do with the story? Yes, it's a mess. Is that an excuse for the crap Greyhound pulled?
After seeing this, I definitely won't be riding a Greyhound if I ever need a bus. Not that I have ever needed one.
Wow. I don't really understand why Greyhound came to Seattle in the first place-- our airport is closed, the trains aren't running, taxi service has stopped, the busses are out of service, the main arterials are all blocked off because of snow and ice, and a couple days ago a freakin' bus damn near fell onto I-5. The city has officially shut down and it's MADNESS here, so it's not really a surprise that the bus stopped in Seattle and left people. What IS a surprise, however, is that they sent them to homeless shelters. The airport and train station stayed open so that people could camp out until transportation was safe again and the Greyhound station is right downtown-- there are PLENTY of hotels in the area. In what universe is a HOMELESS SHELTER the place that you drop stranded passengers off at?! DESC, the place that the single travelers got sent to, is an emergency shelter for hardcore mentally ill chronically homeless adults. It's dirty and dangerous and skeevy. Shame, shame Greyhound!
@KStrike155: Bad weather is relevant to the story. Sorry that that bothers you. I was just trying to add some context.
@MercuryPDX: Which one?! We live in Seattle and we were supposed to be going to Portland for Christmas... We're not driving down anymore (obviously) and our back-up plans (train or plane) aren't options anymore... We've just about written Christmas 2008 off... But a ride to Portland in a Hummer Stretch might do the trick!
Shall we start a pool on when the first lawsuit will be filed?
@Fly Girl: have you ever seen the people that ride Greyhounds? They are often homeless people anyways.
NW croo checking in...
That said, transportation problems are occuring all over the place. Yesterday an Amtrak train was stuck downtown most of the day due to a bridge problem. I didn't see them kicking everybody out and taking off in the other direction. Poor form Greyhound, poor form.
Well, if the bus in question was the same 1960-era bus in the photo, it's no wonder it couldn't maneuver the roads!
Greyhound:
1) Almost left me, a lone female, at a locked bus station in downtown Salinas, CA in the middle of the night. I said no way. I got back on the bus and rode to San Jose and spent the night in the lighted station there before I caught the morning bus back to Santa Cruz.
2) Overbooked the bus with migrant workers on a trip to L.A. - they were sleeping in the aisles. This is not supposed to happen. It's a violation of safety rules.
3) When I got to L.A. I went out to have a smoke and this lady came up and sat on the bench, looking shell-shocked. I asked her if she was all right, and she said that their bus driver had stopped the bus in the middle of the desert, got out, walked out of sight and DID NOT COME BACK FOR THREE HOURS. The passengers were frantic. He finally came back and got in without a word and continued the trip. (Yes, they all reported it immediately.)
4. On the bus back from CA to MO, we changed drivers in Indio, CA. The new driver got on the bus and YELLED at us that we better behave on his bus or he would call the cops on us. No one on the bus had ever seen him before, or was doing anything untoward.
I will never ride the bus again. Ever.
@m4ximusprim3: The station in downtown SF is also pretty shady. It's connected to our transbay bus terminal and while in college I communted every morning from this station. It was a haven for the homeless and other "unwelcoming" individuals. I remember the day I ventured to the restroom in this station, scariest day of my life.
Once about ten years ago I took a trip to Colorado and back using Greyhound, around Christmastime. On the way out, we got a really mean driver. The bus stopped at McDonalds, the driver waited *exactly* the prescribed amount of time, and then left, even though a lady was running out the door. I guess she called in, because about 50 miles away, the driver, sounding very pissed off, informed us that he had to go back and get her. So we were all late because he was a jerk.
On the way back, a lot of people were picked up in Salinas, Kansas, I think. They were standing up and sleeping in the aisles. I could barely get to the restroom.
Otherwise, it wasn't too bad. I took a Greyhound to Tennessee once. Chatted with the driver all the way back, he was cool.
Not all Greyhound drivers are jerks, and they won't always screw you over. But when they do... boy howdy, do they.
@KStrike155: well lucky you! planes frequently do the same thing to their passengers. i'm sure one day you'll experience the joy of weather related travel aggravation
@Fly Girl: yeah this isn't surprising. when i was living out there, the entire ps area went apeshit over like an inch of snow. everyone all of a sudden forgot how to drive and made a run on grocery stores. COME ON YOU HIPPIES IT'S JUST A LITTLE NATURE.:D
Sounds like a class action lawsuit to me.
