End of the line

Virginia Kavanaugh’s car isn’t what she would call road-worthy.

It’s fine for getting around Spokane, but for a recent trip to Walla Walla, Kavanaugh decided to take the Greyhound bus, something she’s done numerous times to visit family and friends in her hometown.

But this bus trip to Walla Walla will be her last.

“I’ll have to have my brother or sister drive me the next time,” Kavanaugh said.

As of Aug. 18, Greyhound will cut Walla Walla and 67 other communities in Idaho, Washington and Oregon from its routes. All told, Greyhound is eliminating service to 260 towns in 13 Western states, leaving just 99 stops, most in larger towns.

At one time, Greyhound was a popular way to get around the region.

The bus line even delivered flowers for the annual Native American pilgrimage to the Mission at Cataldo, said Barbara Miller, of the Silver Valley Community Resource Center, whose parents were once caretakers of the mission.

But like the trains that once fueled a booming Silver Valley, the buses are losing passengers and leaving the Silver Valley behind.

Though Greyhound couldn’t provide exact numbers for these communities, tens of thousands of people travel by bus through Idaho’s Interstate 90 corridor every year.

Kellogg, Wallace and Mullan residents will now have to find a way to Coeur d’Alene to catch Greyhound.

“What’s their slogan? See America and leave the driving to us?” said Colleen Pettis, director of the Historic Wallace Chamber of Commerce. “Well, if they’re not stopping some places, it’s not conducive to that.”

‘A bigger isolation’

The Silver Valley bus stops are little more than spots on the side of the road where buses pull over for the occasional passenger. There aren’t bus stations, and passengers rarely even get a chance to stretch their legs in these little towns.

For the past few years, North Idaho tickets could be purchased only in Coeur d’Alene or Mullan. Passengers originating in Wallace or Kellogg had to pay in one of the other two towns, depending on which direction they were traveling.

Even so, many relied on the bus. Ann Taradel’s son in Seattle has used the bus to visit her in Mullan because he doesn’t drive.

Taradel said now she’ll have to drive to Spokane or Coeur d’Alene to pick him up.

“People do use the bus here, especially in the winter months,” Miller said. “Not having the opportunity to travel is going to create a bigger isolation here.”

For Greyhound, it doesn’t pay to keep serving small towns with few passengers.

The bus line can’t survive without the drastic cuts, said Anna Folmnsbee, a Texas-based spokeswoman for Greyhound.

“Greyhound has been in a state of financial crisis since the summer of 2001. Then 9-11 came, and the transportation industry changed dramatically,” Folmnsbee said.

When it came time to make the changes this year, the company eliminated 20 percent of its management positions and decreased capital spending at the same time it selected the routes to be cut.

“We went through and looked for the routes that were marginally profitable to unprofitable,” Folmnsbee said.

Half of the stops the company is slashing had no passengers last year.

On the other hand, some Washington cities, including Bellingham, Cheney, Olympia and Sunnyside, will have more buses visiting them after the cuts than before.

Folmnsbee wouldn’t provide passenger counts for the Washington and Idaho cities being cut from Greyhound’s schedules, but she did say that almost 600,000 people embarked or disembarked in Washington last year.

She didn’t have total counts for Idaho.

Taste of freedom

Greyhound buses have no frills, but they are comfortable, and they have been the only travel option for many who are short on cash or seeking to visit small towns not served by trains or planes.

You don’t get a tray table, but you do get a foot rest. There’s a garbage bag dispenser by each pair of seats and a restroom in the back.

Passengers need to bring their own food, but that’s no different from airlines these days.

Plus, you get to see a lot more out a bus window than a plane window. Of course, your trip will likely be a lot longer.

Some trips take days.

Reduced travel times may be the one benefit for passengers when Greyhound cuts towns from service, said Kimberly Orellana, as she headed by bus from Spokane to Santa Maria, Calif., with her 5-year-old and 3-month-old daughters.

“It’ll make the bus rides quicker, but it will be hard for the people who depend on it,” Orellana said.

For years, prisoners released from the Washington State Penitentiary in Walla Walla have depended on the bus for their first taste of freedom.

Released in the early hours of the morning, many caught buses leaving town between 2 and 4 a.m.

“Currently, we buy them a bus ticket back to their county of conviction. We’re not sure how we’re going to deal with it yet,” penitentiary spokeswoman Lori Scamahorn said.

After Greyhound’s cuts, the closest bus station will be in Pasco, 50 miles away.

Pat Motley, owner of Pullman-based bus charter company Wheatland Express, said she understands why Greyhound is cutting some communities in southeast Washington.

Wheatland once tried to operate a route through Pomeroy, Walla Walla and the Tri-Cities.

“There just isn’t enough market there, and there isn’t enough money for it to pay for itself,” Motley said.

In Ritzville, Zip’s sells tickets for Greyhound routes. Restaurant manager Kelly Bandy said ticket sales have been minimal.

“We’re not like a big depot or anything. We get maybe $2,000 a month in ticket sales,” Bandy said.

Having the bus stop outside hasn’t generated much food business, especially compared to the auto and truck traffic rolling in each day.

If Greyhound drivers are behind schedule, “they’ll just stop to see if there are any passengers. If they have time, they’ll stop and let them get something,” Bandy said.

On a recent swing through the town, a few Greyhound passengers purchased snacks at the fast-food spot. But the 10-minute stop wasn’t long enough to get much more than a soda.

By the looks of the lava-rock-filled area beside the parking lot, catching a quick smoke was a more popular activity than catching a bite.

But for those who don’t have cars, friends or family to give them rides, towns like Ritzville may as well be as far away as Timbuktu once the cuts hit.

Baker, Ore., resident Jackie Piatt makes two or three trips a year to Walla Walla.

The 78-year-old doesn’t own a car, but she likes to visit old college friends and go to seminars in Walla Walla.

“It has set my blood pressure sky high,” Piatt said of the Greyhound cuts.

As she set off from Walla Walla for home last week, Piatt gave old friend Greta Joy Palmer a long hug.

It will have to last for a while.