DALLAS Greyhound Lines multimillion-dollar program to renovate terminals and upgrade customer service will be spread across its entire system by Thanksgiving.

At the same time, Greyhound has announced it is cutting fares in selected markets to boost ridership.

Greyhound launched its "Elevate Everything" initiative as a pilot program in June 2005, along the Chicago-Milwaukee-Minneapolis corridor. The program is designed to improve the travel experience of Greyhound customers, and is being implemented at major facilities across the country.

The program elements include refurbished coaches, with new livery, and more comfortable seats with movable armrests, automatic footrests and magazine straps.

Drivers and terminal employees are getting new uniforms, and terminals have been upgraded, with many adding new signage, plasma televisions, renovated bathrooms, new food service concepts, and other changes.

The company also has introduced a greeter position to answer questions and assist customers. And the youngest Greyhound customers receive an activity book to entertain them as part of a new "Traveling Kids Club."

"We are working hard to make sure our customers enjoy their travel experience with Greyhound by improving every customer touch point," says Greyhound President and CEO Steve Gorman.

"We are totally committed to our efforts to rejuvenate our iconic brand and meet our customers expectations of a more enjoyable experience."

Greyhound customers can even avoid lines at ticket counters with a new e-ticketing feature, which allows them to print tickets purchased online and proceed straight to the gate between New York and Boston, Philadelphia, Baltimore and Washington, D.C., and Los Angeles and Las Vegas.

Gorman notes that many of customers who will be using the upgraded terminals and riding in the refurbished coaches also will be enjoying reduced fares.

"Greyhound has a long history of providing affordable travel," he said. "In a time of increasingly expensive travel costs, we are continuing our tradition of low-cost, convenient transportation."

Greyhounds parent company, Laidlaw International, revealed in January that Greyhound was starting to experience resistance to price increases the company implemented during much of fiscal 2006. The price increases totaled nearly 11 percent in the 12 months ended Aug. 31, 2006.

In the quarter ended Nov. 30, 2006, Greyhound experienced an 8 percent drop in revenue from a year earlier.

Laidlaw is projecting that revenues will generally be flat at Greyhound during fiscal 2007 and the company will not be buying many new buses.

However, for fiscal 2008 and 2009, Greyhound is expected to show revenue growth and resume new-coach buying.