New bunk bed-lined 'Sleepbus' drives riders from SF to LA overnight for less than $50

[Liberal_in_LA]

Source: sfgate








The drive to Los Angeles from San Francisco is one of the most boring a person from the Bay Area can take. Hours upon hours of bleak landscapes and expensive gas stations, followed by traffic as you get into Southern California — no, thanks.

However, for some of us it's a necessity, and sometimes flying is just not an option.

That's the market Sleepbus is aiming to disrupt. The new auto service has been shuttling passengers through the night from San Francisco to Los Angeles through the night, with bunk beds, all for $48 one way. On each trip, 11-12 passengers depart San Francisco around 11 p.m. in a large commercial truck trailer, and arrive in L.A. six to seven hours later. Guests are even allowed to sleep in a little bit after the bus lands in Southern California.

And for those night owls with too much to do, the ticket also includes Wi-Fi, coffee, power outlets, workstation tables, and a reading light.

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/news/article/New-bunk-bed-lined-Sleepbus-drives-you-from-SF-7945921.php

[MADem]

1. I LOVE this idea~! I would take that bus~! nt

[Liberal_in_LA]

2. What level? Floor level would be weird.

[milestogo]

3. No seat belts?

[ForgoTheConsequence]

7. haha.

You've never ridden a bus before, have you?

[Judi Lynn]

4. Wonderful! What a great idea. n/t

[Mike__M]

5. Amtrak should have been doing this for decades

And hostels, too. America can be so slow.

[FBaggins]

15. Amtrak HAS been doing it for decades

And with significantly more comfortable accommodations

[IronLionZion]

16. Amtrak can be just as expensive as flying

I've used it on the east coast and liked it, but not sure it's worth the cost.

[1monster]

25. Amtrak is often much more expensive than flying...

[oberliner]

17. No it hasn't

There is no Amtrak train that leaves from San Francisco.

And a ride from Emeryville (the closes Amtrak station to SF) to Los Angeles in a roomette like that costs over $300.

[FBaggins]

34. I just looked and it was $225pp for two in a roomette

Keep in mind that that includes a much higher level of service than either this bus service or an airline can provide.

However, the "it/this" that I was referring to was the ability to sleep in a bed while traveling, not the specifics of schedule/pricing. I love traveling long distance on Amtrak when my schedule/budget can accommodate it.

To me, the most appealing part of this new service is that it travels overnight (the Amtrak service between LA/SF leaves in the morning and arrives at night). This allows the traveler to save the price of a night in a hotel and effectively knock out a day of travel.

[Bluenorthwest]

28. It's smaller than it looks, costs twice the price of flying and does not go to San Francisco.

nt

[FBaggins]

33. I can't tell how large it "looks" to you, but it's MUCH larger than a bunk of a truck conversion

An Amtrak roomette (their smallest sleeping accommodation) would be much more comfortable than this service. The bus isn't going to have a café car, or a domed observation lounge (included) or a first class dining car with freshly-prepared meals (included), nor access to a shower (included), nor the ability to reconfigure the space to have two business-class seats with a table and picture window.

does not go to San Francisco.

Ok. It goes to Oakland with a bus transfer to San Francisco. Big deal. It's still closer than the airport (and presumably some people want to go to Oakland).

[Mike__M]

37. I'd prefer just the bunks if they're cheap

Like a ride through Italy in my youth. A place to lie down is all I'd want. The regular Amtrak seats get pretty uncomfortable around 1 a.m., worse than Greyhound. Other than that, I like rail travel.

Last trip from San Luis Obispo CA to Portland OR, I saw some backpackers stretch out on the floor in the cabin set aside for video games, but they were shooed back to their seats.

People used to camp out on the deck of the Alaska state ferries to save the expense of a cabin. It's been many years, but I bet they still do.

Making travel affordable to the less-well-off is not a bad idea, in my opinion.

[FBaggins]

38. I've done the same thing in Italy and much of Europe

Hotels can be expensive and traveling during the day cuts into the sightseeing.

I'll still do it for longer hauls, but not in Italy any longer. I just get up early and take the "Ferrari train". Still plenty of daylight when we arrive because they're so fast.

[Sen. Walter Sobchak]

6. Yeah, No.

I'm going to pay another $30 and fly JetBlue via Long Beach.

