Spirit airlines is dead and a bus travel boom looks likely – but will Greyhounds ever be cool again?
“It’s a grueling experience,” Greyhound bus enthusiast Miles Taylor explains. “You’re not treated very well. Everyone is yelling at you the entire time. When the bus is late, they blame you for it, like somehow you’ve done something wrong. You just get screamed at for wanting to know what’s going on, because no one says anything.”
Taylor is obsessed with public transit. “I never really grew out of my little boy train phase,” the 26-year-old said. He works as a scheduler for Boston’s MBTA and runs a popular YouTube account documenting the bus trips he takes for fun in his spare time. Taylor traveled across the country by Greyhound twice; a Boston to Seattle route took 104 hours. But even he admits that America’s bus system is far from luxurious – or even comfortable.
But for many it remains the only option. This week, the Wall Street Journal reported that Greyhound owes at least some of this uptick to the recent shuttering of Spirit Airlines. The low-cost carrier was once famously known as “the Greyhound of the skies,” shuttling passengers on the cheap, with absolutely no frills.
According to the outlet, after Spirit closed, search activity for Greyhound rose 20% from the previous year. Greyhound routes that overlap with former Spirit flights have seen a 30% increase in passengers. We could be on the verge of a boom in bus travel.
For most Americans, riding a Greyhound bus means abandoning many expectations of basic dignity. Passengers endure delays, and often have to wait for buses on the side of the road or at a dilapidated station. The onboard toilets rarely work and usually smell; the stranger sitting next to you may very well fall asleep on your shoulder.
But in the US, a country that lags behind most developed nations for public transit infrastructure, intercity bus travel is one of the only affordable ways to get around without a car. Taylor calls Greyhound “kind of a last resort for folks”.
Greyhound began as a seven-passenger car service shuttling Minnesota miners to and from work in 1914. The brand, and bus riding in general, was once a romanticised form of travel touted as an exciting way to view the American landscape. Frank Capra’s 1934 screwball comedy It Happened One Night featured its leads Clark Gable and Claudette Colbert falling in love on a Greyhound from Florida to New York.
The shuttles were also a symbol of the civil rights movement, when activists rode buses into southern states to protest racial segregation. But as plane travel became cheaper, Greyhound service became neglected – with stations and buses falling into disrepair. In the early 2000s, Greyhound had filed for bankruptcy twice. After changing hands a couple of times, the buses are now owned by the German brand Flix, which operates in over 40 countries. After a storied history, the buses are now viewed by most Americans as a cheap, but incredibly unreliable, way to travel.
But could that be changing? Researchers predict that bus ridership could grow 4% this year, eclipsing forecasts for the airline industry. Is there a way to make it an experience to enjoy, rather than one to endure?
“The biggest driver [of this increase] is the current economics of the US,” said Kate Thompson, a vice-president at the travel search platform Wanderu. “The price of flights has increased year-to-date roughly 27%, whereas bus and train tickets have only increased around 4%. People are going to gravitate toward the average bus ticket price of $53 versus a $500 plane ticket.”
Along with that, a growing number of Americans do not have drivers’ licenses. Data from the Department of Transportation shows that the number of licensed 16-year-olds has dropped 27% since 2000. “We get this question all of the time: how can we make buses cool again?” Thompson said. “It comes down to comfortability. You need to be as comfortable as you would be on a flight.”
There are bus lines that offer what Thompson calls “white glove” service, complete with onboard attendants and complimentary amenities. Greyhound, which was bought by FlixBus in 2021, is not one of those lines.
Taylor, the bus enthusiast, shouted out some smaller, regional options. He likes Peter Pan, which runs along the north-east, and has been owned by the same family for almost a century. On a recent 500-mile ride from Provincetown to Washington DC – the company’s longest route – Taylor says that traffic delays kept him from making his connection in New York. “What was really nice is that they anticipated that I’d miss my second bus,” Taylor said. “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.’” Greyhound would never.
A “new trend” in coach design, according to Fred Ferguson, president of the American Bus Association, is called two-and-one, which means that one side of the bus has two seats, and the other has just one, so solo travellers don’t have to rub thighs with a stranger. “That’s been a hugely popular change,” Ferguson said. “It’s given people more space and more room.”
Greyhound is trying. In the past two years they have retired a lot of older vehicles, and brought new buses into the fleet – cutting the average age of their vehicles in half. “It’s really about updating buses to accommodate for what people expect nowadays,” said Thompson, the Wanderu VP. “A bus needs to be updated to the current state of the world. That means free wifi, enough space for your knees, and seatback tray tables.”
