Greyhound Bus Lines

Greyhound is decent if you want to get to somewhere pretty close– I think going from Toronto to Ottawa would be a good distance! That would be around 5 hours. If, however, you want to go farther than that I think taking the VIARail would be more comfortable.
I went to Montréal via Greyhound and it was a pretty decent trip– the busses were all on time, the greyhound was clean and spacious enough, plus there was good AC the entire time. The wifi is dead to me. I do like the scenery as we passed by cities like Tweed and such.
We had to transfer at Ottawa, and the total duration for the trip was around 7 — 9 hours, depending on traffic. I get intense motion sickness, so around the last hour I felt like I was going to die. We had a rest stop every 2 or 3 hours in a seedy-​looking restaurant in the middle of nowhere, but the washroom was sufficiently sized for all 10 012 414 passengers in the Greyhound.
P. S. you probably shouldn’t eat before going on the Greyhound. It’s better if your stomach is begging for food rather than begging for a toilet– don’t use the toilet in the Greyhound unless you want the stench of your defecate to permeate the entire bus and you want EVERYONE to know who did it.

They outsource to other bus companies. Those buses to not as good as the greyhound ones. They are extremely uncomfortable, there is no way you are going to sleep on that.
Plus if you are booked on the 9:30 express they will put you on the 9:45 regular bus so you end up reaching 4 hours after your orginal time of arrival.
The whole thing is a mess, they have no idea what they are doing.
I hate this, extremely bad service.

We had a night ride from Toronto to Montréal. The ride was ok, the bus left on time which was really important because we got a connection at Ottawa.
The A/​C was way to high but the driver turn it off when people asked. I didn’t try the wifi, but my girlfriend did and she was able to check her emails and some social networks which was fine for her (forget using it for Netflix or Spotify).
The bus was more or less clean, and the driver really nice !

My review is going to be about the Toronto coach/​greyhound station itself. They’ve added new seats for express lounge! While the express lines are good and efficient, I take issue with the whole old system and the manner that they treat passengers. The bus platforms are not accurately reflected in the two small screens placed up and far from eye sight. You most likely will need a magnifier. It’s ridiculous considering the prices they charge and the service being public. The washrooms are downstairs and in the two times I’ve used this method of transport, I found the escalator shut down I felt for the elderly, disabled, mothers with children and baggage who had to wait for the small elevator or carry everything down and up the stairs.
The women’s washrooms reeked every time and there were only 5 stalls one of which was closed for maintenance. Crappy for Toronto! If this was a less developed city in a less developed country I’d say okay they probably have a small budget.
The drivers are nice and the lines that I took were fast one took 2:20 from Toronto to London, the other time it took 2:50 for the same direct route but perhaps they account for traffic and such. Anyways, all is okay but an upgrade is much needed

Greyhound charged me for an incomplete transaction twice when I was attempting to buy these tickets on the website. My credit card has been charged for two tickets, when all I was attempting to do is purchase one ticket, and I have not been issued any tickets at all. I have been trying to get someone on the phone to speak with, only to be placed on hold for over an hour and transferring me from department to department or getting hung up on. I’m tired of this. Just refund me the charges so that I can buy another ticket and get on with my life.

In short, there are a ton of flaws with Greyhound but it’s great when it takes you directly to where you need to go.
ALWAYS buy online to avoid the ticket lineup, although this year the service fee has doubled to $ 3. Their system is so old and really needs an upgrade, I’m not sure why the US site is in such a spiffy state while the Canadian site is still versions behind. Also, you cannot buy tickets online using Safari because location auto-​fill doesn’t work.
The busses typically do not depart on time because they are often driving in from other locations. No real time location services so you will never know how long you have to wait or how late you might be getting to your destination. (I am also bugged out that Greyhound transit still isn’t on Google Maps yet but that’s a different story). I’ve taken the K-​W to/​from Toronto many times — it’s always been a very frequent line and it’s definitely improved over the years.
My tip is to get to the station 30 min early because if you don’t get on that first bus, you probably have to wait 10 or so more minutes for the 2^nd one, plus you’ll still have to go through all the in between stops. Before, they would be lenient with letting you on with a same day ticket with a different time, but apparently they are finally being more strict with it.
I have done a roundtrip to NY in the past and I really don’t recommend it. It’s the cheap way but don’t even think about being able to do anything the morning you arrive. It’s impossible to get sleep on there and for some reason they often use the older busses for these trips. This bus tends to be really popular, too, so it’s best to start waiting in line 45min early if you want to get seats close together within your travel group.
The bus drivers themselves tend to be great and informative. Some are so kind they drop off passengers closer to their homes so they don’t have to bus or taxi home from the main station.

