Dr. D.B. “Doc” Rushing
© Copyright, 2009, 2022, Duncan Bryant Rushing
Preface
This article — “Greyhound Lines after WW2” — describes:
the major mergers and consolidations (1948-75);
the changes in leadership at the top;
the move from Chicago to Phoenix (in 1971);
the sales of the Greyhound Lines, Inc. (in 1987, 1999, 2007, and 2021);
the purchase (in 1987) of the Trailways, Inc. (previously known as the Continental Trailways) and the merger of the TWI into the GLI;
the sad and regrettable deterioration in the level of service of the formerly great and formerly respected (but now utterly disgraced and discredited) Greyhound Lines;
and the latest developments at Greyhound under the ownership of FlixMobility (a German firm) and under the oversight of Flix North America (with a recent Turkish immigrant as the chief executive).
Contents
Introduction
Consolidation
Diversification and Expansion
Greyhound Lines, Inc. (GLI)
Greyhound Lines East (GLE) and Greyhound Lines West (GLW)
Greyhound Lines (GL)
Changes in Leadership at the Top
From Chicago to Phoenix
Moore, Currey, Kerrigan, and Currey Again in Charge of Continental Trailways and TWI
GLI Holding Company
On a Downgrade
Latest Moves
FlixMobility and FlixBus USA
Betrayal in the Northwest
Customer Disservice in Knoxville
Similar Disservice in Nashville
Good Service in Nashville While Greyhound Was Still Greyhound
Greyhound Lines and FlixBus USA
Very Special Articles
Related Articles
Bibliography
Introduction
After World War II (WW2) many important and extensive changes took place in the organization of the Greyhound Lines (GL), in its leadership, and eventually in its ownership.
Consolidation
In 1948 there were 21 regional operating companies in the USA in the route network of The Greyhound Corporation (the parent umbrella Greyhound organization). Those 21 companies made up the system known as the Greyhound Lines. Some of the 21 were divisions of the parent company, and some of them were subsidiaries of it – although two of them (the Overland GL and the Southeastern GL) were in 1948 neither divisions nor subsidiaries but rather closely affiliated companies – because the parent firm then held only minority interests in them – because it had not yet bought majority (controlling) interests in them. [If you wish, please see my separate article about the differences between divisions and subsidiaries of corporations.]
During the 1950s, however, those in charge of The Greyhound Corporation (with an uppercase T – because the word the was an integral part of the official name) felt a need to increase the profits of the Greyhound companies – in part by reducing their costs and expenses – in part, that is, by increasing their efficiency – largely by eliminating duplication of efforts and facilities and by simplifying their organizational structures – to streamline their management, supervisory, administrative, and accounting functions.
In one preliminary move in 1948 the parent Greyhound firm merged the Illinois GL (IGL) into the second Central GL, and in two preliminary moves in -49 Greyhound merged two small short-time divisions – the second Ohio GL and the Valley GL – also into the second Central GL. [And in -55 Greyhound transferred the former-IGL routes from the second Central GL to the Great Lakes GL, which in -57 became merged into the fifth Central GL.]
Soon Greyhound began the process of converting the subsidiaries into divisions and by merging the divisions.
Eastern Division (EGL)
About 1953 The Greyhound Corporation merged the assets and operations of two subsidiaries of the Pennsylvania GL (PGL or PennGL) – the PGL of Indiana and the PGL of Virginia – into the main undenominated PennGL, and it then dissolved the two empty subsidiary corporations.
Thus the PennGL became no longer both a holding company and an operating company but rather just an operating company – because it no longer owned (“held”) any other corporation.
Soon the Pennsylvania Railroad (PRR) ended its investment in the Pennsylvania GL. In 1953 those parties, along with the parent Greyhound firm, reached an agreement, under which The Greyhound Corporation would buy back all of the remaining interest of the PRR in the PennGL. They closed their deal in May 1954.
Next The Greyhound Corporation merged the PennGL (previously a subsidiary) into the parent firm as a division and then dissolved the empty subsidiary corporation of the PennGL.
In 1954 The Greyhound Corporation (the parent Greyhound firm) also bought the 50-percent share of the Atlantic GL in the Capitol GL. [The parent firm already owned the other half of the Capitol GL.]
Then in the next year, on 01 May 1955, the parent Greyhound firm merged the Capitol GL, the second Central GL, and the New England GL into the Pennsylvania GL, and then Greyhound renamed the newly expanded PennGL as the Eastern Division of The Greyhound Corporation. The new division, called also the second Eastern GL (EGL), was the first of four huge new divisions, along with Southern, Western, and Central, which last name became used again (in the fifth of six uses). [More about the Capitol GL, the Central GL, the New England GL, and the Pennsylvania GL is available in my four articles about those individual operating companies.]
About the end of that same year, 1955, Greyhound merged also the Central GL of New York (the CGL of New York) into the new second Eastern GL. [More about the CGL of New York is available in my article about the (main undenominated) Central GL, starting in the section entitled “The Fourth Central GL.”]
