Talk:Greyhound Lines/Archives/2014

Route articles?

Do we have articles about Greyhound routes? 92 (Greyhound Route) may be the first. Steven Walling • talk 19:17, 11 November 2013 (UTC)

Oh no! We don't need that. Secondarywaltz (talk) 20:08, 11 November 2013 (UTC)

Redirected to the list; no articles link to it. oknazevad (talk) 23:27, 27 January 2014 (UTC)

Passenger volume

It would be useful to have some information on passenger volume included, relative to airline and rail travel. --Blainster 15:16, 10 October 2005 (UTC)

I just added a statistic for 1934-1935 (the years in which bus travel surpassed train travel (by passengers), maybe Blainster could find some more?KevinCuddeback (talk) 21:22, 11 April 2014 (UTC)

Greyhound In Popular Culture

Shouldn't there be a section regarding Greyhound in popular culture? Greyhound as a subject or reference has appeared many times over in movies, songs, stories, history etc., but oddly none of that is mentioned in the article. For example, the action in Frank Capra's film, "It Happened One Night" mostly takes place on a Greyhound bus. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 172.190.4.176 (talk) 09:15, 13 February 2009 (UTC)

There once was a huge section concerning that topic. But it has been deleted due to wp:trivia.

This is the last version containing the section 'References in popular culture': //en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Greyhound_Lines&oldid=239926596 -- 82.83.81.58 (talk) 02:49, 21 February 2009 (UTC)

Avoiding the "trivia" angle, I put it back in (as 2 sentences) in the 1930s history section. Sources support the idea that it was a directly important event at a time of "brand building" for the company for two reasons: 1) it came in the "breakthrough" moment, (1934-1935) where bus travel doubled. 2) The company itself claimed (claims) it as a source of extra trip-making KevinCuddeback (talk) 05:19, 11 April 2014 (UTC)

Bias in Omission of Competitors?

in the "see also" section the article lists several other major bus lines that otherwise have no mention in the article, in particular "peter pan" which in addition to greyhound, have recently setup a joint venture called boltbus (why is there is a boltbus external link) in the main article???? boltbus was founded with the aim of directly competiting with the so-called chinatown buses and their lucrative markets of new york-boston-washington. this article has no mention of the chinatown competition.Lucky dog (talk) 00:52, 31 March 2008 (UTC)

"Chinatown" buses only compete against a fraction of Greyhound's network. The problem is not too big. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.80.210.43 (talk) 05:09, 23 April 2013 (UTC)

I have added a section on Chinatown bus lines to the article. They are significant given that a source says they cost Greyhound 60% of its market share in the Northeast as they caught on between 1997 and 2007. They also slashed fares by 50% vs Greyhound. They are arguably the turning point in the US Bus market: winning over young people, driving huge increases in ridership, igniting fare wars, and forcing Greyhound to respond with low prices of its own and more "express" buses.KevinCuddeback (talk) 18:28, 17 April 2014 (UTC)

Use in popular culture

I think it should be added to the "Use in popular culture" of the article that musician Emily Kinney mentions Greyhound Lines (whose iconic colour is blue) in her song, "Kids" ("A blue bus in the dark/A message in my ear/I'm pullin' on my jeans/And waitin' for you to get here...") since she's anxiously waiting in the lobby of a Greyhound bus station for someone while listening to the announcements over the P.A. system. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 216.114.127.69 (talk) 20:17, 22 June 2014 (UTC)

Too indirect of a reference to conclusively link it to Greyhound without a reference (see WP:OR). Plus it's a truly trivial mention, anyway, and we should be removing those, not adding them. oknazevad (talk) 22:16, 22 June 2014 (UTC)

I agree (from what I see here). I think it'd need to be a notable and direct(literal) mention. The lyric is indirect, and "blue" is not an established synonym/reference to Greyhound.KevinCuddeback (talk) 16:26, 23 June 2014 (UTC)

Overbooking Section (Sources Needed)

An anonymous user added a section today that "overbooking continues", which I'd ask for a source on except that the whole section is already an unsourced mess, and so a seasoned hand is needed to fix it. There did/does seem to be an overbooking problem as recent as January 2013:

CTV: Teen stranded after Greyhound oversells bus service.

At the same time, on this message board, a knowledgeable-sounding participant cites what appears to be some kind of official policy change that came along with detailed scheduled changes. The new "yield management" system (displacing old overbooking) seems to have been planned/contracted for in Jan-May 2013, and actually implemented in June 2014:

(May 2013) Bloomberg: Greyhound Taps Airline Pricing Models to Boost Profit

Greyhound Kills Overbooking, Expands Service, Introduces Yield Mgmt

KevinCuddeback (talk) 01:38, 1 July 2014 (UTC)

Two thoughts come to mind looking at that first source. Firstly, that it predates the more recent sources describing the switch in models, and even from before the model was apparently implemented, so as source indicating tht the old overbooking problem is still ongoing it is invalid. Makes a good source to indicate the old overbooking problem, though. Secondly, it's Canada, so it may not apply here at all. Greyhound Canada has it's own article, and it hard enough to keep the incidents section here free of incidents that happened in Canada; booking models and their issues are not any more valid material for the article on the US Greyhound Lines than a US incident would be in the Greyhound Canada article.

As for the second and third source, those are exactly the type we need for the section. That's what I was hoping to find when I tagged it, but I haven't had the opportunity to follow up. Thanks for finding those, hopefully the can be added properly. oknazevad (talk) 21:25, 1 July 2014 (UTC)