1 hr after bus was suppose to depart, we hear that the bus was stuck in customs… SO ROLL OUT ANOTHER BUS THEN. I piled on this NASTY half full bus that smelled like PEE. 2 hour trip and I never had a moment where the urine smell went away. I couldn’t even sit with my boyfriend on the trip to rotted! He sat closer to the toilet so I couldn’t even TRY to sit near him. He told me about what he smelled during the trip and I can’t say that I’m impressed with Greyhounds ventilation system. And I KNO the driver was wise to the stank. The driver went up and down the aisle, I KNOW he smelled the PEE but didn’t care cuz he’s up front… Any able bodied person with a normal functioning nose could tell someone peed on something. And you guys let us sit on the bus in obvious urine? I’m doing VIA rail next time. I’ll take my chances on those unfortunate derailments.
2 stars

Have to add to the chorus of people warning not to use greyhound! They should be held to actually connecting the buses when you buy a ticket with a connection– rather than no updates & arriving, to find out that since the first bus was late by ten mins, meaning we had to wait 2 hours for the next bus. How is this acceptable?
Also, bus was randomly super balmy & hot with no explanation… :(

A Bus Ride through hell!
I took a round trip from Toronto to NYC. What was supposed to be a mere 12 hour ride ended up being nearly 16.
I bought tickets last minute, so they were pretty pricey. Plane ticket pricey.
I waited in line in the freezing cold for nearly an hour at the Toronto Coach terminal. If you don’t, you’re not getting on the bus and will have to wait for another one (God help you).
The bus finally arrives, close to when it was scheduled to depart. You would think that meant that they would leave shortly, but no. We ended up departing nearly an hour later than the scheduled time (midnight). Why? I don’t know. Everything is disorganized. They have no problems making you wait for them, as they can show up whenever they want. Even though you already paid for your ticket, but who cares about the customers, right?
I was happy when the bus started rolling. Though I was not happy that my (very uncomfortable) seat looked like it was chewed off by a bear, and both power outlets for the seat did not work. The wifi was very spotty.
If you take the bus over night, forget about any sleep. The bus stops at least 6 times along the way, and the driver will loudly tell you what destination we are at. We kept leaving later, and later. At least we are making progress!
The real highlight of the trip is when we were less than 40 minutes away from NYC and the bus driver abandoned us at some seedy gas station in New Jersey, saying that he could not work more than a certain number of hours, and we would have to wait for another hour for a new bus driver to come in and finish the trip.
And the older bus driver went in a car and drove (presumably) to manhattan. What the actual F? If we were going that way anyways, why couldn’t he just finish the last leg of the trip and be done with it?
Needless to say, by the time we got to NYC, everyone’s enthusiasm disappeared. We were just thankful not to be on that bus any more.
I dreaded the trip back, but I was mentally prepared for it. I waited for hours at the disgusting port authority bus terminal where people sleep all over the place and there were even people sleeping in line. The bus came 2 hours later than it was scheduled to arrive, and it wasn’t even a greyhound bus, but some old tour bus from the 80s, there was no power outlets or wifi. I could not wait for all of it to be over.
Greyhound — the closest thing to livestock transport you will ever experience!

Worst service on earth when it comes to travel in Canada. Horrible. I’d rather drive myself.