@Ninja007: :) I actually thought about that. I mean, *technically* G-hound didn't have to pay for hotels since the cancellations were weather-related. They could have at least kept the freakin' station open, like the train station and the airport, so that stranded people could crash there. If I was stranded by the bus and they dropped me off at the DESC, I'd be pulling out my credit card and getting myself a hotel room, to hell with the extra cost. The people who were on that bus must have been BROKE 'cause there is NO WAY that I'd stay at the DESC-- not even if it meant selling my first born to pay for the hotel room.
@katylostherart: Seattle *always* shuts down over a little bit of snow-- a cm is enough to do the whole city in-- but that's what happens when you live in a hyper-hilly city and own no snow plows... Basically, once the snow starts falling, there's no way to get it off of the roads until it melts.
This storm has been different, though. I've lived in Seattle-proper for a decade and I've NEVER seen something like this-- it's been snowing non-stop for the better part of eight days and we've got over a foot of snow on the ground in downtown Seattle! To make matters worse, under that foot of snow is a thick sheet of ice. It's DANGEROUS out there. Most of the main roads are closed, all of the hills are closed, and NO transportation is running. Even chains and four-wheel drive aren't good enough to get people through this mess. The trains aren't running, the airport is closed. I have no idea how/why that Greyhound even came to Seattle in the first place-- they should have just stayed where they were!
@Fly Girl: I call bull on this. Chains on a 4WD truck will get you through anything that is has clearance to get through. The problem is that people think they can take it at 50MPH.
<--Just spend 30 minutes going the 3 miles home in Montana.
I would spend $1000 extra on a plane ticket before ever taking the bus.
@Fly Girl:
This wasn't a regular bus coming through. Reading the background articles some of these people had been stuck at the Seattle Greyhound station for a couple of days trying to get any bus out of town. Greyhound cancelled all the buses out of course, and then told the people stuck at the station that they'd found someplace for them to stay, took them to the shelter and just dropped them off.
Here's an earlier article that wasn't included in the original post:
If the airline cancels your flight, you can at least stay in the (heated) airport while you figure out how to get to where you're going. Greyhound just dumped them off.
That being said I'm about ten miles out of downtown Seattle and I've been stuck in my house since Wednesday. I haven't seen a plow in three days. This is ridiculous and I feel so sorry for those people who got dumped off.
I've only taken Greyhound once, but that was enough. Our bus broke down in Mississippi (I was going from Port Arthur, TX to Detroit) and they informed us that since we weren't at a station, there was no access to our luggage underneath and that it would be shipped to us at a later date.
We stood outside of the new bus and refused to get on until a semi showed up to tow the old bus to the station (we weren't terribly far from Jackson) - there was no way we were trusting them with our stuff.
Other than that, it was smelly and cold, but in a pinch it'll do.
when you take budget travel that is what you get...budget.
@SarcasticDwarf: Have you seen Seattle before? It's a city of hills, San Francisco style. Steep, steep, STEEP hills. Steep hills + over a foot of snow + layer of compacted ice under the snow = recipe for disaster, 4WD&chains or not.
@Fly Girl: PLEASE! A foot of snow in a week? Here in the northEAST we just got nearly two feet in 3 days- a week after an ice storm knocked out power to more than 200,000 customers. And yet only minor delays and no b*tching and moaning. I'll accept the NW can't handle ANY type of storm, but don't paint a foot of snow in a week to be something extraordinary.
Based on the experiences of myself, and my friends, and the other commenters, Greyhound is the Amtrak of busses, if not worse. But like the crappy service and customer service of Amtrak and most airlines, there is no better option so nothing is ever going to get better.
i'll chime in with my own anecdote that greyhound is awful. i took one from eastern kansas to ohio. every bus station was in the worst area of town - the one in st louis was a particular nightmare. there were very very angry cops in an abandoned old bank repurposed as the bus stop, and there were gunshots in the distance. And anyone could've walked off with any of the luggage during the transfer. Later, we were over-weight on one axle, and had the bus driver yelling that if we didnt want to be delayed and have to stop and get fined, we'd all have to switch seats for the weigh station. it was hot, cramped, the seats are worse than airplanes, and we had to stop at every podunk ass town and ghetto in four states.
I think I would only ever consider it again if i was going between cities, not states. It was generally a nightmare. A 10-12 hour drive turned into a 20 hour Ordeal.
@Bramble73: I don't know if that makes it better or worse... :/
I mean, if they'd been stuck at the station for days, they *obviously* didn't have money to go get a hotel... Greyhound mighta thought they were doing them a favor by arranging for them to go to the emergency shelter at the Seattle Center. I mean, one would think that an emergency shelter would be more comfortable than a nasty Greyhound station... Right?
