Bear Bites Dog

Every passenger who disembarked from Greyhound coach #1196 at Pacific Central yesterday at 6:00 PM (about 3 hours late) yesterday was quick to remark that they would never ride with Greyhound again.

Best case of "be careful what you wish for because you just might get it" in 2005: When we stopped in Kelowna, our bus was refueled, with passengers aboard, the motor running, and one wayward gentleman who was smoking a cigarette and flicking the ashes into a nearby puddle of rain and diesel fuel.

In addition to what would have been the abrupt end of this page (and Walnut Boat), the trip was marked by mechanical failures and near riots in Calgary (where I saw a woman tried to push through unassisted for her reserved seat with four pieces of luggage and her baby) and Salmon Arm, as Greyhound disregarded pre-paid seat reservations (including mine) and declined to inform passengers of such minute details as where exactly the bus would be stopping. If you live in the Kamloops area, don't ask anyone who usually doesn't drive how the holidays were, at least for a few weeks.

This page will concede that December 27 is usually one of the busiest travel days of the year if Greyhound will concede that paying regular drivers overtime to is a better way to deal with the holiday hordes than contracting out trips to companies who have little or no experience with public transportation. Also, this page will concede the lower flammability of Diesel fuel if Greyhound admits to the invention of the Public Address System.

Of course, my travels were on a well-traveled route between Calgary and Vancouver. Imagine what it was like for those on the roads less travelled...