It’s a sad day for bus passengers using Greyhound and Citiliner as the company plans to discontinue services this month.
The company announced in a tweet that services will run until February 14, 2021.
Dubbed as South Africa’s favourite luxury coach solution, Greyhound has operated since 1984.
Announcement: Greyhound and Citiliner are closing operations. Services will run until 14 February 2021. Passengers with tickets booked for services after this date will be refunded. For assistance with refunds, contact Call Centre: 087 352 0352 or email: [email protected]. pic.twitter.com/n6kFJ0uQaO
— Greyhound (@GreyhoundRSA) February 3, 2021
Greyhound transported 804 293 passengers over 25 million kilometres of the road every year.
When Citiliner branched out from its big brother Greyhound in 2005, it aimed to bring affordable bus travel to Africa. Citiliner transported over 500 000 passengers over 8 million kilometres in Southern Africa.
Many travellers relied on Greyhound and Citiliner to transport them to various parts of the country - from Johannesburg to Durban to Port Elizabeth.
Besides its affordability, travellers got to witness small towns and picturesque landscapes during their journeys.
Many South Africans took to Twitter to respond to the news.
User @samethotty commented: "Damn, some fond memories of traveling to and from kzn to wits on greyhound." (sic)
User @julius_thamana commented: "Fond memories of using your buses for long distance travelling ." (sic)
Another user @Khwezi_bass commented: "What??? I've always booked Greyhound whenever I didn't board an airline, for the last 15 years. I really hope y'all will eventually relaunch, sometime in the future." (sic)
Ticket refunds
The company will refund passengers who have already pre-booked.
"Passengers with tickets booked after February 14, 2021 will be refunded. For assistance with refunds, contact Call Centre: 087 352 0352 or email: [email protected]," the company said in a tweet.