The problem with that situation is that those shelters are night shelters only and kick the people out during the day. For regular Seattle homeless people, that's usually not a problem-- they know where the day shelters and resources are. But the stranded passengers weren't from Seattle, so if they got kicked out in the morning and the Greyhound station was closed, they'd be totally fucked.
...Not to be mean or anything, but if you're so broke that when shit hits the fan, you can't afford a cheap ass motel, maybe you're too broke to risk traveling, especially during the winter months when things are (and will) go wrong.
Great. All this after I just bought a ticket to St. Louis from Chicago for this Friday. Guess I should bring my sleeping bag and an extra pair of long underwear.
At one time there were busy secondary bus companies all over the U.S. These guys serviced small, profitable routes and got passengers to towns in which they could connect with a Greyhound Bus. They weren't big competition to Greyhound. They took up the slack in areas that Greyhound couldn't/wouldn't service.
Then in the early 90's Greyhound stopped printing their timetable. The theory being was that they wanted to hurt these secondary bus companies and try to get market share that they truly had no interest in servicing properly.
It was after this that they did big marketing campaigns to get college kids and families to ride. That was followed by a driver strike and then bankruptcy. (Or did bankruptcy come first?)
Anyway, a horrid company with a horrible business model.
@ElroyNavision: Does your city own snow plows and the other equipment required to clear the roads when it snows? 'Cause I bet it does. THAT is why the "NorthEAST" can handle two feet of snow in three days.
Seattle doesn't have any of that equipment because it doesn't normally snow here. Once, *maybe* twice, a year we get an inch or two. It ALWAYS melts within about 24 hours. We don't have the infrastructure to deal with a major snow storm.
It snowed a couple of inches about a week ago and then melted into a slush and promptly refroze which means that now, under the foot of snow, we have an inch or two of solid ICE on the road. And Seattle is a hilly, hilly city.
We have like, TWO sanders (we don't salt here, it's bad for the salmon and un-green) for the entire metropolitan area, so it's all we can do to keep the MAJOR arterials clear-- and that's *only* the arterials that aren't on hills. The hilly arterials have all been closed for days now. The rest of the city won't re-open until the snow melts, plain and simple. The buses aren't running, the trains aren't running, the taxis aren't running, and the airport is closed.
How do you suggest that people get around? Steep hills covered in an inch or two of ice that's covered by a foot or more of snow with no snow plows to clean ANY of it up?... I'll tell you how people are getting around: by foot or not at all, 'cause those are the only options.
I get so sick of the "A foot of snow?! That's nothing, you big PacNW crybabies!" from people who live in areas that get regular amounts of snowfall-- guess what? If your city didn't have snow plows, a foot of snow would cripple it, too.
/rant
@VidurEspi: I'm sorry to say, but what do you expect. Traveling by bus is usually the mode of travel of last resort--sometimes after hitch-hiking or walking! Really, who is one going to complain to. Greyhound has a kind of monopoly on the bus thing!
@Jeremiah Reilly: You have better bring a jar of Vaseline, there is a good chance you are going to get ass-fucked at one of the stations!
Reminds me of an old Carson parody involving a Greyhound driver. After mocking their uniform and etc., he announced, "Now boarding, non-stop to Honolulu!"
@Cat_In_A_Hat: The station in Washington, DC is next to the Alcohol, Tobacco I Firearms (ATF) Headquarters. Makes it convenient to pick up a lady of the evening, a bottle of liquor and a gun and enjoy a night on the town :-)
@Fly Girl:
And before people say "Well, why doesn't Seattle have more snowplows." This is a 10-year storm, the PacNW will only a really significant snowstorm once every 10 years. (Of course the last one, at least in Portland where I'm at was 4 years ago. Yay, climate change) Its just not feasible buget-wise to have all this snow equipment sitting around not getting used most of the time. Our "worst" storms are usually only 3-4 inches of snow. Just driving on the streets usually will clear that much snow, hardly need a plow for that.
Not surpirsed by Greyhound by this at all.
One night, as a youngster, I was in Bangor ME, awaiting a connecting bus to Portland ME to get back home. The bus was scheduled to arrive in the evening - In February - and the bus just never showed. No explanation was given to me by Greyhound, the attendants locked the station up and threw me out, after letting me know they had no idea when a bus was coming.
Long story short, I was stuck outside, in Bangor ME, in February, with all my luggage, overnight, because Greyhound stuck me there. No refund was issued for it, either.
Of course, they only left one guy there (me) so there wasn't exactly an upheaval over this, but Greyhound is one of those lousy companies you want to avoid at all costs.