Thus ended the Capitol GL, the second Central GL, the New England GL, the Pennsylvania GL, and the CGL of New York, and thus began the second Eastern GL.
The renaming of the “Pennsy” GL as the second Eastern GL caused a small change in the side numbers (fleet numbers) of the coaches from the PennGL – the change in the prefix letter from P to E. That move freed the P (as a prefix letter), which Greyhound then reassigned to the Pacific GL, which had previously used the letter K. [E became the prefix letter for all the coaches assigned to the new EGL; it had previously been the letter for the New England GL.]
On 15 September 1960 The Greyhound Corporation bought back the 49-percent minority interest of the Richmond, Fredericksburg, and Potomac (RF&P) Railroad in the Richmond GL (RGL), then merged also the RGL into the new second Eastern GL. That minority interest was the last one that Greyhound rebought from any railway; after that no longer did any railway own a piece of the Dog. [More about the Richmond GL is available in my article about the RGL.]
Thus ended the Richmond GL.
[The partial ownership of the RGL by the RF&P Railroad is the reason for which the RGL did not become merged into the Eastern Division (or into the Southern Division) until 1960.]
Western Division (WGL)
On 01 June 1957 the parent Greyhound firm renamed the Pacific GL (PGL or PacGL) as the Western Division of The Greyhound Corporation, called also the second Western GL (WGL).
Then Greyhound merged into the new WGL not only the Northwest GL but also the route segment [from the Northland GL (NGL)] between Salt Lake City, Utah, and Rock Springs, Wyoming. [That segment had previously been a part of the route of the Overland GL (OGL) between Chicago, Illinois, and Salt Lake City via Omaha, Nebraska, and Cheyenne, Wyoming, and Greyhound on 01 August 1956 had merged the OGL into the NGL.]
Thus ended the Pacific GL and the Northwest GL, and thus began the second Western GL.
[More about the Pacific GL, the Northwest GL, the Northland GL, and the Overland GL will become available in my four forthcoming articles about those operating companies.]
Central Division (CGL)
On 01 August 1956 the parent Greyhound firm merged the Overland GL into the Northland GL (NGL), as mentioned in the previous subsection.
Thus ended the Overland GL.
Then in the next year, on 01 September 1957, Greyhound further merged the Great Lakes GL (GLGL) into the NGL, and it renamed the newly expanded NGL as the Central Division of The Greyhound Corporation, called also the Central GL (using the fifth of six instances of that name).
Thus ended the Great Lakes GL and the Northland GL, and thus began the fifth Central GL.
After three more years, on 01 July 1960, the parent firm merged also the Southwestern GL into the fifth Central GL.
Thus ended the Southwestern GL.
For a short while Greyhound then referred to the “Central-Southwestern” Division and the “Central-Southwestern” GL, but it soon dropped the word Southwestern from that name.
[More about the Great Lakes GL is available in my present article about the GLGL, and more about the Overland GL, the Northland GL, and the Southwestern GL will be available in my three forthcoming articles about those other operating companies.]
Southern Division (SGL)
On 01 October 1954 The Greyhound Corporation merged two divisions, the Teche GL and the Dixie GL, into the Southeastern GL (SEGL).
Three years later, on 01 October 1957, Greyhound merged also the Florida GL, another division, into the SEGL.
After three more years, on 01 November 1960, in yet another round of consolidation, Greyhound further merged the Southeastern GL with – not into but rather with – the Atlantic GL, thus forming the last of four huge new divisions, the Southern Division of The Greyhound Corporation, known also as the Southern GL (SGL).
[More about the Teche GL, the Dixie GL, the Southeastern GL, the Florida GL, and the Atlantic GL is available in my five articles about those individual companies.]
Diversification and Expansion
During the 1960s and -70s The Greyhound Corporation underwent a huge (and nearly explosive) expansion, which went far beyond the transport industry. Greyhound bought a large number of preexisting subsidiaries (and formed several new ones) in a wide variety of specialties – motor-coach manufacturing, food service, airport services, computer leasing, aircraft leasing, financial services, hospitality services, exhibition and convention-support services, meat packing, consumer-goods manufacturing, short-term car renting, railway-equipment leasing, and even more.
Greyhound Lines, Inc. (GLI)
During that time of growth and diversification, Greyhound in 1963 formed the second Greyhound Lines, Inc. (the second GLI) and placed all its motor-coach operations into the new GLI (as a subsidiary of The Greyhound Corporation) – to separate and isolate its assets and operations in its own exclusive and dedicated corporation, just as every one of the other subsidiaries existed in its own separate and isolated corporation. [The creation of those separate corporations was absolutely correct, proper, and lawful, and it completely complied with widely recognized and accepted legal, ethical, management, and accounting principles.]