[Crash2Parties]

8. While the SFGate article was a wonderful embedded ad,

All I can think of is this (from wiki):

Chewing lice live among the hairs or feathers of their host and feed on skin and debris, while sucking lice pierce the host's skin and feed on blood and other secretions. They usually spend their whole life on a single host, cementing their eggs, which are known as nits, to hairs or feathers. The eggs hatch into nymphs, which moult three times before becoming fully grown, a process that takes about four weeks.

Humans host three species of louse, the head louse, the body louse and the pubic louse. The body louse has the smallest genome of any known insect; it has been used as a model organism and has been the subject of much research.

[keylargo]

10. So technically,

they could live just about anywhere? Having traveled in 62 countries and using just about every means of transportation known to man, including sleeper buses, I have never had a case of lice. Found a few bed bugs but never lice.

[Hekate]

9. Zzzzzzz

Actually the scenery along the coast is lovely until you get to Los Angeles -- it's just a very long drive. I like Amtrak.

[TeamPooka]

11. The drive to Los Angeles from San Francisco is one of the most beautiful rides in the country

leave LA and take the slowest road, the PCH (Rt. 1) all the way to Monterrey, then to SF.

[truthisfreedom]

12. I don't get how this is a business model.

Almost no income!

[truthisfreedom]

13. I figure 6mpg diesel, 64 gallons one way

2.67 a gallon is $170 in diesel alone, plus the driver has to be paid for at least 8 hours, figure $200 minimum, so we are at $370 in expenses before we even touch the cost and maintenance and insurance for the vehicle, never mind the insurance for the occupants! 12 people at $48 each? That's only $576! It can't work!

[eShirl]

14. maybe there is a hold for carrying a small amount of valuable cargo somewhere

[jomin41]

18. You Win! lol

[Iggo]

22. Ah, The Azul.

[jomin41]

19. Republican economics...

They make it up on volume.

[Xithras]

31. Your wage scale may be a little off.

The average pay for bus drivers in California is about $13.50 an hour (it's a pretty shit paying job). The drive itself is 6 hours, so when you factor in loading and unloading times, that's going to put the shift right around 8 hours even. Even factoring in things like workers comp insurance and UI costs, I doubt the company pays over $150 per driver, per day.

[FBaggins]

35. They also likely get better than 6mpg

However - that's still not low enough for the advertised price to cover the capital expenditure in the vehicle (plus insurance, maintenance, the service onboard, etc...).

I suspect that what's missing in the equation is that the sub-$50 price is a teaser rate for the first couple bunks or for certain nights. There are plenty of airlines that regularly advertise route rates that are WELL below the break-even point for that flight. It's just that very few passengers get that rate.

[Xithras]

36. The article also says they're already raising rates.

Demand is so high that they're not taking any new reservations now. When they resume in August, the rate will be $65.

I also have to wonder if that rate is actually for EVERYTHING. The article says that there are seats and desks on the bus for those who prefer to work. It's possible that there's one rate for those, and another for the sleeper berth.

Who knows

[Recursion]

20. MegaBus and Bolt do Boston->DC for $8 on weeknights (or did, a few years ago)

Took that one a lot. They must have been making money off of it (it also may be a fleet-repositioning thing, just like you can get wicked cheap cruises when they need to move the boat from point A to point B).

[villager]

21. They've been doing the LA/Bay Area run for awhile now, too

For less than the cost of gas, usually, I can get myself up there relatively quickly (a tad longer than driving, but not much) and easily...

[name not needed]

29. Jesus, that's cheaper than the Fung Wah Bus.

Does MegaBus also feature live chickens and a pit stop at McDonalds?

[Recursion]

30. I was once riding the Fung Wah, and the door fell off.

Right on the Garden State Parkway: the. fucking. door. fell. off.

[randr]

23. Need one where I live-Sign me UP

Flying out of Denver from Western Colorado takes a whole extra day. Most cheap flights are morning so if I could catch a sleeper bus over night to DIA for an early flight out it would save me a whole day of travel and expenses of staying overnight in Denver.
This is a wonderful solution.

[Iggo]

24. The Big Bus. (For no other reason than I love this movie.)

[yourpaljoey]

32. That's different

[Marengo]

26. These were rather common in China when I lived there about a decade ago...

Saw quite a few sleeper buses on the roads over there.

[allan01]

27. this

new to us but not to the rest of the world .

[elljay]

39. It should be a blimp!

Someone may have proposed this year's ago. I'd love to get on a blimp, have dinner while looking at the sunset, then take a leisurely overnight trip. Breakfast in the skies over LA. I'd do it just for the fun.