Greyhound buses: Do they check ID (in the South)?

Started by kylie, June 29, 2012, 06:03:08 PM

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kylie

     Meanwhile in the continuing misadventures of Kylie...  I am relocating after my only picture ID -- a passport -- just expired (oops!). 

No, I cannot get another quickly.  "Quickly" would translate into sitting still for 3 weeks, with no job and no ID to get a documented job, which means zero to little income and generally holding up plans to get resettled.

As it turns out, there are certain passport offices where you can expedite-renew a passport with no requirement to show that you're actually flying out of the country pronto.  Curiously, these tend to be in smaller cities off the major transit routes.  If you are in a big central location, you are expected to simply wait longer.  Huh!!  Are they afraid people will have too many ways to fly in and out of the major cities on a crime spree with a rapid turnaround, or did the small places get more funding by meeting some nasty standards to include expedited service?  I have no idea...

     So....  Rather than sit on my thumbs, I may purchase a bus ticket for Passport Central, Middle of Nowhere Arkansas. Due to it being a small city, the only bus service I see is Greyhound.  That's Greyhound across the Southeast.   

     I am wondering: Has anyone riding Greyhound lately, noticed if there are actual checks for photo ID -- particularly, after boarding the first bus?  You can buy a ticket online and pick up the ticket with a password.  One service agent told me I should be okay showing my ticket, and the website says you can pick up the ticket with just the password.  However, I'm reading conflicting reports in various forums about whether the buses might require some picture ID during the trip, to re-board at rest stops, etc.   Just hoping not to be stranded in some little town halfway to Passport Agency, Timbuktu because some replacement driver decided not to let me back on. 

Btw...  I really know nothing about that state.  I'm just really bewildered at having to go all the way there for no other immediate purpose.  So if you're from central Arkansas and want to tell me what wonders I'm as yet oblivious to, this is also your chance  8-)
     

Inkidu

Keep your receipt, keep the passport, and keep  your ticket. I don't think it would be a big problem, and you can always try explaining to the Greyhound people that:

"Hey, all I have is this passport. It expired, but it's all I've got right now and I'm trying to get it renewed. I need to finish this trip."

If you're searching the lines for a point, well you've probably missed it; there was never anything there in the first place.

Observing Trifles

I can't say as I've traveled in that part of the US before. However, I've been on Greyhound more times than I can count with multiple stops and transfers along the way. I was able to pick up my ticket at the station with only a password, and I was never asked to show ID along the way, not even when I transferred buses. They'll ask you to verify where you're headed, but that's about it. Generally, as long as you have your ticket and you're not causing a scene on the bus/in the station, Greyhound doesn't seem to care much about your ID.

Again, I've never used Greyhound in that area of the US before, but I'm fairly certain that this is a standard Greyhound practice.
|| the hunt ||

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i'm a winged insect, you're a funeral pyre.
come now, bite through these wires;
i'm a waking hell and the gods grow tired.

kylie

     Thanks.  Nobody checked me either, as it turns out. 

I found you can even buy a "Will Call" ticket straight away in the station with a credit/debit card and no ID.