{Late in the 1920s there had been three Greyhound subsidiaries (not divisions) that used the name of the Greyhound Lines, Inc. (GLI) – that is, the GLI of Indiana, the GLI of Ohio, and the GLI of Delaware. Those three firms are sometimes known collectively as the first GLI (or the first GLIs in the plural). [The GLI of Indiana in 1927 became the first business unit of the growing Greyhound empire to make a public use of the name of the Greyhound Lines; in -34 the GLI of Indiana became renamed as the Pennsylvania GL of Indiana (PGL of Indiana), which about -53 became merged into the main undenominated PennsylvaniaGL, which in -54 became renamed as the second Eastern GL.] More about those three early GLI subsidiaries is available in my article about the Central GL, starting in the section entitled “The GLI of Indiana.”}
Greyhound Lines East (GLE)
and Greyhound Lines West (GLW)
Later, about 1969, Greyhound (that is, the GLI) reorganized again, into just two humongous divisions, named as the Greyhound Lines East (GLE) and the Greyhound Lines West (GLW), divided at the Mississippi River.
Greyhound Lines (GL)
Even later, about 1975, the GLI eliminated those two divisions, thus leaving a single gargantuan undivided nationwide empire, known simply as the Greyhound Lines (GL), and likewise an undivided nationwide fleet and an undivided management and administrative organization.
Changes in Leadership at the Top
Before WW2
Carl Eric Wickman, an immigrant from Sweden, was the principal founder of what later became the Greyhound Lines. He started hauling fare-paying riders in 1914 in Hibbing, Minnesota, using a 1913 Hupmobile open seven-passenger touring car, which he had not succeeded in selling to anyone. Thus he started – and continued to lead – the chain of events which eventually produced the Greyhound Lines.
Soon Wickman invited several other men into a partnership, which in 1915 they began to call the Hibbing Transportation Company; then in December 1915 Wickman and his partners incorporated their firm as the Mesaba Transportation Company.
Wickman and his associates later formed more corporations – the Mesaba Motors Company (in 1920), Northland Transportation Company (in 1924), Automotive Investments, Inc. (in 1925), Motor Transit Corporation (in 1926), and Northland Greyhound Lines (in 1929).
On 05 February 1930 the Motor Transit Corporation became renamed as The Greyhound Corporation, and Wickman continued as its president.
In 1935 The Greyhound Corporation became listed for trade on the New York Stock Exchange (the “big board”).
After WW2
On 25 May 1946 the board of directors of The Greyhound Corporation promoted Wickman to the chairmanship of the board, and it appointed Orville Swan “Sven” Caesar, who had previously served as the longtime executive vice president (EVP), to succeed Wickman as the president of the corporation.
Caesar, after nearly 40 years in the bus business, including 30 years as Wickman’s right-hand man, decided in 1955 to retire from the presidency; the board of directors honored his request.
On 01 January 1956 Arthur Genet became installed as the president of The Greyhound Corporation, and Caesar became promoted to the chairmanship of the board. Thus Genet, as the third president, became the first one who was an outsider – the first person who had not come up through the ranks of Greyhound or any other bus company.
Genet had most recently worked as the VP in charge of traffic for the Chesapeake and Ohio (C&O) Railway; he may (or may not) have done a good job for C&O, but overall he definitely did not do a good job for Greyhound.
Genet in 1956 started what he called a “personnel-development” program, which required every management employee of The Greyhound Corporation to submit to psychological tests, educational tests, physical-fitness tests, and other tests – in a bizarre and stupefying attempt to measure the capabilities of every manager (except Genet himself) on the payroll. One result was that Greyhound fired 258 of the most experienced and best qualified people in the company – because they had failed to meet the academic and intellectual demands of the tests. [W.E. “Bill” Jones, a longtime official of the Southeastern GL (and a friend of my father), soon quietly rehired many of those who had become fired from the SEGL.] Another result was that Ralph Bogan, the executive vice president and a director of The Greyhound Corporation (and one of the early associates of Wickman in Hibbing), resigned in disgust after 42 years as a major figure at Greyhound and its predecessor firms.
Then in 1957 Genet started another major and stupendous project – another disastrous one, which nearly drove Greyhound into bankruptcy – a chain of 122 car-rental agencies in Greyhound stations in major cities. The plan was ill-conceived and poorly executed – with untrained and inexperienced workers and without security controls. The losses quickly became monumental. In July 1958 the board of directors allowed Genet to resign (after a reign of only two and a half years).
Frederick “Fred” Ackerman in August 1958 became the next president. He was a 32-year veteran of the bus business. He had started as an accountant and a protégé of the famed Buck Travis, who took a large part in the sequence of events which led to the creation of the Pacific GL, which in 1957 became renamed as the second Western GL. For 12 years (since 1946) he had served as the president of the PacGL (and then of the WGL).
Ackerman promptly steered Greyhound back onto the right road.
As the chairman (since 1961) as well as the president, in 1962 he also started the diversification of Greyhound. His first purchase was the Boothe Leasing Corporation, which owned and leased railway freight cars and locomotives. His second step was the creation of the Greyhound Leasing Corporation, which began to buy commercial aircraft and to lease them to airlines. Soon he formed also the Greyhound Computer Corporation, which bought mainframe computers and leased them. And the growth and success continued exponentially ….
