Baxter County Friends of the Taxpayers

Ticket agent Tammy Quinn said in the Baxter Bulletin (Friday, March 4) that she sells as many as a dozen tickets a day. Most travelers who board the bus in Mountain Home are headed to Tulsa or Memphis to connect with other bus routes or other forms of transportation.

Mountain Home is not the only town in Arkansas to lose its Greyhound connection: 26 other cities (including Flippin, Harrison and Hardy) will be affected by this decision to downsize.

BCFT Director Frank Kaye sent the following letter (dated Tuesday, March 8, 2005) to Greyhound in protest:

Why are you taking away one of the few transportation choices available to low-income travelers here in Baxter County, Arkansas?

With the announcement last week that Greyhound Bus service will soon be pulled out of Mountain Home, the only choice the low-income traveler is left with is a private bus line that serves a limited route to Chicago via St. Louis once a week. And at $180 roundtrip, it is not a low-cost option. These buses don't even stop at locations that will facilitate connecting with other modes of transportation, such as other Greyhound bus terminals.

We are struggling to restart commuter air service to the Baxter County Airport, but even if that effort is successful, the service won't benefit the low-income traveler that you now serve. Is this a cost cutting effort on your part? If so, we find it difficult to understand, when the little hot dog stand that serves as your bus terminal in Mountain Home sells approximately $100,000 per year in Greyhound tickets. If even a part of that market share goes to the private bus line, you will have helped them greatly

Won't you please reconsider your decision to isolate this community?

 

 

If you would like to join in the protest, you can call or write the Greyhound Corporate Offices at

972-789-7000

Greyhound Lines, Inc.
P.O. Box 660362
Dallas, TX 75266-0362

 

You can also contact Jefferson Bus Lines (headquartered in Minneapolis, MN), which is considering taking over some of Greyhound's routes in Arkansas. Currently Jefferson Lines serves cities in the western region of the state, as well as Conway and Little Rock.

888-864-2832 (schedules & fare info -- the only # I could come up with)

2100 East 26th Street

Minneapolis, MN 55404-4101