Kai Boysan, CEO of Flix North America, the parent company of Flixbus and Greyhound, wrote in a statement that “The perception of bus travel has been rapidly changing over recent years.” He added that the company has “invested significantly in modernizing the bus travel experience”, adding “hundreds” of new buses across its fleet. “Passengers have access to amenities travelers expect, including free wifi, power outlets, real-time trip tracking, free luggage allowance, and spacious, comfortable seating designed for longer journeys.”
Online reviews of Greyhound’s service suggest it’s taking a while for these changes to be felt across the country. The company currently has a 1.3 out of five-star rating on both Trip Advisor and Yelp. “Our bus broke down on the highway in nearly 90°F heat, and we were left sitting inside with little to no ventilation for hours,” one Trip Advisor user commented. Another wrote of being “left in the middle of nowhere” while attempting to travel from Virginia to Michigan. Yet another summed the experience up: “Greyhound should be paying their customers to ride.”
There are also a number of high-profile incidents that have occurred on buses that dissuade some passengers from riding. Greyhound temporarily shut down operations in 2001, after a man slashed the throat of a driver, commandeered the bus, and drove into traffic, killing seven people (the driver survived). Seven years later, a schizophrenic man attacked and killed another rider on a Canadian Greyhound route, beheading the 22-year-old victim in front of horrified passengers. More recently, a Greyhound worker at New York’s Port Authority bus station was stabbed after an argument with a woman attempting to buy a ticket. These incidents are rare, but do not help with Greyhound’s image problem.
Some companies have attempted to be the anti-Greyhound, offering luxurious services to riders. Those usually do not last. Napaway used to run a “first class luxury and sleeper coach” between Washington DC, and Nashville; the route has been “paused indefinitely” while the company pivots to charter service. Ditto for The Jet, a high-end coach bus which offered passengers complimentary hot towel service, espresso martinis and an “amenity kit” filled with freebies from Kiehl’s and Maison Margiela.
“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,” Taylor said.
But most Greyhound riders are not asking for swag. They just want simple improvements. “Making it better than this horrible, unbelievably terrible experience [bus riding currently is] would go such a long way toward making people’s lives a little bit easier,” Taylor said. He sees bus advocacy as a progressive issue, a sentiment in line with one of Zohran Mamdani’s major promises in his campaign for New York City mayor: to make city buses fast and free of charge.
Major bus stations used to be grand terminals, with stylish post-art deco interiors. Decades of neglect have degraded the travel hubs. But cities are attempting improvements. Chicago’s city council is mulling a vote to purchase and restore its Greyhound station. Philadelphia’s Parking Authority spent $4m renovating its terminal, which reopened in May.
Taylor calls the cities’ efforts “positive stories”. And he notes an additional, unintended perk that’s completely unique to Greyhound: camaraderie between fellow travelers, always born out of some mini-disaster. He remembers one man in Baltimore who, while waiting on a major delay, pointed to Taylor and quipped that he should just steal a bus and drive it to their destination.
“People just come up with their own jokes,” he 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.”
Read the full story at The Guardian ↗
Spirit Airlines' shutdown has coincided with measurable increases in Greyhound bus ridership, particularly on routes that overlapped with Spirit flights. Simultaneously, shifting economics—flight prices up 27% against bus fare increases of 4%—and declining car-license ownership among younger Americans are creating conditions for renewed intercity bus use. Greyhound's parent company Flix has invested in fleet modernization over the past two years, adding new buses with WiFi, power outlets, and improved seating. However, customer satisfaction remains low, with ratings around 1.3 out of 5 stars across major review platforms, reflecting ongoing service reliability issues. Regional competitors and design innovations like two-and-one seating configurations demonstrate alternative approaches to improving the bus experience. Historical factors—including major incidents, decades of infrastructure neglect, and cultural shifts toward air travel—have positioned intercity buses as a last-resort option rather than a preferred mode. Some cities are investing in terminal renovations, signaling potential shifts in how bus travel is perceived and experienced.
Read the full story at The Guardian ↗
“It’s a grueling experience,” Greyhound bus enthusiast Miles Taylor explains. “You’re not treated very well. Everyone is yelling at you the entire time. When the bus is late, they blame you for it, like somehow you’ve done something wrong. You just get screamed at for wanting to know what’s going on, because no one says anything.”