In November 1965 Ackerman, at age 70, moved back to his hometown, San Francisco, California, and continued as the chairman of the board, and Gerald Trautman succeeded him as the president. Trautman had served for the previous 20 years as Ackerman’s personal lawyer and as a lawyer for the Pacific GL (and the second Western GL).
In 1969 Ackerman, at age 74, resigned from his position as the chairman of the board; the board kept Trautman as the president and further elected him to the chairmanship of not only the board but also of the executive committee of the board.
In 1982 John Teets succeeded Trautman as the chairman of the board of The Greyhound Corporation. Teets had absolutely no experience in managing a bus operation of any type. Instead he had twice worked in food-service management for Greyhound subsidiaries (1964-68 and 1976-82).
Sadly and regrettably, Teets was one of two Greyhound senior executives most strongly disliked and even despised by Greyhound drivers and other employees. He held drivers and others in scorn, disdain, and extremely low regard, and he went to great lengths to ensure that his subordinates understood that he did. Of course, the drivers and other workers passionately returned the favor. [The other strongly disliked and despised Greyhound senior executive was “Uncle Fred” Currey (described below — in two sections — here and here — especially in this paragraph).]
In 1987, under Teets as the chairman, The Greyhound Corporation sold the second GLI to the GLI Holding Company, of which Currey was the president.
From Chicago to Phoenix
In 1971 The Greyhound Corporation moved its headquarters from Chicago to an impressive brand-new 20-story building in Phoenix, Arizona (the Greyhound Tower, which the Del Webb organization had just built).
That move of the corporate headquarters from Chicago to Phoenix apparently took place (in part at least) to satisfy a whim of Gerald Trautman, a lawyer who in 1965 had become installed as the president and CEO (and later as the chairman of the board) of the parent Greyhound firm, The Greyhound Corporation, so that he could have shorter flights for his commute to and from his main home, in San Francisco, California – and because he had previously bought a second home in Scottsdale, Arizona, in the burbs of Phoenix. [Before the move of the headquarters from Chicago to Phoenix, Trautman had maintained also a satellite office inside the Greyhound station in Phoenix in addition to his usual main office in Chicago.] There were good reasons to move from downtown Chicago to a better and more satisfactory place for the corporate headquarters, and there were likewise good reasons to move outside “Chicagoland” (the area of metro Chicago). And Phoenix was on a short list of cities under consideration. But it appears that Trautman, who was and still is well known for his strong will and his absolute demands for immediate and unquestioning compliance and obedience, used his influence to determine the choice of Phoenix.
Why Phoenix? In terms of the Greyhound route network and passenger-traffic patterns, Phoenix was and is in the backwater of Greyhound activity – on only one major Greyhound route – along I-10, between Southern California and the Southeast. Why not one of the outer suburbs or towns around Chicago – or somewhere else near the center of Greyhound activity – Saint Louis, Indianapolis, Cincinnati, Memphis, Nashville, Atlanta, Kansas City, Omaha, or Dallas? [Now the home office of the GLI is in Dallas – but that’s because Fred Currey lived in Dallas.]
Moore, Currey, Kerrigan, and Currey Again
in Charge of Continental Trailways and TWI
Fred Currey, as a new graduate of the University of Chattanooga, served several years (starting in 1952) on active duty as a fighter pilot in the US Naval Reserve; afterward, with the help of an uncle (for whom he had worked in finance for a while), he got his first job in the motor-coach business – as the financial adviser to M.E. Moore, the founder and president of the Continental Trailways.
The uncle, Brownlee Currey Sr., of Nashville, Tennessee, twice (through his Equitable Securities Corporation and his Beneficial Finance Company) provided much of the funding to Moore for two large projects – his purchase (in 1943) of the Bowen Motor Coaches (the Bowen Trailways) and his purchase (in -48) of the Dixie-Sunshine Coaches (the Dixie-Sunshine Trailways) and the huge Santa Fe Trail Transportation Company (the Santa Fe Trailways).
In 1969 the Holiday Inns of America (HIA), based in Memphis, Tennessee, bought the Transcontinental Bus System, which used the brand name, service name, or trade name of the Continental Trailways (CT). The HIA allowed Moore to remain as the president of the CT, and Fred Currey continued as the executive assistant to Moore. Currey also became the representative of Moore with the HIA.
However, by 1975 the executives in charge of the HIA had become displeased with Moore and his management style, and Currey (by questionable means) succeeded Moore (whom the HIA had fired) as the president of the Continental Trailways.
Then in 1979 James Kerrigan, whom Gerald Trautman (as the chairman of the board of Greyhound) had fired from the presidency, persuaded Henry Lea Hillman Sr., said to be the richest person in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, to buy the Continental Trailways for Kerrigan. Thus Hillman bought the CT, fired Currey as the president of the CT, and hired Kerrigan as the president. Kerrigan soon renamed the CT as the Trailways, Inc. (the TWI).
Unfortunately, Kerrigan did no better at the TWI than Currey had done at the Continental Trailways. [Several insiders have suggested that Kerrigan spent too little effort on leading TWI and too much effort on trying to get even with Greyhound and Trautman.]