Personally I think ground transport is A OK and sometimes I honestly prefer it over air transport as long as the trip is short and requires no transfers.
First off no TSA. Which means you get to keep your belt and shoes on, you get to keep your drinks in your carry-​on, and best of all no random security checks.
Sure the trip is longer. But they got free WiFi to keep you busy, outlets in case you want to plug in, and frequent stops at different states /​provinces in case you get hungry. Seats are spacier and more comfortable than plane seats and I had no problem sleeping.
Keep in mind there are multiple air and ground transport options. Examine them all before making a decision. Try to book online and in advance. I would not recommend greyhound if your trip is too long and requires multiple transfers.

I would never «Go Greyhound» ever again, except I don’t really have a choice. Their only real competitor price-​wise is Megabus but they have so many fewer routes.
I’ve been taking Greyhound somewhat regularly for years. It’s always been an alright experience — nothing special, nothing awful. The seats are comfortable enough, the noise level on the bus is usually okay. The bathrooms are usually cleaner than the rest stops, etc. Most buses, especially on long trips, have wi-​fi and outlets. The wi-​fi even works some of the time!
I take Greyhound on long trips sometimes (from Toronto to NYC for example). I booked a ticket for that trip in early November for a day in mid-​December, as it’s usually cheaper. I’m not local to Toronto, so I had to take a Greyhound in from Waterloo (it’s MUCH cheaper to do it as a separate trip, for some reason). I looked for my platform for my bus to NYC but didn’t see it listed. I had to wait in line to ask someone about it, and I was told they canceled that route. As in, that route doesn’t run anymore.
I was upset, because I’d already bought my ticket. I had plans. My boyfriend was picking me up in NYC assuming my bus would be there on time, etc. I’d bought it a month in advance and nobody had notified me that it had been canceled. The teller said there was nothing she could do and gave me a ticket for the next bus and gave me the customer service number. Since I now had an extra four hours to kill I called the customer service line, who pretty much just yelled at me for… buying my ticket in advance? Ok.
So I waited around an extra few hours, got on the later bus alright, got to my destination like five hours late, whatever.
Like overall it’s a solid 2.5÷5 stars but holy shit, if you cancel a bus, CALL OR EMAIL THE PEOPLE WHO BOUGHT TICKETS.

I had an adequate experience. I took a bus to Buffalo. I found on arriving at the terminal there was little signage or instruction on what I should do so I waited in line to see an employee. In the end she told me because I had booked and printed online I didn’t need to do anything so to just take my bag outside and wait. The seat was comfortable enough. There was wifi and an electrical outlet. Boarding is a cluster-​. There aren’t really signs to tell you where to be and people kind of spill out of lines into areas the busses have to pull into. The only major annoyance was that the trip took an extra two hours each way due to boarder delays but that’s not the bus line’s fault. All in all, I’d do it again. Way cheaper than flying and not as terrible as the gossip would have you believe.

This place is absolutely terrible. Long lines that move once every five minutes. Service is extremely slow and inefficient.

I wish I could give Greyhound a big fat zero.
I have taken Greyhound at least once a month for the past ten years. Their customer service is terrible. My bus was 40 minutes late yesterday because of the weather, and no one at Greyhound could tell me if my bus was on it’s way or if it was cancelled. This is a crucial piece of information as a rider and shouldn’t be a hard question for the company to answer. Why doesn’t someone at Greyhound know this?
Unreported delays, route changes mid-​ride, cancelled buses, etc. Not to mention the unassigned seating, which gives you no security if you’re travelling on a busy route. I really wish we had a better option in SW Ontario.

