GW McLintock

Germany’s FlixMobility acquires Greyhound Lines, the iconic U.S. bus company, in $78M deal

https://techcrunch.com/2021/10/21/ge...y-in-78m-deal/

Press release: https://www.flixbus.com/greyhound
-J.

jebr

From what I've gathered, it sounds like they're not buying the stations/station infrastructure as part of the deal. This generally matches their curbside pickup style of operation, though there'll certainly be a few people who will be frustrated with the lack of a ticket counter to purchase tickets or having a place to wait indoors during a layover.

Overall, though, I think this is nearly the best-case scenario for Greyhound and keeping as much of their network alive as possible. There's certainly going to be changes and transition pains, but at least it's been purchased by a company that appears to want to run buses (and other ground transportation - I believe they have a small rail network in Europe) and appears to have ambitions to grow its relevance within the US. Greyhound hasn't had that ambition recently, and I could've easily seen it either discontinued entirely or bought by a firm who had little desire to actually run a bus company.

GW McLintock

I'm interested to see how this plays out. FlixBus AFAIK does not own or operate any of their own buses here in the USA; instead they act as a booking agent and the routes themselves are operated by other (local) carriers. Flix uses several companies here in NYC, though the few times I have taken them it was operated by Eastern or one other company.

-J.

guv1976

Their business model seems to be similar to that of OurBus, which also does not operate any of their own buses. Both companies now serve the Ithaca-Manhattan route. OurBus goes to the GWB Bus Terminal; FlixBus (operated by Eastern on this route) goes to West 31st and Eighth Avenue -- half a block from my favorite sliceria, New York Pizza Suprema.

GW McLintock

I know Greyhound has often contracted out to Trailways companies as well as others like Peter Pan (though them no more). But Greyhound has an immense fleet of MCIs and Prevosts, while something like >80% of FlixBus on the east coast are Van Hools (might be MCI Js on the west coast).

-J.

GW McLintock

As of last week, Greyhound is now showing FlixBus routes and fares on their booking engine. If you click on one, it redirects you to the FlixBus site.

Between NYC and Philadelphia, FlixBus is consistently cheaper.

-J.

EmailKid

Greyhound has showed that on Dallas - Houston route at least since May when I looked at it first.

And yes, FlixBus is consistently cheaper on this route, and yes there is a redirect from Grehound to FlixBus.