Greyhound: Criminals

[Hannah Bell]

I live near Portland Or. In case you didn't know, we've had a week of snow & below-freezing temps & emergency conditions; airport & other transport systems near shut down. State/gov't offices closed today, part of I-5 closed.

Yesterday the TV news reports showed folks stranded at Greyhound, some of them kids without adult supervision, some of the people without money.

Some nice locals - including Dominoes & Subway, to give props to folks that helped - brought them food.

But this morning the news reports that Greyhound SHUT DOWN the station, took the stranded people to a HOMELESS SHELTER, which was FULL, & the people wound up ON THE STREET in sub-freezing temps. Eventually the police found them shelter, but this is criminal behavior, I hope the passengers sue.

Calls to Greyhound were not returned.

[pitohui]

1. is it criminal though?

when i've been stranded by weather by an airline, then no one gives me free transport to any shelter, at best they give me a coupon for $20 off a crappy overpriced airport hotel, if i don't have any $$$ i'm just as stranded as the guy on the bus and we're not allowed to sue

so airlines/airports have no obligation in case of weather cancellations but greyhound/bus terminals (which probably have far fewer $$$ at their disposal) do have an obligation?

i think it's very sad but i also think that the portland greyhound bus terminal has exactly as much or as little control over the weather as las vegas maccarran airport and when LAS was just closed for weather wed. nite ain't nobody got a free hotel courtesy of the airport or airline

so people can sue all they like but i'm skeptical that they'd get anything but an ass-chewing and a fine from the judge for wasting her time

i've heard heart breaking things when stranded, such as a college kid stranded with only $7 and no flight out for another two days (you can't even get one meal at an airport for $7), moms w. kids stranded and so on...and that's at the airport...so nobody cares...if you "squeak up" you'll be arrested as a terrorist probably

i don't know the answer but i strongly suggest that if you don't have built in fudge factor in your budget, don't travel, because no bus company and no airline controls the weather, never have, never will

you say yourself that airport, highways, etc. were shut down, sounds to me like greyhound had no choice but to close their bus terminal -- i'm totally not getting why you think a bus station has more ability to operate in crisis weather than these other entities

[elleng]

4. Probably not.

and a sad fact of the way law has evolved results in conclusion that if facility left 'open' and bad things happen therein, 'owner' MIGHT have some liability.

[Hannah Bell]

8. The airport doesn't shut down the terminal. People have shelter.

There is no problem with power, water, or utilities - all are working fine. Greyhound normally keeps their facility open until late in the night, possibily all night. They certainly had a choice. They did it to save money.

They dumped the passengers at a homeless shelter & said "sorry, not our problem".

They didn't refund the tickets, though.

Fuck them.

[elleng]

2. Facts needed here.

Has 'Greyhound' been active/serving Portland recently? From that facility? Bus schedules available? Anything posted on doors/windows?

The news reports, that Greyhound 'shut down the station' as of when?

[dysfunctional press]

6. i got the impression that it was shut down temporarily due to the weather...

not shut down as in out of business.

[Hannah Bell]

10. Read it yourself. It was Seattle, my error. They'd run a piece on Ptland & I assumed same station.

By KOMO Staff SEATTLE -- After a day stuck in a downtown bus terminal, Greyhound officials took a load of stranded passengers to a homeless shelter at the Seattle Center, but officials there turned the passengers away because the shelter does not take children.

That left families, kids and at least one pregnant woman outside on the Seattle Center property in sub-freezing temperatures Sunday night as Seattle police arrived and tried to sort out what happened and what to do with the dozens of people who were out in the cold...

Witt said the city bus Greyhound used to bring the passengers to the Seattle Center was still there when the group was told they would not be allowed in the shelter with their kids, but the driver drove away.

http://www.komonews.com/news/36555829.html

[uppityperson]

11. Sounds like the police were the good guys there, taking the kids away quickly to a

shelter that would take them.

That left families, kids and at least one pregnant woman outside on the Seattle Center property in sub-freezing temperatures Sunday night as Seattle police arrived and tried to sort out what happened and what to do with the dozens of people who were out in the cold.

