A writer who decided to travel from Detroit to LA by bus as an adventure discovered that traveling around the US by bus has become ugly, highly uncomfortable, even dangerous. All the things that made it acceptable and enjoyable decades ago have ceased to exist — stations have no food, no water fountains, no real toilets, no ticketing facilities, no staff, and hardly any chairs. And even the cheapest hotels in cities are painfully expensive.

If, as she says, it is "all digital now", in some cases that is because people do not think of saying no. I bought a ticket on a Greyhound bus a few weeks ago; I paid cash, I got a paper ticket, and I didn't show an ID card. That was possible in Boston — but is it possible in cities where the "bus station" is a mockery>

Flixbus should not have been allowed to acquire Greyhound (and Lucky Star). That merger is anti-competitive. For now, the three lines' operations are still separate. It is possible to buy tickets for Greyhound buses with cash, but as far as I can tell tickets for eFlixbus buses can only be bought over the internet.

I am concerned that Flixbus will integrate Greyhound and Lucky Star buses into its own operation and eliminate cash purchase of tickets for them too.

I wonder how poor people who have no officially valid ID cards, and in many cases no payment cards either, travel to another city nowadays. If they are blocked from voting with an ID requirement, they would be blocked from buses too. Does anyone know?