Travelling Greyhound in Canada
 

I was thinking of making a Greyhound trip (this'll be my first..) 5 hours worth, leaving from Grand Prairie.

Would be glad to hear if 5 hours on a Greyhound in Canada is comfortable, OK, or not a good idea....

Thanks

D.

I'd go with "ok". :p (not particularly comfortable, but ok for a few hours).

I'd say Greyhound has a slightly better reputation in Canada than in the US, i.e. it's generally safe and you may find a decent number of "normal" people onboard (students, tourists, seniors who no longer drive).

Sadly Greyhound is the only option for intercity travel (without a private vehicle) in many parts of Canada. In those places, it's generally OK if not overly comfortable. However, for long-haul travel (i.e. routes also served by air carriers), it's not advisable. Routes like Edmonton-Vancouver are rife with problems like people shooting heroin in the bathrooms, buses breaking down 200 km from anywhere and pax stranded on the side of the highway for hours, etc.

In general, Greyhound pax are people who can't afford to fly and can't afford a vehicle, which is 95% normal working-class people, but the 5% mentally unstable/criminals/drug addicts ruin it for everyone.

I tried to book a couple of times on the greyhound.ca site - was not accepting my credit cards.

Called the helpdesk - truly terrible. Offshore somewhere, possible Philippines, operator had difficulty with English and was unfamiliar with station names in Canada.

Tried busbud and after a couple of attempt managed to buy a ticket. Why is this so much more difficult than buying an air ticket ???

Not sure whether that's still the case, but the website used to accept Cdn credit cards / credit cards with a Cdn billing address only.

There have been relatively few episodes of passenger beheadings and cannibalism on Greyhound in Canada. Go for it!

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/crim...icle-1.1962579

Couldn't find a Canadian article :confused:

Sadly, Greyhound Canada had to cover up a whole bunch of billboards with "You've never heard of bus rage."

And when you say relatively few, you mean EXACTLY ONE ...

Just think how many would be dead if it were Greyhound US and it were a gun .... oh wait, that would not be news ....

The Greyhound Canada experience
 

AND reporting back.

The ride was not all that bad at all. The Greyhound station at Grand Prairie must've looked fine in 40 odd years ago, but needs renovation/expanding/a cleaning by now.

Boarding was no problem, my luggage was given a nice tag with lots of information and a tear-off stub to ostensibly claim it at the other end - which no-one paid any attention to.... Still, luggage for different stops was stored in different compartments, so you could probably rest easy without worrying about your luggage going walkabout.

The bus was comfortable-ish. Fair recline, no tray tables (pity...) but working wifi and power outlets. Lights were turned off to allow sleeping when dark. On board toilet was reasonably clean. Driver was polite and efficient. 5 hours went by quickly.

SO overall - good ride, would do it again.

D.

ps no, no beheading or cannibalism seen, unless they did so very discreetly.

Greayhound - "Where You Be Headin?"

....and now for the next trip...
 

Having survived my first trip, I am thinking of trying the same route again, but in mid-Feb.

Do Greyhound often cancel buses when the weather gets tough ? (northern Alberta...) Based on highway police travel advisories only ?

If your trip does get cancelled, what then ? I assume no more than a refund ?

I had that happen to me in New Brunswick - the storm closed highways and the bus didn't run. The ticket is not for a specific trip (at least it wasn't then) so I just waited until the next day,