The secret bus stop?

Posted by Magda
An update on adventures with Greyhound: you might remember that I tried to take the bus from downtown Kitchener to Guelph on the first day Greyhound officially lauched its new service from Sportsworld in Kitchener. It made for a long and uncomfortable trip.

I tried it again this morning and I have this to report: it's better, but not ideal.

By which I mean, buses still run between Guelph and downtown Kitchener, only you can't really find out the departure times. When you look on the Greyhound website, it lists the departure times for some of the buses leaving downtown Kitchener for Guelph -- but not all of them. I called Greyhound, and the customer service person gave the same times listed on the website. But when I actually got downtown, the Greyhound ticket-seller told me there were additional buses.

When I asked for the schedule upon arriving in Guelph, I was told there isn't one. When I told the clerk I couldn't get the right departure times from the website, she wasn't surprised -- apparently they're phasing out letting people know when the bus leaves from downtown Kitchener, since it's just a "drop-off location," not a "bus stop," she said. I'm not really sure what this means -- it looks like a bus stop and functions like a bus stop, except that unless you're in the know, you'd have a hard time figuring out when the buses actually leave.

But if you are in the know -- as I am after this morning's adventures -- you can figure it out: just look up the scheduled departures from Sportsworld, and add 15 minutes.

So, in case you're wondering, here's the schedule -- the only accurate schedule available on the internet, as far as I know.

Departing downtown Kitchener for Guelph:
7:15 am (except Saturdays, Sundays and holidays)
8:50 am
11:30 am
1:30 pm
3:30 pm
4:15 pm
5:15 pm
6 pm
7:45 pm (Fridays, Sundays and holidays)
8:20 pm
10:05 pm

Departing Guelph for downtown Kitchener and Sportsworld
12:40 am
7:30 am
8:40 am
9:40am (Saturdays, Sundays and holidays)
10am (except Saturdays, Sundays and holidays)
noon
2 pm (Saturdays, Sundays, Holidays)
3:25pm
4:25pm (Fridays)
5:05 pm
6:05 pm
7:05 pm
9:10 pm
10:40 pm

Comments

[Denis]

Thank you so much for looking into this. Greyhound is ridiculous and we need to quash their monopoly as soon as possible.

[Harry]

And people wonder why we will not quit our reliance on the automobile.
Reminds me of the arrogance that destroyed the train passenger business 50 years ago.
Magda, keep up the good work, these corporate clowns deserve to be embarrassed, they have no idea what customer service is.