Grey Rabbit, also known as Grey Rabbit Camper Tours, was an American company based in the

San Francisco Bay Area The San Francisco Bay Area, commonly known as the Bay Area, is a List of regions of California, region of California surrounding and including San Francisco Bay, and anchored by the cities of Oakland, San Francisco, and San Jose, California, S ...

that operated long-distance bus service from 1971 to 1983. It was one of a few small, long-distance bus companies established in the U.S. in the 1970s that specialized in inexpensive, no-frills, cross-country bus service using old secondhand buses and attracting

counterculture A counterculture is a culture whose values and norms of behavior differ substantially from those of mainstream society, sometimes diametrically opposed to mainstream cultural mores.Eric Donald Hirsch. ''The Dictionary of Cultural Literacy''. Ho ...

passengers. It was the first, and was also the biggest, best-known, and "most successful" of them in its first several years. A ''

Washington Post ''The Washington Post'', locally known as ''The'' ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'' or ''WP'', is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C., the national capital. It is the most widely circulated newspaper in the Washington m ...

'' columnist in 1978 referred to Grey Rabbit as "the granddaddy" of the five such "alternative" bus companies existing at that time, also known as "underground" bus companies and "

hippie A hippie, also spelled hippy, especially in British English, is someone associated with the counterculture of the 1960s, counterculture of the mid-1960s to early 1970s, originally a youth movement that began in the United States and spread to dif ...

bus" companies. It operated mainly in two areas: between California and the

Pacific Northwest The Pacific Northwest (PNW; ) is a geographic region in Western North America bounded by its coastal waters of the Pacific Ocean to the west and, loosely, by the Rocky Mountains to the east. Though no official boundary exists, the most common ...

and on a cross-country route between

San Francisco San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...

and

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York New York may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * ...

Green Tortoise Green Tortoise Adventure Travel is an American long-distance tour bus service, tour bus company founded by Gardner Kent in mid-1973 and based in San Francisco, California. It provides tourism, tours in North America, mostly within the United Stat ...

, which was established in 1973 and named after Grey Rabbit, became Grey Rabbit's main competition in the small field, and eventually bought it out.

History

Founded in 1971 by Lester Rall (born c.1940) with a single

Volkswagen bus Volkswagen Bus or Volkswagen Van is a type of vehicle produced by Volkswagen/Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles. There have been a number of notable versions of it produced. Volkswagen Bus light commercial vehicles Six generations of Volkswagen Transp ...

, the service was originally known as the Traveling Magical Universe and operated only along the Pacific Coast. Rall eventually named the service Grey Rabbit, which one writer described as "a reference to the animal used as 'bait' in dog races, a wry allusion to all'srelationship with the

Greyhound The English Greyhound, or simply the Greyhound, is a dog breed, breed of dog, a sighthound which has been bred for coursing, greyhound racing and hunting. Some are kept as show dogs or pets. Greyhounds are defined as a tall, muscular, smooth-c ...

Bus Company". Another writer said the name was chosen so that it would appear "next to Greyhound in the phone book". In 1972, Rall acquired an old

school bus A school bus is any type of bus owned, leased, contracted to, or operated by a school or school district. It is regularly used to Student transport, transport students to and from school or school-related activities, but not including a charter ...

and, in 1973, three secondhand Greyhound buses. By that time, Grey Rabbit had established regular weekly cross-country service between

and

, with the New York trips subsequently being extended to

Boston Boston is the capital and most populous city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. The city serves as the cultural and Financial centre, financial center of New England, a region of the Northeas ...

. Regular service also operating between the

Bay Area The San Francisco Bay Area, commonly known as the Bay Area, is a region of California surrounding and including San Francisco Bay, and anchored by the cities of Oakland, San Francisco, and San Jose. The Association of Bay Area Governments ...

and

Portland Portland most commonly refers to: *Portland, Oregon, the most populous city in the U.S. state of Oregon *Portland, Maine, the most populous city in the U.S. state of Maine *Isle of Portland, a tied island in the English Channel Portland may also r ...

Seattle Seattle ( ) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Washington and in the Pacific Northwest region of North America. With a population of 780,995 in 2024, it is the 18th-most populous city in the United States. The city is the cou ...

and

Vancouver, B.C. Vancouver is a major city in Western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the city, up from 631,486 in 2016. The Met ...

