Greyhound Lines, Inc.
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Greyhound Lines Prevost X3-45 in New York City in August 2009
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| Slogan | Go Greyhound and Leave the Driving to Us! |
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| Parent | FirstGroup |
| Founded | 1914 by Carl Wickman Hibbing, Minnesota, U.S. |
| Headquarters |
Patriot Tower 350 North Saint Paul Street Dallas, Texas, U.S. |
| Service area | United States, Canada, and Mexico |
| Service type | Intercity coach service |
| Alliance | Trailways, Jefferson Lines, Indian Trails, Peter Pan Bus Lines, and others |
| Routes | 123 routes (includes Greyhound Express routes) |
| Destinations | 2,700+ |
| Stations | 230 (company operated) |
| Fleet | 1,229 motorcoaches mostly MCI 102DL3, G4500, D4505, and Prevost X3-45 |
| Fuel type | Diesel |
| Chief executive | David Leach (CEO) |
| Website | www.greyhound.com |
Greyhound Lines, Inc., usually shortened to Greyhound, is an intercity bus common carrier serving over 3,800 destinations across North America. The company's first route began in Hibbing, Minnesota in 1914, and the company adopted the name The Greyhound Corporation in 1929. Since October 2007, Greyhound has been a subsidiary of British transportation company FirstGroup, but continues to be based in Dallas, Texas, where it has been headquartered since 1987. Greyhound and sister companies in FirstGroup America are the largest motorcoach operators in the United States and Canada.
Carl Eric Wickman was born in Sweden in 1887. In 1905 he moved to the United States where he was working in a mine as a drill operator in Alice, Minnesota, until he was laid off in 1914. In the same year, he became a Hupmobile salesman in Hibbing, Minnesota. He proved unable to sell the car. In 1914, using his remaining vehicle, a 7-passenger car, he began a bus service with Andy (Bus Andy) Anderson and C.A.A. (Arvid) Heed, by transporting iron ore miners from Hibbing to Alice (known for its saloons) at 15 cents a ride.
In 1915 Wickman joined forces with Ralph Bogan, who was running a similar service from Hibbing to Duluth, Minnesota. The name of the new organization was the Mesaba Transportation Company, and it made $8,000 in profit in its first year.
By the end of World War I in 1918, Wickman owned 18 buses and was making an annual profit of $40,000. In 1922, Wickman joined forces with Orville Caesar, the owner of the Superior White Bus Lines. Four years later, Wickman purchased two West Coast operations, the Pioneer Yelloway System (the operator of the nation's first transcontinental bus) and the Pickwick Lines, creating a national intercity bus company.
The Greyhound name had its origins in the inaugural run of a route from Superior, Wisconsin to Wausau, Wisconsin. While passing through a small town, Ed Stone, the route's operator, saw the reflection of his 1920s era bus in a store window. The reflection reminded him of a greyhound dog, and he adopted that name for that segment of the Blue Goose Lines. The Greyhound name became popular and later applied to the entire bus network. Stone later became General Sales Manager of Yellow Truck and Coach, a division of General Motors (GM), which built Greyhound buses. Wickman, as the president of the company, continued to expand it so that by 1927, his buses were making transcontinental trips from California to New York. In 1928, Greyhound had a gross annual income of $6 million.
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