When the Hotline Rings: A Night at the Bus Station
A Guest Blog By Mike Zahra, Rapid Response Hotline Volunteer
On March 12, while working a shift as an operator for the St. Louis Rapid Response Hotline, I received a call from a BJC Caseworker about a Venezuelan family of four immigrants who had become stranded at the Greyhound bus station in downtown St. Louis. They were traveling to Phoenix, Arizona, but ran into a problem with their tickets and were unable to continue their journey.
The The Ashrei Foundation quickly stepped in and offered to purchase new bus tickets so the family could continue their trip. I went to the station to help them navigate the process and make sure they had something to eat. Another volunteer brought blankets to help them get through the night.
When I arrived, it was already late evening. The ticket counter had closed, and the only way to purchase tickets was through an ATM-style vending machine. The price for three adults and one child to take a bus the next morning was $1,056.97.
I’ve never traveled long distance by bus in this country and was surprised to learn that Greyhound Lines can charge airline-level prices for what would be a 30-hour bus ride. But these were last-minute tickets, and the family had no other options.
One of the passengers mentioned that the teenager in the family qualified for a child’s fare. Thinking it might save the foundation some money, I went back a screen to change the tickets from three adults and one child to two adults and two children.
Instead of lowering the price, the total jumped to $1,349.97.
Greyhound’s dynamic pricing algorithm had increased the cost by nearly 30% in an instant.
Most of us have encountered dynamic pricing before. It’s increasingly common and widely accepted in many industries. But like many forms of economic exploitation, it tends to fall hardest on people with the fewest options.
Absent a debilitating phobia, no one with the means to avoid a 30-hour bus ride would choose it over a three-hour flight. Yet for people without resources—or for families suddenly stranded in an unfamiliar city—there may be no alternative.
Being poor in America is already expensive. When corporations apply aggressive pricing tactics to essential travel used primarily by people with limited means, it deepens that burden.
Thanks to community support and quick coordination through the STL Rapid Response Hotline network, this family was able to secure tickets and continue their journey the next morning, but this situation was a reminder that when people fall through the cracks of complex systems—immigration systems, transportation systems, economic systems—it is often community that steps in to catch them.
The St. Louis Rapid Response Coalition exists for moments like this: when a call comes in, volunteers answer and do what they can to make sure people are not alone in a moment of crisis.
Community response makes these acts of care possible.
You can learn more about the Rapid Response Coalition and ways to lend your time here.
Your financial contribution makes quick, caring help and access, like the help in this situation possible.
