Greyhound Drivers' Strike Takes A Toll Among Agents, Travelers
Travelers, freight and at least one Montgomery County ticket agent were left in the cold as a result of a nationwide walkout by Greyhound bus drivers.
A 30-pound cinderblock was thrown through the large window of the Willow Grove Greyhound ticket agency on Wyandotte Avenue over the weekend, leaving owner Marlyn Benns somewhat less protected from the elements than usual.
The window was broken just after drivers from the only nationwide intercity bus company walked out last Friday.
The familiar Greyhound logo above the roughly six-by-six-foot window was unharmed. The window was repaired on Tuesday.
The scene was quiet at the King of Prussia Bus Agency in the Valley Forge Shopping Center. There has been no picketing activity by Greyhound bus drivers at the station, owner and manager Vincent Tuszynski said Wednesday.
Tuszynski's agency sells tickets for Greyhound, a national bus line, and Capitol Trailways and Martz Trailways, two regional lines.
A few Greyhound lines have been running, Tuszynski said, but service has been limited and subject to daily changes.
The Capitol Trailways and Martz Trailways lines have been able to serve Greyhound riders up to a point, Tuszynski said. Riders who need to travel beyond the scope of the two regional lines, however, have probably had to find alternate modes of transportation, he said.
Tuszynski said he was not sure how many Greyhound bus tickets he sells on an average day.
For Fred Griffith of Upper Southampton, the walkout meant that he had to cancel one of his frequent trips to the casinos in Atlantic City on Monday and that other means of transportation had to be found for the large amount of freight typically funneled through the Willow Grove station.
Some of the service was absorbed by the regional bus lines that also operate out of the Willow Grove station.
Griffith said that he normally made the two-hour, $13.50 round trip to the casinos on the 4:55 p.m. Casino special. Sometimes he goes twice monthly, depending on "whether I'm winning or not."
A strike by Eastern Airlines pilots last year had forced the Bucks County Community College baseball team to make its annual trek to its winter baseball tournament in Sanford, Fla., by bus. That trip took 22 hours. The team will make the trip in two hours this year on Eastern.
Benns, who earns straight commission from her passenger and freight ticket sales, spent much of Monday answering telephone calls and explaining how the strike was temporarily affecting travel. Her agency is one of two for Greyhound in Montgomery County. The other is in King of Prussia.
Benns said many college students rode the Scranton local, which starts in Philadelphia and stops in Willow Grove, Stroudsburg, Mount Pocono and Easton.
She said several parents were worried about how their children would travel
from home to school and back on the weekends.
And the inconvenience isn't limited to travelers and shippers of freight. Benns said she would feel the financial impact of the strike because she couldn't sell any tickets for Greyhound.
"I would like it to end early. It really cuts us back, but we have to stay open," she said.
Competing bus lines are not allowed to take over routes vacated by Greyhound during the strike, said Mark J. Scarbinsky, manager of traffic for Martz Trailways in Harrisburg.
Nor would they if they could, Scarbinsky said, citing respect for the striking drivers' cause.
"Our drivers refuse to cross the picket line," he said, adding that in Philadelphia, where most of the active picketing is being held, Martz drivers are loading their passengers and freight on the street rather than in the main depot at 10th and Filbert Streets.
There is an alternative, Scarbinsky said.
Martz has added one bus a day to the Harrisburg-to-New York City route. Martz now makes three Harrisburg/New York runs on weekdays, matching the three that typically run on the weekends.
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