Before long Hillman became ready to sell the TWI, cut his losses, and get rid of the mess.
In 1987 Currey’s GLI Holding Company bought the TWI; then Currey fired Kerrigan and merged the TWI into his GLI.
GLI Holding Company
In 1987 The Greyhound Corporation, the original Greyhound firm, which had become widely diversified far beyond transportation, sold its entire highway-coach operating subsidiary (its core bus business, known as the Greyhound Lines, Inc., the second GLI) to a brand-new corporation (created specifically to buy the GLI), named as the GLI Holding Company and based in Dallas, Texas. The buyer was a separate, independent, unrelated firm, which was a “highly leveraged” one (that is, a heavily indebted one), a property of a group of three private investors under the promotion of Frederick Giddings “Fred” Currey, a former executive of the Continental Trailways (later renamed as the Trailways, Inc., the TWI, also based in Dallas), which was by far the largest member company in the Trailways association (then named as the National Trailways Bus System, now named as the Trailways Transportation System). The two other investors of the GLI Holding Company were Craig Lentzsch (a finance guy) and Anthony Lannie (a lawyer), each of whom later took a turn as the president of the GLI (after Frank Schmieder, who had followed Currey). [More about the background of Fred Currey and an uncle is available in the section about the Southern Coach Lines in my article entitled “Growing Up at Greyhound” (which is also a chapter in my autobiography).]
Later in 1987 (after buying the GLI from The Greyhound Corporation), the GLI Holding Company, the new firm based in Dallas, further bought the Trailways, Inc. (the TWI), its largest rival, and merged it into the GLI, thus instantly removing most of its competition – with the approval, connivance, and blind and unquestioning coöperation of the federal government.
Currey and his gang then completely ruined both Greyhound and Trailways (not just the TWI but rather the entire National Trailways system, including the TWI).
In 1990 the lenders and the other investors of the GLI Holding Company ousted Currey as the president and chief executive officer (CEO) of the GLI after the GLI went into bankruptcy.
[Early in 1990 (and even earlier), during the ill-fated negotiations leading to the strike by the Greyhound drivers, Fred Currey pulled several stunts which he had apparently intended to agitate and antagonize the drivers and to cause or encourage them to strike. In short, he played them as fools, and the union leaders walked right into his trap. He had wanted a strike so that he could bust the union, and the union leaders wanted a strike so that they could bust the company, so they had a strike. Currey had created a war chest of funds to enable him and the company to survive a strike for a while; however, he had badly miscalculated the length of the strike and its cost. One of his early moves to prepare for a strike was that he granted full seniority to the Trailways drivers when he placed them on the Greyhound payroll and the seniority list (after the GLI bought the TWI) – thus planting a seed for dissension between blue (Greyhound) drivers and red (former-Trailways) drivers – and thus fostering the loyalty of the former-Trailways drivers toward him in the event of a strike – and it worked, for most or many former-Trailways drivers soon returned to work despite the strike. Again, Currey played the drivers as fools, and they walked right into his trap. Then both the union and the company lost – badly and terribly – as did the traveling public.]
On a Downgrade
The GLI has since continued to experience difficulties and lackluster performance under a succession of new owners and new executives while continuing to lower the level of its service. The reductions consist of hauling fewer passengers aboard fewer coaches on fewer trips along fewer routes with fewer stops in fewer communities in fewer states, doing so on fewer days (that is, increasingly operating some trips fewer than seven days per week), and using fewer through-coaches, thus requiring passengers to make more transfers (from one coach to another).
After the sale of the GLI (the sale in 1987 to the GLI Holding Company), The Greyhound Corporation, the parent Greyhound firm, changed its name to the Greyhound-Dial Corporation (in 1990), then the Dial Corporation (in -91), then the Viad Corporation (in -96). [The contrived name Viad appears to be a curious respelling of the former name Dial – if one scrambles the letters I, A, and D, then turns the V upside down and regards it as the Greek letter lambda – Λ – that is, the Greek equivalent of the Roman or Latin letter L (DIAL –> DIAΛ –> DIAV –> VIAD).]
The website of the Viad Corporation (http://www.viad.com) in May 2022 makes no mention of its corporate history or its past relationship with Greyhound – that is, its origin as The Greyhound Corporation – as though to ignore or dismiss Greyhound or to escape from it.
However, one of the two present business units of the Viad Corporation is the GES Exhibition Services, Inc., which began in 1963 as the Greyhound Exhibition Services (GES), Inc., and as a subsidiary of The Greyhound Corporation. [One day, about 1999, while my wife (Marda) and I happened to be in a backstage work area behind the main room of a convention center in Las Vegas, Nevada, we saw an old and scarred forklift truck, which was still painted in Greyhound blue, and which bore the letters GES and a painted white Greyhound dog, apparently still in use by Viad’s GES.]
