Essay: Greyhound Coaching Blues! (Yes it's a long read!)

After many years since last using Greyhound, I was looking forward to a scenic, if lengthy, trip to Cape Town on Tuesday (13/12/22.) I'd booked my "premium" ticket for R950 online (ACS5WE01) and arrived at Durban Station an hour before my bus was due to depart at 11:35, only to discover that Greyhound no longer has an office at the bus terminal. By having to ask around, I determined that Eldo Coaches now handles Greyhound departures.

Ten minutes after my supposed departure time, I received an SMS message to say that the bus was delayed and that passengers should remain at the departure point. THREE HOURS LATER, at around 14:30, passengers were asked to collect their luggage and follow an Eldo representative outside, and we all traipsed about 120m to the pavement of the road outside of the station complex. There we waited a further half an hour before the bus finally arrived just before 15:00 (license plate FX45VP-GP.) Apparently this bus had only just completed a journey from Cape Town to Durban and it was alleged that the delay was due to the vehicle being in the wash bay and refueling (I can confirm that the upper deck windscreen was still smeared with bugs, however.)

And my journey had yet to begin!!!

Found a seat up top, right at the front of the double decker, which was pretty much the only thing I was happy with throughout the experience, and that I had an open seat next to me. 🙌🏼👍🏼💺💺

The entire expanse of the upper deck windshield was a spider web of cracks. I also noticed that part of the side wall ducting was badly damaged, exposing electric cabling etc. The foot plates that one folds against the seat for leg support were badly buckled and the curtaining could not be fixed in place no matter how hard I tried.

What I then noticed as we set off, was that the air conditioning wasn't working, nor was any air coming out of the ventilation nozzles in the bulkhead above. Much to my anger and frustration, this was the case for the entire journey — no air conditioning or ventilation — with sealed windows!!! And let me tell you, from mid-morning the temperature began to build, as we headed into the Karoo after Colesberg from 28° (outdoor temperature) right up to 36° in the mid-afternoon! At one point I did speak to the driver about the air conditioning but was simply told to complain to Greyhound head office...💁🏻♂️

Added to this, for the entire trip I had a persistent drip from the overhead bulkhead seam (on both sides of the bus) and woke up around midnight with my t-shirt on my tummy soaked — in hindsight I guess the dripping water did assist in some small way to keep me cooler, but Chinese torture nevertheless for the duration. I ended up stuffing paper napkins into the seam in an attempt to staunch the flow. Yay for me!

At one point during the night, the bus cut out at an arbitrary intersection in one of the towns — the lights went off, together with the nonexistent ventilation, and we must have sat for five minutes before the driver finally managed to start the vehicle and we trundled off again. This did happen again along the way, it seemed there was some sort of gearbox issue, but I can't tell what it was for certain.

It was when we were driving through Belleville for a few passengers to disembark, sometime around 15:30 (Wednesday afternoon, having already been in the bus for well over 24 hours, mind you) that the traffic police pulled us over and then told the driver to follow him to the Belleville traffic department in Reed Street. A full inspection ensued, resulting in them finding numerous problems with the vehicle and issuing them with a docket/fine which stated that they had 40 days to fix the issues listed, whatever they were. This the traffic officer confirmed to my query.

Eventually we headed off again, to arrive at the destination, Cape Town bus terminal, at just after 18:00. As with Durban, however, Greyhound buses were not permitted to enter the terminal complex, so us few remaining passengers were deposited in the street outside together without luggage — after 27 hours on board, 32 hours after setting out from home.

A few other noteworthy details, and I quote from the Greyhound website under "Luxury Coaches," was their claim: "IT’S NO SECRET: GREYHOUND IS THE MOST LUXURIOUS WAY TO TRAVEL BY COACH. WHAT ACTUALLY GOES INTO LUXURIOUS COACH TRAVEL? LEARN ABOUT SOME OF THE BRILLIANT FEATURES THAT YOU CAN EXPECT TO FIND WHEN YOU TRAVEL ON THE DREAMLINER."

Well... • No cellphone charge points on the entire upper deck as advertised (they simply didn't exist.) • No onboard entertainment as advertised. • Onboard toilet was blocked/not flushing — re**** on the occasional stop points.

Two passengers I spoke to who had boarded at Bloemfontein had waited at the pickup point for 6 hours!!!

I have attached pics of my own and the observations made are only my own, although I did hear a number of other passengers complaining as well. The traffic department docket will no doubt reflect more official findings.

So I'd like to call out Greyhound management on this — how can you willingly take passengers' money, claiming this premium luxury travel, yet shuffle them onto a bus that was clearly a health hazard to passengers couped up in the stiflingly hot and airless cabin for hours on end, in a vehicle that was known to be borderline unroadworthy??? This is a diabolical display of gross negligence bordering the ********, and I can't bring myself to use the word "service" when relating my experience, and that of all of the other passengers on board. Why should the public find this acceptable — ON ANY LEVEL WHATSOEVER??? At the very least I expect a public apology from Greyhound (and to all other passengers on the manifest who've had to travel on that vehicle!!!) I'd ask to be refunded in full, all of us passengers should be, but that would be too much to expect with these couldn't-care-less business ethics Greyhound seems to be displaying.

PS I have numerous pics corroborating my story — it's not fabricated!