, Canada. Within a few years, the company's fleet of buses had grown to 10. A handful of similar but smaller "alternative bus" companies were launched in the 1970s, based on Grey Rabbit's example, and they were sometimes collectively referred to as "Grey Rabbits". Typically operating without a commercial license and often with just a single bus, their names included The Lame Duck, Blue Goose, The Red Bus and the Iron Pony. All but Grey Rabbit and

were out of business by 1982. The buses that provided the service were old, secondhand

transit bus A transit bus (also big bus, commuter bus, city bus, town bus, urban bus, stage bus, public bus, public transit bus, or simply bus) is a type of bus used in public transport bus services. Several configurations are used, including low-floo ...

es or highway coaches that were modified inside, with almost all passenger seats removed and replaced by beds. They lacked bathrooms. In 1977, the schedule included two San Francisco–New York–Boston trips per week in each direction, and the journey took three or four days. There were weekly departures from the Bay Area north to Vancouver, B.C., and south to

Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

. As of 1977, the company had four ticket outlets in the Bay Area. In addition to its low fares, about half those of Greyhound, another feature that attracted some riders was the casual atmosphere found on the Grey Rabbit and other "hippie bus" lines of the 1970s, in which conversation and interaction between riders who were strangers before boarding was welcomed in a way not commonly seen on conventional long-distance bus services. For its first 10 years, Grey Rabbit operated without having a license from the

Interstate Commerce Commission The Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC) was a regulatory agency in the United States created by the Interstate Commerce Act of 1887. The agency's original purpose was to regulate railroads (and later Trucking industry in the United States, truc ...

(ICC) permitting interstate operation—"in violation of the law, a sort of '

guerilla Guerrilla warfare is a form of unconventional warfare in which small groups of irregular military, such as rebels, partisans, paramilitary personnel or armed civilians, which may include recruited children, use ambushes, sabotage, terrorism ...

Greyhound'", a reporter for the ''

Eugene Register-Guard ''The Register-Guard'' is a daily newspaper in the northwestern United States, published in Eugene, Oregon. It was formed in a 1930 merger of two Eugene papers, the ''Eugene Daily Guard'' and the ''Morning Register''. The paper serves the Eugene ...

'' wrote. In 1976, the ''

San Francisco Examiner The ''San Francisco Examiner'' is a newspaper distributed in and around San Francisco, California, and has been published since 1863. Once self-dubbed the "Monarch of the Dailies" by then-owner William Randolph Hearst and the flagship of the He ...

'' wrote that Grey Rabbit "and five or six other alternative bus operators ... have kept a safe jump or two ahead of the Interstate Commerce Commission, local authorities and the bus companies – Greyhound and Trailways – who represent everything the Grey Rabbits and their passengers don't". The ''Register-Guard'' wrote that Rall employed various tactics to avoid trouble with authorities, such as "schooling passengers to say they were friends on an outing rather than riders on a for-hire bus" or "creating the Church of World Community Consciousness, selling the buses to the church, ordaining the drivers as 'ministers' and calling the fares 'donations'." The Church of World Community Consciousness was recognized only in

Oregon Oregon ( , ) is a U.S. state, state in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. It is a part of the Western U.S., with the Columbia River delineating much of Oregon's northern boundary with Washington (state), Washington, while t ...

. Chief competitor Green Tortoise was also operating without a license from the ICC at that time, doing so for its first seven years, until obtaining a license in 1981. In June 1981, the ICC granted Grey Rabbit a temporary permit, and Lester Rall attempted to obtain a permanent one. Meanwhile, in 1981, the company was operating only between San Francisco and Seattle, no longer cross-country, and its fleet of buses numbered five, all about 25 years old. Grey Rabbit was based in

Berkeley, California Berkeley ( ) is a city on the eastern shore of San Francisco Bay in northern Alameda County, California, United States. It is named after the 18th-century Anglo-Irish bishop and philosopher George Berkeley. It borders the cities of Oakland, Cali ...

, at that time. Its fare for a trip between San Francisco and

Eugene Eugene may refer to: People and fictional characters * Eugene (given name), including a list of people and fictional characters with the given name * Gene Eugene, stage name of Canadian born actor, record producer, engineer, composer and musi ...

was $35, which was only half the price that mainstream carriers

and

Trailways The Trailways Transportation System is a public transport bus service in the United States. It operates a network of approximately 70 independent bus companies. The company is headquartered in Fairfax, Virginia. History The predecessor to Tra ...

were charging for the same trip at that time. Federal deregulation of long-distance bus service in 1982 reduced or removed the remaining restrictions on the company's ability to operate legally. The U.S. deregulation of airlines that was put into effect in the late 1970s led to major reductions in prices for air travel. Grey Rabbit and similar companies were unable to compete, even for low-budget travelers. Keeping the elderly buses running was also an ongoing challenge. Grey Rabbit ceased operation in 1983, and was acquired by Green Tortoise, who also acquired the rights to the name (but did not use them).

History

See also

References

Further reading