Yes indeed – though a suburban/commuter version and not a transit one. Pacific Greyhound had the commuter contract for southern and northern California in the early 70’s, before it transferred in 1972 to Golden Gate Transit in the north and the SCRTD down south.
Golden Gate Transit leased 20 of these SDMs from Greyhound until their own new S8M 5304 units arrived several months later.
While this was probably routine for most Californians, as a Midwesterner, this would have been a strange sight seeing “The Dog” on the side of these New Looks back in the day.
If it’s been awhile, take a re-look at Paul’s excellent post for all things Fishbowl.
I was aware of the contract Greyhound had for commuter bus service, but it’s nice to see these shots.
One gloomy cold winter morning as I was driving my fishbowl jammed full of workers headed for their cubicles at ACT out near I-80, and I suddenly announced that the bus had been hijacked to Florida. There were some cheers, giggles and a few groans. It was very tempting to just get on I-80 and hit the road. I might have liked driving a Greyhound bus more than a small town transit bus, with the endless 30 minute loops.
If I ever wanted a bis, it would be one of these. Once again the GM we once knew and loved, long gone, at it’s best.
OK, but what’s that old-look Greyhound bus in the background of the 2nd pic?
Obviously part of the same fleet of Greyhound buses servicing this contract, which went back some years. Did someone say that only new-look buses were used?
The Old-Look bus was a GM TDM5103, from 1951. Pacific Greyhound, a Western Greyhound predecessor, was the only buyer of those buses. The New-Looks we’re seeing were TDM5303s, the only ones built for the contiguous 48 States; 2 operators in Hawaii got the rest; one was preserved. Before I go, Pacific Greyhound also got the only TDM4801s, a group bought in 1954.
I’ve never seen a TDM5103 used as a Greyhound bus even in photos until now.
True, for some reason, the Fishbowls got more attention than the 5100 series GM buses both in actual vehicles and bus replicas.
The Greyhound contracts for commuter services were a kind of sweetheart deal.
A substantial share of Western Greyhound Lines was held by Southern Pacific Company. When SP began discontinuance of its smaller commute (never spelled with an “r”) rail services in various places in California, deals were struck to have Western Greyhound take over those routes. In the San Francisco area, those routes were to Marin and the local service in San Mateo County. Eventually the Marin (and Sonoma) routes went to the Golden Gate Highway and Transportation District; the San Mateo routes to San Mateo Transit…SAMTRANS.
The divestiture of SP’s commute rail services did not include its San Francisco-San Jose route which was first subsidized beginning in 1980 and finally transferred to CalTrain management in 1987 and sold to an agency run by the Peninsula Corridor Joint Powers Board in 1991.
In a very recent development not taking effect until April 2026, the former Greyhound, now Golden Gate local service north of San Rafael into Sonoma County is to be discontinued. Only a peak-hour commuter bus operation is to remain. The governing powers hope that riders will instead use the SMART rail transit system instead.
I grew up in Palo Alto and remember these well. Here’s a picture of one leaving the old Greyhound station there.
Corgi made a really nice 1:50 version with Palo Alto on the destination board, which I’m happy to own.
Birmingham, Alabama Transit Company had a few, maybe ten, V6 Hydraulic drive transit type New Looks acquired from Greyhound after the close of the New York Worlds Fair. They had a plaque on the dash that read “Leased from Greyhound Corporation 12-9-1965.”
Their 102″ width was a bit intimidating at first, and the perimeter seating a few of them had was new to us too. The V6 was so woefully underpowered most drivers simply gave up on trying to run the air conditioning.