Latest Moves
In March 1999 Laidlaw International, Inc., an operator of trash trucks and school buses, based in Naperville, Illinois, bought the GLI for about 470 million dollars; in February 2007 the FirstGroup, a British multinational transport group, based in Aberdeen, Scotland, bought Laidlaw International, which still owned the GLI, including its real estate; in May 2019 the FirstGroup publicly announced that it had begun to invite offers for the GLI.
Two and a half years later, on 21 October 2021, FlixMobility, GmbH, based in München (Munich), in Germany, announced that it had bought the Greyhound Lines, Inc., the GLI, from the FirstGroup.
[GmbH is the German abbreviation of the German expression Gesellschaft mit beschränkter Haftung, which literally means “company with limited liability.” Such a firm in Germany is similar to a limited-liability company (LLC) in the US – similar (but not identical) to a corporation.]
The reported price of the recent sale is a total of the equivalent of about 78 million dollars (a cash down payment of 46 million plus future installment payments of 32 million plus interest at 5 percent per year. That sum is about 16.6 percent – about one-sixth – of what Laidlaw paid for the GLI in 1999. However, the sale from the FirstGroup to FlixMobility does not include the GLI real estate (mostly some Greyhound stations and garages), which the FirstGroup has kept (although the FirstGroup had already sold much of the GLI real-estate property during its ownership of the GLI, during 2007-21). [Now the FirstGroup can charge rent for the use of the Greyhound facilities by FlixBus or the GLI.]
FlixMobility, GmbH, is a German firm, based in München (Munich), in Germany, that mainly offers intercity motor-coach service in Europe, England, Brazil, and the USA. It came into existence in 2011, and it started operating in 2013 (in Bavaria, based in München, in the southeast of Germany). It also owns and operates FlixCar and FlixTrain (both in Germany).
FlixMobility, the parent Flix firm (in Germany), in July 2022 announced its launch of a new intermediate management organization — called Flix North America — based in Dallas, Texas — to oversee the operation of both FlixBus USA and the Greyhound Lines, Inc. The chief executive of the new firm (Flix North America) is Kadir “Kai” Boysan, a recent Turkish immigrant.
FlixMobility and FlixBus USA
FlixMobility entered the US in 2018 by founding FlixBus USA, which it based in Los Angeles, California. FlixBus here started by running on the West Coast, mostly in Southern California. Then in 2019 it spread to Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama, and it continued eastwardly to Florida, the Southeast, the East Coast, the Northeast, and the Midwest. FlixBus USA now uses a pair of dual home offices, in Los Angeles and New York City.
In 2022 FlixBus operates in seven regions:
on the West Coast and in the Southwest and the Far West;
on the Gulf Coast and in Texas;
in Georgia and Florida;
in a corridor between Atlanta and New York City;
in parts of New England;
in parts of Upstate New York and to Toronto, Ontario, Canada;
and on three routes based in Chicago.
Although FlixBus runs in those separated areas spread across the nation, it does not connect any of those regions with one another except in Atlanta.
Here’s an overview of the FlixBus routes in the US in 2022:in the Pacific Northwest: connecting Seattle to the east with Spokane and to the south with Tacoma, Olympia, Portland, and Eugene;
in the Pacific Northwest: connecting Seattle to the east with Spokane and to the south with Tacoma, Olympia, Portland, and Eugene;
on the West Coast: connecting San Francisco with Reno, with Las Vegas (via Bakersfield), and with Los Angeles;
in Southern California: connecting Los Angeles with San Francisco, with Las Vegas, and with Phoenix and El Paso;
in the Southwest: connecting Phoenix with Flagstaff, with Las Vegas, with Los Angeles, and with Tucson and El Paso;
in the Far West: connecting Salt Lake City to the north with Rexburg via Pocatello and Idaho Falls; and to the south-southwest with Las Vegas via Cedar City and Saint George;
in Texas: connecting Dallas with Denton, with Fort Worth, and with Austin and San Antonio; connecting Dallas and Fort Worth with Houston; and connecting Houston with Austin;
along the Gulf Coast: between Houston and Mobile via Beaumont, Baton Rouge, New Orleans, and Biloxi;
in Florida: connecting Miami with Key West; with Fort Myers, Sarasota, and Tampa; with Fort Lauderdale, West Palm Beach, Fort Pierce, Orlando, and Gainesville; and connecting Tampa with Lakeland and Orlando;
in Georgia and Florida: between Atlanta and Orlando via Macon, Valdosta, Gainesville, and Ocala;
in the Southeast and along the East Coast: in a corridor between Atlanta and New York City via Charlotte, Greensboro, Durham, Richmond, Washington (DC), and Baltimore;
in New England: between New York City and Portland, Maine, via New Haven, Hartford, Providence, Boston, and Portsmouth;
in Upstate New York: between Albany and Utica; between Albany and Burlington, Vermont; between New York City and Ithaca via Scranton and Binghamton; and between New York City and Niagara Falls via Scranton, Binghamton, Syracuse, Rochester, and Buffalo – and onward to Toronto;
in the Midwest: between Chicago and Detroit via Kalamazoo and Ann Arbor; between Chicago and Columbus, Ohio, via Lafayette, Indianapolis, and Dayton; and between Chicago and Minneapolis via Milwaukee, Madison, Wisconsin Dells, Eau Claire, and Saint Paul.
