Where There's No Bus, There's No Exit

By John E. Gallagher

; When you've got no car, when the airfare is too high (or there's no airport at all), when the railroad tracks have long since gone to weed, there's always the Greyhound bus. It will get you to the next town or around the country, and it will take you to obscure places you call home and away from places you never want to see again. Planes and trains serve 500 communities; Greyhound serves 9,500. For many Americans who live in small towns, when there's no Greyhound, there's no exit.

It has surely seemed that way in Bishop, Calif., since the strike began two weeks ago. With its own airport, Bishop (pop. 3,500) is better off than many stops in Greyhound's network. Still, only one flight, on a 19-passenger plane, leaves Bishop daily for Los Angeles, and at $125 one way, not everyone can afford a ticket. Many people in the town -- 40% of whom are elderly -- don't have cars. When they want to get out of Bishop, they go down to the terminal and take the 1:30 p.m. Greyhound to Los Angeles (6 1/2 hours southwest, $35.50) or the midnight run to Reno (5 hours northeast, $19.95). "Without Greyhound," says ranch hand Luis Perez, "I am a prisoner here."

Greyhound is as much a part of rural economic life as the local filling station or coffee shop. Businesses use buses to ship packages and other small freight that truckers will not handle. "Flower boxes aren't the right size for UPS," frets Main Street florist Reta Zollars, who has been getting fresh flowers via Greyhound for 15 years. For now, at least, her business is safe. Company management has frantically patched together its Los Angeles-Bishop route by chartering buses from other lines to fill in the schedule.

The bus has also literally been the lifeblood of Bishop. For years, North Inyo County Hospital has relied on Greyhound to bring fresh supplies of blood from a Reno blood bank on weekends, when the medical facility is kept busy with victims of ski and traffic accidents from Mammoth Mountain, 40 miles away. Partly because of these special needs, the company had provided service to Bishop from Reno at the beginning of the strike. But that lifeline was severed last week, when Greyhound canceled the daily run for economic reasons. "If you've got 60 passengers for Sacramento and only a couple for the route to Bishop, but only one bus and driver, you're going to send them where the most revenue is," says Robert Atlee, one of two ticket agents in Bishop. Without Greyhound, blood supplies will have to be rushed in by California and Nevada state highway patrols.

The greatest fear in Bishop, as in many small towns, is that Greyhound may decide to abandon it altogether. The company has proposed dropping the money- losing route several times in the past but withdrew its plans in the face of local opposition. Should the strike continue, Greyhound may be more inclined than ever to close its Bishop depot once and for all, leaving travelers like Teddy Burkhalter trapped in town. The 89-year-old great- grandmother spends up to four months each year gallivanting by bus everywhere from Vancouver to Miami. Says she about a Greyhound-free Bishop: "Perish the thought!"

With reporting by Lee Griggs/Bishop