0.5 actually. They earn .5 merely for being an option in the stress-​inducing travel industry.
My issue is with GREYHOUND, and not the Bay Station.
Greyhound Canada aka Greyhound USA offers terrible customer service in the back end. Refunds are a logistical nightmare, their American offices don’t care about service and quality control at all, and one call resolution is fairytale pixie dust (in fact, expect to be hung up on repeatedly even if you keep your politest tone on).
THE STORY: I bought a Refundable fare on Feb 16, cancelled the trip March 18 (long before the planned April trip) and was told a refund would take place within 14 business days.
We are May 2^nd and I have yet to get answers on the processing of my refund. I’ve been hung up on, I’ve been muted (you know the deal… That CSR agent who presses mute as you talk on so they can go about their business) and have even (reluctantly) escalated to a manager to no avail.
Greyhound will never get my business again.
I RECOMMEND: the train
EXTRA TIP: If you have to travel by bus– get the lowest fare, don’t count on a refund, and have a contingency plan in case of itinerary changes (another true story).

If I were to give a review of this two years ago, it would’ve been a two star or less. However, Greyhound has recently improved in a few aspects that I’m comfortable in giving it three stars.
It starts with the fact Greyhound recently got some new buses for their SW Ontario routes (Guelph, K/​W, London, etc). These new buses have wi-​fi equipped. Yay, plug ins!
Also, Greyhound has increased the amount of spare buses on peak travel times, usually via local bus companies such as Wills, AZ Bus Tours, Denny’s, Kunkel, etc. Therefore you’ll be guaranteed a bus, though maybe not exactly at your scheduled time, but hey as long as it comes…
That being said, however, some drivers seem to love taking long breaks, even if it’s after the scheduled departure time. Hello, we have places to go!

I had a horrible experience with Greyhound a couple years ago. After waiting in line for almost an hour in the terminal, they piled us all on a bus, SHUT THE DOORS and just left us there! For over an hour! No explanation as to what they were doing or why there was such a time delay. None of the staff tried to communicate the reason with us. When I had finally had enough and tried getting off the bus to see wtf was going on, my bangs on the door were ignored (2 employees literally looked at me, turned around, and kept talking to each other) until I started screaming «LET ME OFF!»
What should have been a 1.5 hour trip to St. Catharines turned into a 4 hour trip from HELL.
…And they wonder why people snap and start decapitating people?

I have really really low expectation… and I been warned by all my friends about my decision of taking a Greyhound bus to NYC!
10 hours+ bus ride… with over 50 strangers… in a cramped space…
Good thing about taking a Coach is I can pack all the liquids I want without worrying about TSA. One or 2 suitcases without any surcharges… I will be right downtown when I arrive in NYC without taking another bus/train/taxi…It is less than ¼ the price I am paying if I fly!
Bad thing of course is the long long time it takes to get there!
Wifi though slow worked fine. I have 2 outlets to charge my phones… The immigration process was painless, I have much longer lines at YYZ… I slept all the way through… Zzzzzz. everyone on the bus were sleeping!
I did have a little incident since my first bus blew a tire… but our driver handled that efficiently with another replacement bus waiting for us at the next closest bus station!
Yes I am crazy. I would take a bus again… but it has to be an overnight ride and I can just wake up and be at my destination!

Now there’s a new reason to hate Greyhound Toronto.
They’re trying to raise money for the Terminal and will be adding a surcharge of $ 2.50 to every transaction. Do they tell you this before you make a purchase? Not really. There’s a small white sign pasted to the side of the window. That is all.
I’m paying $ 2.50 for «the privilege of talking to the Coach Terminal employees.» Yeah… they should be paying me for that. The only reason I had to buy the ticket in person was because they didn’t sell my specific ticket online. Why? No reason. So I ended up here. As I was half way through telling the lady where I wanted to go, she got up and left mid sentence. She disappeared for literally 30 minutes. I was asking the other employees where she had gone. No response. When she returned, there was still no explanation.
Also, I had asked her to tell me which stations I would need to get off. I had about five places I stopped over, but only needed to transfer at three. She told me the wrong three. Also, I was trying to buy the Greyhound Student Pass. She told me: No. Not, «sorry, you can’t because blah blah blah». Just plain ‘No’. So now I don’t know if I can’t get one, or just shouldn’t.
Awful experience. But in reality, I will probably continue to travel with Greyhound regularly for the next few years. I have been taking Greyhound buses regularly for the past 4 years, and will continue to do so until I am no longer broke.