Intercity bus

An intercity bus owned by Greyhound Lines, the largest provider of intercity bus service in North America

An intercity bus is a bus that carries passengers significant distances between different cities, towns, or other populated areas. Unlike a municipal bus, which has frequent stops throughout a city or town, an intercity bus generally has a single stop at a centralized location within the city, and travels long distances without stopping at all. Intercity buses exist all over the world that are operated by government or private industry, for profit and not for profit.

While also serving heavily populated urban areas, intercity bus services are of prime importance in lightly populated rural areas that often have little or no public transportation.

Intercity buses are one of four common transport methods between cities, not all of which are available in all places. The others are airplane, train, and private automobile. In the United States in 1997, intercity bus transportation accounted for 3.6% of all miles traveled between these four modes.

Characteristics of buses

Interiors of intercity buses include many features not found in buses intended for shorter travel

Intercity buses, as they hold passengers for significant periods of time, are designed to meet these needs. Some characteristics include:

• Comfortable seats that may include a folding table, armrests, and that sometimes recline. Comfort is considered to be an important feature in these buses.
• Luggage racks above the seats where passengers can access their luggage during the journey
• Luggage bays, where passengers' luggage can be stowed away from the seating area
• Overhead lights and fans that can be used by individual passengers with little or no disturbance to other passengers
• Bathrooms. The bathrooms on buses generally do not have running water or flushing toilets, and are sometimes equipped with hand sanitizer.
• On some buses, movies or other videos are shown to passengers

History of services

A Greyhound bus in 1939

The development of the concept of intercity bus service, which began in the United States in the early 20th century, provided a new means of transport between cities in North America.

In 1913, Carl Eric Wickman, frustrated about being unable to sell a seven-passenger automobile on the showroom floor of the dealership where he worked, purchased the vehicle himself, and stated using it to transport miners between Hibbing and Alice, Minnesota, United States. He charged a fare of 15¢ per ride, and at a time when gasoline was just 4¢ a gallon, profits were high. He began providing this service regularly in what would start a new company and industry. The company would one day be known as Greyhound.

At the time when the concept began, due to the low quality of roads, breakdowns were common.

In 1914, Pennsylvania, United States was the first state to pass regulations for bus service in order to prevent monopolies of the industry from forming. All remaining U.S. states would soon follow.

Demand for intercity bus services has grown since the 1920s and 1930s, a time when both roads and vehicles improved. In 1923, five companies existed with a fleet of 100 or more vehicles. By 1925, this number increased to 21.

The 1930s to the 1950s saw the growth of the bus stations used for intercity transport. During this time, many were expanded from the simple stops they once were into major business centers that included shopping and other architectural centers.

From the 1950s to the 1960s, with the development of the National Highway System, intercity bus transport increased in speed and efficiency. However, as the popularity of the private automobile has increased, the use of intercity bus service has declined. In Canada, in the 1950s, 120 million passengers boarded intercity bus service each year. In the 1960s, this number declined to 50 million. During the 1990s, it was down to 10 million.

In 1982, the intercity bus industry in the United States was deregulated. United Kingdom also deregulated service during the 1980s.

Safety

Statistically, intercity bus service is considered to be a very safe mode of transportation, with a record of 0.5 fatalities per 100 million passenger miles traveled.

On August 4, 1952, Greyhound had its deadliest accident when two Greyhound buses collided head-on along then-U.S. Route 81 near Waco, Texas. The fuel tanks of both buses then ruptured, bursting into flames. Of the 56 persons aboard both coaches, 28 were killed, including both drivers.

On August 28, 1965, a timber truck rammed head-on into a stopped Greyhound Scenicruiser near Vinton, Louisiana along US 90 while the truck was attempting to pass a car. Eleven people on the Greyhound bus died.

On May 9, 1980, a freight ship collided with the Sunshine Skyway Bridge, resulting in several vehicles, including a Greyhound bus, falling into the Tampa Bay. All 26 people on the bus perished, along with nine others. This is the largest loss of life on a single Greyhound coach to date.

On March 5, 2010, a bus operated by Tierra Santa Inc. crashed on Interstate 10 in Arizona, killing six and injuring sixteen passengers. The bus was not carrying insurance, and had also been operating illegally because the company had applied for authority to operate an interstate bus service, but had failed to respond to requests for additional information.

Security

While rare, various attacks have occurred over time against drivers and passengers on intercity buses.

Security became a concern following the September 11 attacks. Less than a month later, on October 3, 2001, Damir Igric, a passenger on a Greyhound bus, slit the throat of the driver, killing the driver, Igric, and 4 other passengers as the bus crashed. It was determined there was no connection between the September 11 attacks and this incident. Nevertheless, this raised concern.