Flixbus has recently begun to run its first international route in the USA – between New York City and Toronto, Ontario, Canada, via Scranton, Binghamton, Syracuse, Rochester, Buffalo, Niagara Falls, Saint Catherine’s, and Missisauga (each of the last two also in Ontario, in Canada).
Further, Flixbus has even more recently begun to run its second international route in the USA – between Seattle and Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, via Everett and Bellingham, both in Washington.
Of course, most of those routes include also limited numbers of other selected intermediate towns and cities.
Betrayal in the Northwest
Sadly and regrettably, in 2004, during a time of incompetent and unconscionable leadership at the top of the Greyhound Lines, Inc. (GLI), while Laidlaw International (an operator of trash trucks and school buses) owned the GLI, the formerly great and formerly respected carrier abandoned its through-route between Seattle and Minneapolis – that is, it abandoned the uncounted riders who had depended on Greyhound. For many years Greyhound previously had consistently run three through-coaches every day in each direction between Seattle and Chicago via Minneapolis, then suddenly Greyhound withdrew from that market. Now in 2022 Greyhound offers one daily trip in each direction between Seattle and Spokane, and the Jefferson Lines provides one daily connecting trip in each direction between Spokane and Minneapolis. Northwestern Trailways also offers one daily trip in each direction between Seattle and Spokane.
Lo, how the mighty has fallen!
Customer Disservice in Knoxville
The incompetents now in charge of the Greyhound Lines, Inc., have recently pulled another incredibly dumb and irresponsible stunt that, sadly and regrettably, is typical of their clown show.
GLI sold its longtime station in downtown Knoxville, Tennessee, for about 1.4 million dollars – to raise some cash with which to pay some debts.
Now the Greyhound stop in Knoxville (one of the four major cities of Tennessee) is an unattended curbside stop at a Marathon C store with fuel pumps on North Cherry Street, just off I-40, about three miles northeast of downtown – without seating, without security, without an indoor waiting room, without anyone to sell tickets, without anyone to answer questions or give advice, and without anyone to check or handle baggage or package express or to give any other help.
That situation is so bad, unsafe, and objectionable that the mayor of Knoxville has contacted the clowns in charge of the GLI in an attempt to persuade them to correct their ill-advised actions and to restore safe and satisfactory service to the Greyhound riders in Knoxville.
The service to and from Knoxville – in terms of scheduled trips to and from other cities – is incredibly poor and inadequate.
Greyhound has treated its passengers so badly – and has lost so many of them – and has eliminated so many trips – that it now operates these tiny numbers of coaches through Knoxville:
absolutely no coach any longer directly to (or from) Asheville or any other point in North Carolina;
only one coach daily to (or from) Cincinnati;
only one coach daily to (or from) Chattanooga;
only two coaches daily to (or from) Nashville;
only two coaches daily to (or from) Washington, DC (but only with transfers in Richmond, Virginia).
And that’s just the scheduled coaches – the scheduled ones – which may or may not run on time or run at all – whereas frequent news reports tell about Greyhound coaches breaking down en route, coaches running many hours behind schedule, coaches lost off their routes (because of untrained and unqualified drivers who become lost), or coaches running not at all (because of the failure of the company to provide coaches or drivers on time).
Similar Disservice in Nashville
Further, Greyhound now likewise operates these tiny numbers of coaches through Nashville, Tennessee – my hometown, where my father drove for Greyhound for 37 years:
absolutely no coach any longer to (or from) Florence, Alabama;
only one nonstop coach daily to (or from) Atlanta;
only one coach daily to (or from) Birmingham;
only one coach daily to (or from) Saint Louis via Evansville;
only one coach daily to (or from) Saint Louis via Paducah;
only two coaches daily to (or from) Knoxville;
only three coaches daily to (or from) Memphis;
only three coaches daily to (or from) Chattanooga;
only five coaches daily to (or from) Louisville (three of which continue to Chicago, one to Detroit, and one to Cleveland).
Shameful is one descriptive word for that level of service, especially in contrast with the Greyhound activity through Nashville during previous years and decades.
Good Service in Nashville
While Greyhound Was Still Greyhound
On the other hand, even as late as 1989, before the GLI began to impose its drastic cuts in its service, Greyhound still operated these scheduled trips through Nashville:
one coach daily to (or from) Atlanta via Huntsville;
one coach daily to (or from) Florence and onward to Birmingham;
one coach daily to (or from) Saint Louis via Paducah;
four coaches daily to (or from) Saint Louis via Evansville;
six coaches daily to (or from) Knoxville (one of which continued to Philadelphia, two to Washington, and three to New York City);
seven coaches daily to (or from) Chattanooga and Atlanta (one of which continued to Jacksonville, one to Tallahassee, one to Saint Petersburg, one to Orlando, and three to Miami);
nine coaches daily to (or from) Birmingham (one of which continued to Pensacola, one to Jacksonville, one to Saint Petersburg, one to Miami, and two to New Orleans);
eight coaches daily to (or from) Memphis (one of which continued to Dallas, one to El Paso, one to San Francisco, and four to Los Angeles;
12 coaches daily to (or from) Louisville (three of which continued to Detroit, three to Cleveland, and six to Chicago).
