Who rides the bus?

Greyhound bus passengers have a poor image in some people's minds. In response to a post of mine in another blog, I received some ignorant comments about my request for a Special Use Permit so the bus can stop on North Washington St. where the ticket office is located.

I think it would be great if Dave moved the bus stop over to Marion. That way the bums could get off the bus over there. Carbondale is a college town and college students don't ride the bus.

This person doesn't know much about "bums" or college students. In fact, the Greyhound bus is often used to shuttle indigent persons out of town, through the auspices of the Good Samaritan center (a representative may be at the City Council meeting on June 19).

To refute this ill-informed comment, I started a petition in the office last week, and the first two customers that day were students -- international grad students traveling to St. Louis for the weekend.

Many more students travel by Greyhound, as the petition will show. Their parents buy them tickets online, and the students come to the office to pick them up. Students travel to summer jobs, to St. Louis airport, and many locations throughout the U.S., Canada and Mexico.

Moving the bus to Marion would make it even more difficult to travel to St. Louis without a car.
Greyhound Bus is the only public ground transportation to St. Louis, (excluding airport limo services.) You can't take a train to St. Louis.