Ride the Greyhounds

GRHC - December 9th, 2011

In August of 1924, four new Fageol Safety Coaches premium passenger buses were added to the Grand Rapids Greyhound fleet, offering daily service.

Transcript

The Safety Motor Coach Line operated “The Greyhounds” between Grand Rapids and Muskegon. Two new Fageol Safety Coaches were added in August of 1924, making a fleet of four. Each coach, with an inside luggage carrier and a smoking compartment, could comfortably accommodate twenty-two passengers. Fageol, an Oakland, California company, was founded in 1916. In 1921 it became the first to build a bus from the ground up. Called the Safety Coach it had a wide track, was lower to the ground to ensure passenger safety, and for ease of entry and exit.

Originally providing service between Grand Rapids and Muskegon “The Greyhounds” offered six round trips daily. The excursion took one hour and forty-five minutes; the fare was $1.25. By 1926 “The Greyhounds” offered service three time daily to Fremont, five daily trips to Benton Harbor, six to Ludington, every hour to Muskegon, and for a $10 round trip ticket you had a choice of three times for travel to Chicago. Of course, all routes included stops in between. The Chicago route offered parlor and observation coaches with luxurious air-cushioned wicker armchairs to relax in and watch the world go by.

Advertisements noted two stations in Grand Rapids: the Crathmore Hotel on Ionia Southwest, across from the Union Depot, or the Rowe Hotel at the corner of Monroe and Michigan. Your station stop in Chicago was on South Michigan Ave. at the Congress Hotel with its fashionable Peacock Alley.