Further, during the 1960s through the -80s, scheduled services included (at various times) long-distance through-coaches (through Nashville) between Chicago and Miami, between Saint Louis and Miami, between Denver and Saint Petersburg, between Detroit and New Orleans, between Chicago and Mobile, between Detroit and Mobile, between Detroit and Saint Petersburg, between Cleveland and Memphis, between Cleveland and New Orleans, between New York City and San Francisco, between New York City and Los Angeles, between Nashville and Salt Lake City, and between Memphis and Norfolk.
Greyhound Lines and FlixBus USA
Now that FlixMobility (the parent firm of FlixBus USA) owns also the Greyhound Lines, Inc., what does the future hold for the GLI? Coöperation or coördination between GLI and FlixBus? A merger (of one sort or another) between the two of them? A resurrection, improvement, or rebuilding of the GLI? Another sale of the GLI? Further bleeding of the GLI by sales of even more GLI assets? Allowing the GLI to continue to run itself into the ground? A general scrapping of the GLI?
Who knows? I don’t. My crystal ball does not work well enough to enable me to see that.
The future will tell us all.
Very Special Articles
Please check also my other very special cornerstone articles at this website:
“Northland Greyhound Lines” (NGL): It tells not only the history of the NGL but also the origin and the early years of the overall Greyhound Lines, starting in 1914 in Hibbing, Minnesota. [The people and the events involved in the early part of the story of the NGL are the same people and events involved also in the origin and the early development of the larger Greyhound empire (including its many divisions and subsidiaries).]
“The Scenicruiser”: It covers the background, conception, evolution, development, design, creation, production, and operation of the GM PD-4501, the famous, beloved, unmatched, and iconic Scenicruiser (an exclusive coach for Greyhound alone, which served in the fleet from 1954 until about 1975).
“Growing Up at Greyhound”: It tells about my growing up at Greyhound — as the title says — while my father worked as a longtime (37-year) coach operator for the Greyhound Lines, starting in 1940.
Related Articles
Please see also my articles about the Atlantic Greyhound Lines, the Capitol Greyhound Lines, the Central Greyhound Lines, the Dixie Greyhound Lines, the Florida Greyhound Lines, the Great Lakes Greyhound Lines, the Illinois Greyhound Lines, the New England Greyhound Lines, the Northland Greyhound Lines, the Northwest Greyhound Lines, the Ohio Greyhound Lines, the Overland Greyhound Lines, the Pacific Greyhound Lines, the Pennsylvania Greyhound Lines, the Pickwick-Greyhound Lines, the Richmond Greyhound Lines, the Southeastern Greyhound Lines, the Southwestern Greyhound Lines, the Teche Greyhound Lines, the Valley Greyhound Lines, The Greyhound Corporation, and the Tennessee Coach Company.
Bibliography
Backfire, the corporate newspaper for the Southeastern Greyhound Lines, all issues, from January 1938 through February 1956.
Genet, Arthur, Profile of Greyhound: The Greyhound Corporation. New York City: The Newcomen Society in North America, 1958. No ISBN (because of the age of the booklet).
Hixson, Kenneth, Pick of the Litter. Lexington: Centerville Book Company, 2001. ISBN 0-87642-016-1.
Jackson, Carlton, Hounds of the Road. Dubuque: Kendall Hunt Publishing Company, 1984. ISBN 0-87972-207-3.
Jon’s Trailways History Corner, an online Trailways history by Jan Hobijn (known also as Jon Hobein) at http://cw42.tripod.com/Jon.html.
Meier, Albert, and John Hoschek, Over the Road. Upper Montclair: Motor Bus Society, 1975. No ISBN (because of the age of the book).
Motor Coach Age, ISSN 0739-117X, a publication of the Motor Bus Society, various issues, especially these:
Fall 1960;
April 1965;
February 1966;
December 1967;
April 1973;
December 1978;
September 1979;
October 1979;
July 1984;
September 1985;
August 1987;
July-August 1990;
March-April 1991;
January-February 1992;
March-April 1993;
April-June 1995;
October-December 1995;
October-December 1996;
October-December 1997;
October-December 1998;
October-December 1999.
Rushing, Duncan Bryant, Wheels, Water, Words, Wings, and Engines. New Albany: Fidelity Publishers, forthcoming.
Schisgall, Oscar, The Greyhound Story. Chicago: J.G. Ferguson Publishing Company, 1985. ISBN 0-385-19690-3.
Online schedules and historical data at https://www.greyhound.com.
Online schedules and other data at https://www.flixbus.com.
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Posted at 19:12 EDT, Thursday, 02 June 2022.