Greyhound Buses To Begin Service From London

In the classic paean to their homeland, "America", Simon and Garfunkel (almost) sang about "boarding the Greyhound to Portsmouth". They'll get the chance now should they fancy a jaunt to England's coast: for the first time ever, the iconic Greyhound bus will roll out of London en route to Southampton and Portsmouth from mid-September. The decision to introduce Greyhound to Britain was made by the company's Scottish-based owners, FirstGroup, who bought the ailing firm in 2007 for £1.9 billion. In the US, Greyhound has lost some of the chic associated with Beat generation poets and Wrigley's commercials, and is nowadays viewed sniffily as the method of transport for the desperately poor or the criminal. The UK service will try to capture a higher end of the market, with buses offering free wifi access, roomy leather seats, and complementary newspapers, but they'll also import a slice of Americana by naming the buses after famous names from American songs, such as "Barbara Ann", "Peggy Sue" and, if we're lucky, "Billie Jean". (Image / Lee Otis)