Now look at Sacramento-Portland, which was recently extended to become Los Angeles-Vancouver, but that segment is still the most popular.
Makes since. That route has little duplication and little competition. There's plenty of ways to get between LA, Sacramento, Portland, Seattle and Vancouver... but for the small towns between Sacramento and Portland... Greyhound is the only real choice.
Every time I have seen the Sacramento-Portland, it was packed to the gills, literally, because in those D4505 buses, the main passenger air vents are along the window bar.
I have no idea what the D4505 having air vents along the window bar has to do with anything.
Last time I saw that bus, the passengers lined up from the bus gate across the entire Sacramento terminal to the front entrance. But every single person got on the 50-seater D4505. And for more backing, the route has yield management, and has repeatedly shown "SOLD OUT" on the website.
So I'm saying at least Sacramento-Portland does not overbook. Reno-SLC-Denver does not overbook. Detroit-Nashville-Dallas does not overbook. Seem what I'm talking about?
I see what you're talking about... Greyhound is *moving away* from overbooking... and that's a very good thing. But it has not *killed* or *eliminated* overbooking which is what you have said previously on this forum on the thread titled "Greyhound Kills Overbooking, Expands Service, Introduces Yield Mgmt":
Here's the latest confirmed news on Greyhound:
- No more overbooking on any US schedules.
As for the bad reputation, you're not understanding my point. You said the passengers were bad, but where did all the good passengers go in the 1980's? Yes, low-cost airlines. But low-cost airlines are still around, and their ridership is stuck while Greyhound is expanding.
I don't like the term "good passengers"... they're "choice passengers" (they have a choice in how they choose to travel).
In the 1980's those "choice passengers" went to their personal automobiles and the airlines when deregulation lowered fares. I would venture to guess that most of those customers have not and will not come back.
Greyhound's increase in ridership (along with all other bus companies) comes from millennials.
Being a "millennial" myself I speak from experience here... this generation owns fewer cars than their parents and they would rather not deal with the hassle of the airports for *shorter* trips, plus flying just isn't as cheap as it used to be (I remember getting $70 round trip Southwest fares from Burbank to Oakland 8 years ago, that's gone now.) Appealing to these customers is how Greyhound (and Megabus and BoltBus) has expanded ridership.
But I expect that, aside from novelty, most millennial customers will not be interested in a long haul bus trip (LA-NY). That's why Greyhound has, until now, focused on removing stops on many routes and adding frequencies between popular city pairs.
I do insist that one of Greyhound's biggest ridership-losing mistakes was lower wages resulting in strikes, and getting rid of most 102A3's. The 102A3 was and still is noticeably more comfortable than 96-inch buses. A Wide Ace with a good driver could have kept passengers riding Greyhound that had always liked riding Greyhound. But no, they had 925 102A3's and more on order, but sold most of them and cancelled the orders when Greyhound went bankrupt due to strikes and debt, then after emerging Greyhound went back to 96-inch "Dirty Dogs", the MC-12, which was liked by drivers but hated by passengers. The "Dirty Dog" was the MC-12 originally, then the G4500.
Greyhound should have ordered a 102-inch MC-12, which was exactly the 102A3 later 102B3, same structure, same interior, same HVAC, same powertrain, just wider and a different dashboard. Strip it down for lower prices, and Greyhound should have raised the wages after paying back the debt.
You've said this before... when a passenger sees a refurbished 102DL3 they say "nice, we get a *NEW* bus today". Passengers don't realize it's a 15 year old bus because it has leather seats, power outlets, WiFi and it's clean... so they think it's new. That's the power of properly maintaining your equipment.
At the end of the day, most passengers don't care what model the bus is, who built the bus, how wide it's aisles are... they just want it to have all the features they want and they don't want it to break down on the road.
As long as Greyhound keeps all of it's buses keep well maintained (both inside and in the engine bay)... ridership will keep growing. But if they return to the "dirty dog" days of buses with stained seats and duct tape holding the baggage doors shut... all of this hard work and money will be for nothing.
I was having one of my days where I wander St. Louis City and County yesterday, and the bus route I take into downtown goes to Gateway Station anyway. Couldn't do a points run, not even a 311 run (the primary spot I went to opened at 9 AM, and I knew I wouldn't be able to get back in time), but I did at least get to see 22 pull in... Also got this picture, originally posted directly to Flickr immediately after taking it, and now posted here on someone's suggestion 
