Scarcely a week after Greyhound celebrated its reintroduction to South Africa with much fanfare at the Birchwood Hotel in Boksburg, passengers on an intercity liner have been stranded in George after the bus on which they were travelling was impounded.
Earlier today, one of the passengers making her way to Cape Town from the Eastern Cape said they had been stuck at the yard where the bus had been impounded since it had been stopped by police early this morning.
She said it was sometime after 3am when about six traffic vehicles surrounded the bus and forced it off the N2.
About half an hour later they were escorted into George where they have been waiting ever since.
Apparently the requisite permits for the bus were not in order.
The passenger said: “We have been here since last night and are now sitting high and dry with not so much as a word from Greyhound about what they’re going to do to help us.
“Taxis are offering to take people further on their journey for R150, but not everyone can afford that and the way they drive, it’s also not safe.”
The person, whose name is withheld, said they were told that if a spot fine of R2500 was paid they could make their way to Mossel Bay.
“How is that going to help us though? Whether we’re stranded here or there, we’re still stranded.”
An impound release fee of R7000 has also been charged, and from conversations with an official representing the bus company, this amount remains in dispute.
In the meantime, it has emerged that the bus used for the service belongs to Eldo Coaches.
The passenger said she didn’t understand how a ticket booked with one bus company ended up being redeemed through another.
She said in the absence of Greyhound, or Eldo Coaches for that matter, making any effort to assist its passengers, travellers were now making plans to continue on to Cape Town on their own steam.
Students who had to be back at university today, for example, are waiting for a lift from Cape Town to fetch them.
Calls made to Greyhound to assist the stranded Garden Route passengers have so far not yielded any results.
A call centre official said she’d get “Kyle” to call us.
When Freight News asked who this person was and what position he occupied, we were told “hang on”.
Another representative said she’d get Greyhound to respond to the matter as soon as possible.
The company only recently re-entered the South African market after discontinuing its service due to Covid-related difficulties.
At least Greyhound is fielding calls.
Eldo Coaches has an answering service asking people to call again as its call volume is too high to put any calls through.
