British backpacker left alone at night by Greyhound bus in outback

A British backpacker was left stranded at an outback toilet block in the middle of the night after her interstate coach service departed without her.

Emma had been travelling Australia since late August and on September 5 boarded a Greyhound bus at Alice Springs heading towards Adelaide.

She said the bus made a scheduled stop at Pimba around midnight, and the driver had increased the stop time to 25 minutes after the bathroom onboard the vehicle had a malfunction.

"[The driver] said he's going to ... add an extra five minutes onto what would have been a 20-minute stop at Pimba," Emma said. 

"There's a queue to get into the loos, of course, so I queue, and I wait, and then I get in there, use the loo, brush my teeth." 

Emma said about 15 minutes had passed from the time the bus had pulled in when she exited the toilet, leaving her about 10 minutes to return to her seat.

"I leave and the bus isn't there."

Emma said she had been left alone at the truck stop toilets, near a service station, which was shut at that time of the night, in the remote locality surrounded by desert and scrub.

"It was four degrees that night, I found out later, I had my little rucksack, a little bit of water, no food, didn't have my passport, didn't have anything – most of my stuff was still on the bus," Emma said.

"So at that point I start sort of worrying a bit more, I call Greyhound, they don't answer."

Waiting for a lift

Emma said she rang Triple Zero (000) for help — eventually a police vehicle undertaking a custody transfer from Roxby Downs to Port Augusta picked her up at about 2:30am.

"It was so nice to be warm and safe, because by 2:30, I'd been out there for nearly three hours," she said.

"I'm standing in the toilet block because it's slightly sheltered and therefore about a couple of degrees warmer than the rest of the place."

The tourist was able to collect most of her belongings, except for one bag, at Port Augusta after the local police liaised with Greyhound.

She then booked a regional bus through a different company to get to Adelaide. 

"I went to considerable extra expense because I had to buy a hotel and breakfast and food, and another bus to Adelaide because they [Greyhound] didn't take me to Adelaide the way they were supposed to," she said. 

"I'd probably want my ticket back and a bit of compensation as well because you don't endanger your passengers like that."

Emma's backpack was meant to be left for collection at Adelaide's Central Bus Station, however she said the bag was dropped off at another location outside of the CBD. 

"Then started a lovely five-hour adventure trying to extract it [the backpack] from them," she said.

Greyhound investigating incident

In a statement, Greyhound Australia said its investigation into the incident was ongoing, but confirmed a passenger "did not return to the coach following a scheduled comfort stop at Pimba".

After receiving notification of the incident, Greyhound Australia said it "worked with police to locate the passenger and assist them to a place of safety".

The company said it provided "24/7 customer support" through 1300 GREYHOUND with "an out-of-hours emergency service available" for urgent travel-related matters.

It said customers could also reach out on the Greyhound website and its online chatbot.

"We have not identified any issues indicating the emergency service was unavailable during the period in question," the spokesperson said.

"The safety and wellbeing of our passengers remains our highest priority.

"While our review remains ongoing, it would be inappropriate for Greyhound to comment on individual allegations or unverified claims relating to operational matters that are still being investigated."

Greyhound said its Adelaide-based supervisor was at the depot for approximately 90 minutes with the passenger's luggage but when she did not arrive, the bag was arranged to be transferred on a subsequent service to be delivered to her final destination.

Emma said having backpacked on buses around the world, her experience in Australia left much to be desired.

"The quality and feel of safety is about the standard that I met in Bolivia, which had some pretty old and pretty knackered buses," she said.