On September 30, 2002, another Greyhound driver was attacked near Fresno, California, resulting in two passenger deaths after the bus then rolled off an embankment and crashed. Following this attack, driver shields were installed on most Greyhound buses that now prevent passengers from directly touching the driver while the bus is in motion, even if the shield is forced open. On buses without the shield, the seats behind the driver are normally off-limits.

On July 30, 2008, Tim McLean, a passenger on a Greyhound bus, was stabbed, beheaded and cannibalized while riding the bus near Portage La Prairie, Manitoba. The attacker, 40-year-old Vince Weiguang Li, was found to be not criminally responsible for the murder and was remanded to a high-security mental health facility where he remains to this day.

Internationally

Germany

In Germany, only coaches in the decades following the Second World War are of great importance. At that time operated the Deutsche Bundesbahn and the German Federal Postal numerous bus routes in major cities and metropolitan areas associated with each other. The buses featured many routes, a low-cost alternative to rail that was quicker and more convenient, but was also more expensive. With the increasing prosperity of society and the growing use of the automobile, the demand fell significantly, so most of these lines were abolished in the 1970s and 1980s.

New long-distance bus lines can be added after the Passenger Transportation Act (PBefG) bur can only be introduced if they do not compete with existing rail or bus lines. Since Germany - in contrast to many other European countries - has a well-developed rail network to all the major cities and metropolitan areas, the domestic marketing of long distance buses in Germany is much less significant than in many other countries. The federal government intends, however, to allow the Busfernlinienverkehr to amend § 13 PBefG. Germany now has the Federal Administrative Court (Federal Administrative Court) order dated 26 April 2010, 14:09 Az 3 C, (see press release of the Federal Administrative Court No. 56/2010) to existing § 13 para 2 PBefG decided that, contrary to decades of practice "only" clear price advantages for a bus in comparison to can existing rail connections to a "substantial improvement" within the meaning of § 13 paragraph 2 represent PBefG. It is therefore to be expected in the near future that appropriate distance bus services within Germany must be approved by the competent authorities.

An exception is the Berlin traffic dar. The time of German division was created - because of the small number of train services - long-distance bus network linking Berlin with Hamburg and several other German locations. It still exists today.

The existing lines are often international lines that exist in almost all European countries, and for the transportation within Germany, there is a ban.

Ireland

As the railway network in Ireland connects only the largest cities with Dublin, it is a dense and cheap bus network that is often the better choice. The main operators in the country are the State Bus Éireann and CityLink. The bus service between Dublin and Belfast is guaranteed by the Irish with a Bus Eireann and Ulsterbus. Northern Ireland operates 24-hour bus service.

Israel

Because of the weak-developed rail network and the small size of the country and the resulting low domestic air traffic, the long-distance bus cooperative Egged is the main public transport service in the country. Because of the widespread network, Egged is considered one of the largest bus companies in the world, in part because of the long-distance bus lines.

Norway

Norway has long-distance bus routes within the country. They operate in barely inhabited areas, including mountains, and affect the construction of a comprehensive railway network. Except in the area Oslo, Norway, therefore, has only a rather wide-meshed rail network, which is north of the Arctic Circle to the stations in Fauske and Bodø, and to the north of Narvik and the Swedish rail network is connected. Many of the routes are based on random railways. In addition to this web, they provide public passenger transport by many more companies within Norway than airlines, shipping lines (including the Hurtigruten) and bus lines, including many long-distance bus lines. In the north of the country (especially in the county Finnmarken), a particular type of bus is used, which has both a passenger compartment and a loading area in the rear to take account for the fact that many remote villages are connected to the outside world only via these buses, thus achieving a large part of the cargo by bus to the city.

Switzerland

Switzerland has an extremely dense network of interconnected rail, bus and ship lines, including some long-distance bus lines. Although Switzerland is a mountainous country, only their rail network is tighter than Germany's. Switzerland is an exception to the rule that Fernbusstrecken be established, especially in countries with inadequate railway network, or in areas of low population density. Some of the railway and main bus routes on Italian territory also serve to shorten the distance within Swiss public transport. From Germany runs a line from Frankfurt am Main, Heidelberg, Karlsruhe and Basel to Lucerne.

Distance bus services in Switzerland:

• Saas-Fee - Brig - Simplon Pass - Domodossola ("Napoleon Route" a rail connection to Locarno)
• Lugano - Menaggio on Lake Como - Tirano a rail connection to St. Moritz and Churchill
• St. Moritz - Chiavenna - Menaggio on Lake Como - Lugano. ("Palm Express")
• Churchill - Thusis - Splügen GR - San Bernardino GR - Bellinzona
• Davos - Zernez - time (Malle)
• Disentis / Muster - Bellinzona
• (Flüelen - Andermatt - Airolo - Bellinzona

See also

• List of bus operating companies
• Intercity bus driver
• Bus station
• Category:Intercity bus incidents