Officers quickly whisked away the kids and took them to a shelter on Third Avenue to get them out of the cold.

The passengers who were dropped off said Greyhound officials decided to take them to the Seattle Center because the company had run out of food and water at the terminal, where many passengers have been stranded and sleeping on cardboard after bus runs were cancelled due to heavy snow. Some passengers in the terminal Sunday had been stuck there for days hoping to catch a bus.

(clip)

Seattle police spokeswoman Renee Witt said Greyhound Lines did contact the department and a police lieutenant made arrangements with the shelter to take some stranded passengers, but because the shelter could not accept children they had to turn the group away when they arrived. Witt said the city bus Greyhound used to bring the passengers to the Seattle Center was still there when the group was told they would not be allowed in the shelter with their kids, but the driver drove away.

[Hannah Bell]

12. On Sunday night, Greyhound passengers, many of whom had been at the downtown Seattle

http://blog.seattlepi.nwsource.com/print.asp?entryID=157653

station at least two nights, said they were told by Greyhound staff that they had to leave.

Travis Hensley, 22, of Detroit, who is trying to get to Salem, Ore., said passengers were told Greyhound had found someplace better for them to stay, and they were bused to the Seattle Center emergency center.

The shelter "opened the doors for the homeless people at 9 (p.m.), but not for us. They told us we couldn't go in," Hensley said.

Allisha Bentley, 18, of Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, said Greyhound "told us that people would be expecting us. We would have our own space with a bed and pillows and (services). We got here, and they didn't know we were coming. I can't believe they did this."

Eric Wesley, a spokesman for Greyhound, told KOMO/4 that Seattle police told them they could take passengers to the shelter, and passengers had the option to stay at the Greyhound station, which is near the West Precinct.

Seattle police spokeswoman Renee Witt told KOMO/4 a lieutenant was contacted by Greyhound, but the problem came when the emergency shelter at Seattle Center would not take people under age 18.

More than two-dozen passengers waited in a large room at Seattle Center, many wondering where they would go and were frustrated with the lack of communication.

A police officer who addressed the crowd at the scene said, "I went to the Greyhound station and it's locked down. I couldn't get answers."

At 11 p.m. Sunday, police were taking some people, including a pregnant woman and children, to another shelter.

It's not clear when Greyhound passengers will be able to leave Seattle.

Weather Service meteorologists cautioned that temperatures are expected to vary around the freezing level through Wednesday, meaning icy roads well into the week.

[DS1]

3. Better than having your head cut off

too soon?

[cliffordu]

5. They did the same fucking thing in Seattle.

[Hannah Bell]

7. it *was* Seattle, my bad reporting.

[cliffordu]

9. Cool. I thought it was company policy at first. I'd still believe it

One of the folks on the street told a reporter that he was just trying to warm up and "Go with the flow"

[MindPilot]

13. Global climate change will cause more severe storms everywhere

Airlines, bus and train carriers just need to accept that there are going to be situations more and more frequently that will shut down their operations. Being ready to take care of stranded passengers is part of the the cost of doing business.

[Fire1]

14. My son left Seattle on Greyhound and the driver left him at a stop

in Montana, that wasn't even a greyhound station. It was a motel. Of course, his luggage was never found and they took 6 months to agree to $250.00 compensation. He spent the night at a local truck stop with another passenger that was stranded. It was a nightmare, but he finally got home on another bus, the next a.m. NEVER GO GREYHOUND!!!

[Hannah Bell]

15. Greyhound used to be a great company. sometime around the Reagan

era they broke their union, lowered wages, got bought out...

shits now.

[Poiuyt]

16. Greyhounds are criminals?

[saltpoint]

17. Greyhound is one of a handful of abominably-run companies in the nation.

When you've said 'monopoly,' you've said it all.

I believe every word of this account from Portland.

[bobbolink]

18. Completely inhuman! We, as a nation, have lost our souls!

The only possible positive thing was that the passengers found out what it's like to be homeless... for a very short time.

CRUEL AND UNUSUAL PUNISHMENT.