The Greyhound Bus

Recently, while travelling, I had an unfortunate incident with the GREYHOUND BUS LINES. While the cost of flying has been down this year and I have been privileged enough to fly a lot, while backpacking California, I decided to take the Greyhound Bus from LOS ANGELES to LAS VEGAS. Oh what a night.

Now in my life I have been lucky to do a lot of travelling around the U.S. I have traveled many different methods of travel, many different times and while I have had some really boring GREYHOUND BUS memories, I have also had some really cool ones, I figured, L.A. to NEVADA, no worries. THE NIGHT WAS HELL.

It was the night Michael Jackson died and there were helicopters looming over Hollywood. I had taken the RAPID bus up from Santa Monica with a buddy of mine to the GREYHOUND station in HOLLYWOOD. We were pretty tired (we had just gotten finished hiking the coast) Anyhow, we trekked through Hollywood, the only thing that was keeping us going was "Don't stop til ya get enough" blaring through every speaker in the city so we pushed onward, on no sleep, to the station on Cahuenga in Hollywood. We finally made it to the station to pick up our ticket, not caring that we had 2 hours to wait and we settled in.

The Greyhound Station in Hollywood is just a little tiny spot, but we settled in and made some friends. It seemed like everyone was going either to Vegas or through Vegas so we all had some things to talk about. 9 PM rolled around and the man who was running the station ushered us out, our bus was late, but he assured us another was coming and locked up. About 15 of us sat on the side of the Greyhound Station in Hollywood as it became dark. Horns were honking all around Hollywood in tribute to Michael as the clocked ticked on. No bus.

After a while waiting a bus did come, they told us that they had room for only 4 people and another bus would come. It was like a free for all as people fought to be the people on the bus. There were old ladies and young children ahead so we let 4 people go ahead while the rest of us waited for the next bus.

Another hour went by and homeless people began setting up their mats outside of the Greyhound Station. The people waiting with us became rather frantic and soon another bus came. This bus was heading North, I informed the driver that we were left there and had been sitting for 3 hours and the driver basically ignored all that I had to say. I asked for them please to contact the Downtown LA station, where we were heading to catch our bus to Vegas and they said they would.

As we waited on the curb next to the Greyhound Station, the clock began to approach midnight. Bums were sleeping all around us and getting drunk and a local club began parking their overspill into the Greyhound lot. A man came up and informed me what I already knew, that no bus was coming. 10 of us ranging from 6 to like 86 years of age were stranded in Hollywood at midnight and it was Greyhounds fault.

At first I wasn't super mad. I was convinced that I could get them to fix it all, this is America right. How wrong was I, this was L.A. I dialed up the Greyhound Hotline, not one but 4 times before I was actually given a number to the L.A. station, one of the busiest in America. AS I called the numbers that were given me, I realized that L.A. was just not answering. The clock approached 1 am when I finally decided to call our destination, Vegas, they answered on the first ring. I informed the man in Vegas of our problem, I told him there were old ladies and babies stuck here and that even though I knew I could take the REDLINE somewhere close to the LA station, I wasn't leaving these people. The Supervisor from Vegas tried to get through to LA and also could not get through. He informed me that this was a NON EMERGENCY/EMERGENCY and that I should call the Police as they could patch through to Greyhound and send us a bus.

After some hesitation, I dialed 311, not 911 the non-emergency line and they patched me through to LAPD. I informed dispatch the of the problem and let them know that it was GREYHOUND LAS VAGAS that said I should call and they promised to send an officer. That officer never came. Soon we decided to hop on the SUBWAY and head as close as we could get to DOWNTOWN LA GREYHOUND. After getting everyone else into a cab, I furiously began my march down to VINE to catch the train.

It's amazing how many people in LA don't know which stop is closest to the Greyhound Station. We finally got off when the police called my cell phone. He told me that he would get me to the station and then proceeded to give me walking directions through SKID ROW @ 3 AM. I already knew that! I thought they were gonna help us. It was about 10 blocks right through SKID ROW. I informed my pal that I would lead the way, (I knew it) and it might get a little crazy. As we walked down the urine scented, tent lined streets of SKID ROW nearing 4 am. I WAS FURIOUS.

Finally, after a long and crazy haul though one of the more dangerous areas of America, I wasn't scared, I was pissed. I walked into the station and there were people standing all around. All of the people who were waiting with us in Hollywood had arrived and the Greyhound employees disregarded us all. There was a bus leaving at 8 am and one at 2pm. They actually tried to tell us that we had to wait for the 2pm bus. NO WAY! I flipped out, this was their mistake there was no way that I was waiting when there was a bus to my destination in a few hours. I wanted compensation, they basically told me to screw.

So I slept, in the Greyhound Station in LA and I got on that damned 8 oclock bus!! But I will NEVER ride the Greyhound ANYWHERE NEAR Los Angeles again....I'll just stick to LAX, or maybe even PALM SPRINGS....SCREW LA and SCREW GREYHOUND!

thanks for listening.

~tilly