Taylor is obsessed with public transit. “I never really grew out of my little boy train phase,” the 26-year-old said. He works as a scheduler for Boston’s MBTA and runs a popular YouTube account documenting the bus trips he takes for fun in his spare time. Taylor traveled across the country by Greyhound twice; a Boston to Seattle route took 104 hours. But even he admits that America’s bus system is far from luxurious – or even comfortable.
But for many it remains the only option. This week, the Wall Street Journal reported that Greyhound owes at least some of this uptick to the recent shuttering of Spirit Airlines. The low-cost carrier was once famously known as “the Greyhound of the skies,” shuttling passengers on the cheap, with absolutely no frills.
According to the outlet, after Spirit closed, search activity for Greyhound rose 20% from the previous year. Greyhound routes that overlap with former Spirit flights have seen a 30% increase in passengers. We could be on the verge of a boom in bus travel.
For most Americans, riding a Greyhound bus means abandoning many expectations of basic dignity. Passengers endure delays, and often have to wait for buses on the side of the road or at a dilapidated station. The onboard toilets rarely work and usually smell; the stranger sitting next to you may very well fall asleep on your shoulder.
But in the US, a country that lags behind most developed nations for public transit infrastructure, intercity bus travel is one of the only affordable ways to get around without a car. Taylor calls Greyhound “kind of a last resort for folks”.
Greyhound began as a seven-passenger car service shuttling Minnesota miners to and from work in 1914. The brand, and bus riding in general, was once a romanticised form of travel touted as an exciting way to view the American landscape. Frank Capra’s 1934 screwball comedy It Happened One Night featured its leads Clark Gable and Claudette Colbert falling in love on a Greyhound from Florida to New York.
The shuttles were also a symbol of the civil rights movement, when activists rode buses into southern states to protest racial segregation. But as plane travel became cheaper, Greyhound service became neglected – with stations and buses falling into disrepair. In the early 2000s, Greyhound had filed for bankruptcy twice. After changing hands a couple of times, the buses are now owned by the German brand Flix, which operates in over 40 countries. After a storied history, the buses are now viewed by most Americans as a cheap, but incredibly unreliable, way to travel.
But could that be changing? Researchers predict that bus ridership could grow 4% this year, eclipsing forecasts for the airline industry. Is there a way to make it an experience to enjoy, rather than one to endure?
“The biggest driver [of this increase] is the current economics of the US,” said Kate Thompson, a vice-president at the travel search platform Wanderu. “The price of flights has increased year-to-date roughly 27%, whereas bus and train tickets have only increased around 4%. People are going to gravitate toward the average bus ticket price of $53 versus a $500 plane ticket.”
Along with that, a growing number of Americans do not have drivers’ licenses. Data from the Department of Transportation shows that the number of licensed 16-year-olds has dropped 27% since 2000. “We get this question all of the time: how can we make buses cool again?” Thompson said. “It comes down to comfortability. You need to be as comfortable as you would be on a flight.”
There are bus lines that offer what Thompson calls “white glove” service, complete with onboard attendants and complimentary amenities. Greyhound, which was bought by FlixBus in 2021, is not one of those lines.
Taylor, the bus enthusiast, shouted out some smaller, regional options. He likes Peter Pan, which runs along the north-east, and has been owned by the same family for almost a century. On a recent 500-mile ride from Provincetown to Washington DC – the company’s longest route – Taylor says that traffic delays kept him from making his connection in New York. “What was really nice is that they anticipated that I’d miss my second bus,” Taylor said. “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.’” Greyhound would never.
A “new trend” in coach design, according to Fred Ferguson, president of the American Bus Association, is called two-and-one, which means that one side of the bus has two seats, and the other has just one, so solo travellers don’t have to rub thighs with a stranger. “That’s been a hugely popular change,” Ferguson said. “It’s given people more space and more room.”
Greyhound is trying. In the past two years they have retired a lot of older vehicles, and brought new buses into the fleet – cutting the average age of their vehicles in half. “It’s really about updating buses to accommodate for what people expect nowadays,” said Thompson, the Wanderu VP. “A bus needs to be updated to the current state of the world. That means free wifi, enough space for your knees, and seatback tray tables.”
Kai Boysan, CEO of Flix North America, the parent company of Flixbus and Greyhound, wrote in a statement that “The perception of bus travel has been rapidly changing over recent years.” He added that the company has “invested significantly in modernizing the bus travel experience”, adding “hundreds” of new buses across its fleet. “Passengers have access to amenities travelers expect, including free wifi, power outlets, real-time trip tracking, free luggage allowance, and spacious, comfortable seating designed for longer journeys.”
