Greyhound pulling out of Cape Girardeau

No matter how fast you hurry, you won't be able to catch a Greyhound bus in Cape Girardeau anymore.

After providing service here for almost six decades, the last Greyhound is expected to pull out from the Cape Girardeau Regional Airport for the final time on April 2, a victim of poor ridership and the bus company's reorganizational plans to cut stops across the country.

"It's really due to very low customer demand," said company spokeswoman Kim Plaskett. "It was costing more money to go to that location than any revenue we were taking in."

Dallas-based Greyhound, the nation's largest intercity bus company, informed the city of Cape Girardeau last week of its plans to cut bus service to 150 cities -- including Cape Girardeau, Perryville and 15 other Missouri cities. Jackson, however, will retain its Greyhound service, the company said.

Greyhound hauled an average of three riders a week to and from Cape Girardeau, Plaskett said. The weekly average for Perryville was two, she said.

Still, Plaskett said, it was a hard decision for the company.

"It always is," she said. "Greyhound has been an icon of American transportation for more than 90 years. But the public's traveling habits have changed. More people have access to vehicles. What we have found is the majority of our customers are traveling between the top 200 cities."

About 22 million people ride Greyhound each year from about 2,100 cities.

Faster trips, fewer stops

Plaskett said in surveys Greyhound customers have said they want faster trips with fewer stops. The company cut a similar number of stops last August in the northwestern tier of the United States. Since, they've actually seen an increase in participation in that region.

"We really just wanted a shorter, simpler network," she said.

Some were disappointed that Greyhound wasn't going to be in Cape Girardeau, however.

Melvin Gately, a former city councilman, was an advocate for keeping a Greyhound presence here in the mid-1990s when there were six depots in five years following the closing of the station that had existed for 40 years on North Frederick Street.

Residents around depots objected, saying they didn't like having stops at all hours and people who often didn't have transportation being dropped off near their homes.

"With transportation such a big issue now, I hate for us to lose any means of transportation," he said. "It's needed and a necessity in people's lives who don't have transportation."

Transportation is an issue. There have been several community surveys over the past 10 years that identify public transportation as a concern. There has even been talk of a need for a city bus line.

Cape Girardeau city manager Doug Leslie said the council members probably got copies of Greyhound's letter this week.

"I guess we'll have to take a look at how significant a loss it is to the community," he said.

smoyers@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 137