When Spirit Airlines shut down this week, something unexpected happened. Search traffic for Greyhound bus tickets jumped 20% compared to the same period last year. Routes that once competed directly with Spirit flights saw passenger numbers climb 30%. The low-cost carrier that once marketed itself as "the Greyhound of the skies" has inadvertently handed America's most despised transit option a lifeline.
For decades, Greyhound has meant one thing to most Americans: abandoning dignity for affordability. Broken toilets, mysterious delays, strangers using your shoulder as a pillow, and staff that blame passengers for wanting basic information. Miles Taylor, a 26-year-old MBTA scheduler in Boston who runs a popular YouTube channel documenting his bus adventures, describes the experience bluntly. "It's a grueling experience," he said. "You're not treated very well. Everyone is yelling at you the entire time." He has taken two cross-country Greyhound trips, including a 104-hour Boston to Seattle marathon that he willingly endured for content.
Yet for millions of Americans without cars or driver's licenses, buses remain the only option. The Department of Transportation reports that licensed 16-year-olds have dropped 27% since 2000, shrinking the pool of potential car owners. Airlines have raised prices roughly 27% this year, while bus tickets climbed just 4%. The math is simple: a $53 bus ticket versus a $500 flight ticket appeals to a lot of broke people.
Researchers predict bus ridership will grow 4% this year, outpacing airline industry forecasts. Kate Thompson, a vice-president at travel search platform Wanderu, sees the economics as the primary driver. "The price of flights has increased year-to-date roughly 27%, whereas bus and train tickets have only increased around 4%," she explained. "People are going to gravitate toward the average bus ticket price of $53 versus a $500 plane ticket."
The real question is whether Greyhound can actually improve the experience rather than just capture the captive audience. After filing for bankruptcy twice in the early 2000s, the company was bought by German parent Flix in 2021. In the past two years, Greyhound has retired older vehicles and added new buses to the fleet, cutting the average age of its vehicles in half. Kai Boysan, CEO of Flix North America, stated in a message that the company has "invested significantly in modernizing the bus travel experience," adding "hundreds" of new buses with free wifi, power outlets, and comfortable seating.
Online reviews suggest the rollout is uneven. Greyhound carries a 1.3 out of five-star rating on both TripAdvisor and Yelp. "Our bus broke down on the highway in nearly 90-degree heat, and we were left sitting inside with little to no ventilation for hours," one traveler wrote. Another complained of being "left in the middle of nowhere" while traveling from Virginia to Michigan. A third simply stated: "Greyhound should be paying their customers to ride."
High-profile violence also shadows the brand. In 2001, a man slashed a driver's throat and drove a commandeered bus into traffic, killing seven people. In 2008, a passenger was beheaded by another rider on a Canadian Greyhound route. More recently, a Greyhound worker was stabbed at the Port Authority in New York. These incidents are statistically rare but have embedded themselves in the public consciousness.
Some companies have tried offering the anti-Greyhound experience. Napaway ran a luxury sleeper coach service between Washington DC and Nashville before pausing indefinitely. The Jet offered complimentary hot towels, espresso martinis, and designer amenity kits before folding. Taylor, the bus enthusiast, sees the flaw in this approach. "I don't know if a luxury bus model really works in the US because folks who have the option to take something luxury just won't take a bus," he said.
Smaller regional carriers like Peter Pan, which operates primarily in the Northeast and has been family-owned for nearly a century, demonstrate that customer service improvements matter. When Taylor missed a connection on a recent 500-mile Provincetown to Washington DC trip, the company's customer service desk already had a replacement ticket ready. "When I got to the customer service desk, the worker handed me a new ticket on the next bus and said, 'You must be Miles.'" Taylor said. "Greyhound would never."
The American Bus Association reports that a "new trend" in coach design, called two-and-one seating, is gaining traction. One side of the bus features two seats while the other has just one, eliminating the forced intimacy of shared seating for solo travelers. "That's been a hugely popular change," said Fred Ferguson, the association's president. "It's given people more space and more room."
Cities are also stepping in. Philadelphia's Parking Authority spent $4 million renovating its bus terminal, which reopened in May. Chicago's city council is considering a vote to purchase and restore its Greyhound station. These grand terminals, once architectural statements with art deco interiors, had fallen into such disrepair that the work represents a meaningful symbol of renewed investment in intercity bus travel.
Greyhound's history was once romantic. The company started in 1914 as a seven-passenger car service shuttling Minnesota miners. By the 1930s, buses symbolized American freedom and adventure, with Clark Gable and Claudette Colbert falling in love on a Greyhound in Frank Capra's "It Happened One Night." During the civil rights movement, activists rode buses into the South to challenge segregation. Decades of deferred maintenance and cheap competition from airlines transformed buses from aspirational travel into survival transit.
Taylor sees bus advocacy as a progressive issue, aligned with efforts like New York mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani's campaign promise to make city buses fast and free. Simple improvements, he argues, would transform lives. "Making it better than this horrible, unbelievably terrible experience would go such a long way toward making people's lives a little bit easier," he said.
There is one genuine silver lining unique to Greyhound's misery. Taylor describes an unexpected camaraderie that develops among passengers trapped together by delays and dysfunction. He remembers a man in Baltimore who, during a major delay, suggested they steal the bus and drive to their destination themselves. "People just come up with their own jokes," Taylor said. "Even if you're never going to see the other people on the bus again, you just develop a kinship with each other over your mutual misery."
Author James Rodriguez: "Greyhound's sudden windfall from Spirit's collapse is like getting money from a relative nobody likes, but the company's ancient reputation problem isn't solved by a few new buses and wifi."
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