Online reviews of Greyhound’s service suggest it’s taking a while for these changes to be felt across the country. The company currently has a 1.3 out of five-star rating on both Trip Advisor and Yelp. “Our bus broke down on the highway in nearly 90°F heat, and we were left sitting inside with little to no ventilation for hours,” one Trip Advisor user commented. Another wrote of being “left in the middle of nowhere” while attempting to travel from Virginia to Michigan. Yet another summed the experience up: “Greyhound should be paying their customers to ride.”
There are also a number of high-profile incidents that have occurred on buses that dissuade some passengers from riding. Greyhound temporarily shut down operations in 2001, after a man slashed the throat of a driver, commandeered the bus, and drove into traffic, killing seven people (the driver survived). Seven years later, a schizophrenic man attacked and killed another rider on a Canadian Greyhound route, beheading the 22-year-old victim in front of horrified passengers. More recently, a Greyhound worker at New York’s Port Authority bus station was stabbed after an argument with a woman attempting to buy a ticket. These incidents are rare, but do not help with Greyhound’s image problem.
Some companies have attempted to be the anti-Greyhound, offering luxurious services to riders. Those usually do not last. Napaway used to run a “first class luxury and sleeper coach” between Washington DC, and Nashville; the route has been “paused indefinitely” while the company pivots to charter service. Ditto for The Jet, a high-end coach bus which offered passengers complimentary hot towel service, espresso martinis and an “amenity kit” filled with freebies from Kiehl’s and Maison Margiela.
“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,” Taylor said.
But most Greyhound riders are not asking for swag. They just want simple improvements. “Making it better than this horrible, unbelievably terrible experience [bus riding currently is] would go such a long way toward making people’s lives a little bit easier,” Taylor said. He sees bus advocacy as a progressive issue, a sentiment in line with one of Zohran Mamdani’s major promises in his campaign for New York City mayor: to make city buses fast and free of charge.
Major bus stations used to be grand terminals, with stylish post-art deco interiors. Decades of neglect have degraded the travel hubs. But cities are attempting improvements. Chicago’s city council is mulling a vote to purchase and restore its Greyhound station. Philadelphia’s Parking Authority spent $4m renovating its terminal, which reopened in May.
Taylor calls the cities’ efforts “positive stories”. And he notes an additional, unintended perk that’s completely unique to Greyhound: camaraderie between fellow travelers, always born out of some mini-disaster. He remembers one man in Baltimore who, while waiting on a major delay, pointed to Taylor and quipped that he should just steal a bus and drive it to their destination.
“People just come up with their own jokes,” he 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.”
Read the full story at The Guardian ↗
Spirit Airlines, once described as 'the Greyhound of the skies,' has closed operations. Search activity for Greyhound rose 20% year-over-year following Spirit's closure; Greyhound routes overlapping with former Spirit flights saw a 30% increase in passengers. Flight prices increased approximately 27% year-to-date, while bus and train tickets increased around 4%. The average Greyhound bus ticket costs $53 compared to typical flight prices around $500. Licensed 16-year-olds in the US dropped 27% since 2000. Greyhound is currently owned by Flix, a German company operating in over 40 countries, following Flix's 2021 acquisition. Greyhound has a 1.3 out of 5-star rating on TripAdvisor and Yelp. In 2001, a man slashed a Greyhound driver's throat and commandeered the bus, causing seven deaths. In 2008, a passenger was beheaded on a Canadian Greyhound route. In 2015, a Greyhound worker was stabbed at New York's Port Authority station. Bus ridership is predicted to grow 4% this year, potentially exceeding airline industry forecasts. The perception of bus travel as a 'last resort' reflects decades of infrastructure neglect and cultural shifts toward air travel. Luxury bus models do not work in the US market because affluent travelers opt for alternative transportation. The shared negative experience of bus delays creates unexpected camaraderie among passengers.
Read the full story at The Guardian ↗
- Spirit Airlines' closure triggered a 20–30% surge in Greyhound bus searches and ridership, positioning intercity buses as a low-cost alternative as airfares rose 27% year-to-date versus 4% for bus tickets.
- Greyhound, owned by German company Flix since 2021, is modernizing its fleet with new vehicles and amenities like WiFi and better seating, but online reviews remain poor (1.3/5 stars) and service inconsistencies persist.
- Bus travel, once romanticized in American culture, became neglected infrastructure; experts cite improved comfort standards and regional competitors like Peter Pan as potential paths to broader adoption, though luxury bus models have largely failed in the US market.