Who uses the Greyhound bus line (besides the very poor)?

[pstokely]

http://consumerist.com/consumer/notag/greyhound-bites-family-278610.php

Sometimes it's cheaper to fly. A one-way ticket from San Francisco to Miami isn't much more on a plane (sometimes cheaper). Delays are also shorter.

http://www.greyhound.com/scripts/en/TicketCenter/Step4.asp

http://travel.travelocity.com/flights/AirSearch.do?SEQ=1191462200073932007

[From The Ashes]

1. I used it...

...to go from Toledo Ohio to San Antonio Texas. It was a very long trip and I found it next to impossible to sleep. The buses are clean and well maintained.

If the price is the same I'd fly. Just my

[pstokely]

4. How long ago was that?

[From The Ashes]

6. 1 month ago today...

:hi:

Edited: I bought the ticket 2 weeks in advance which made it very cheap. $88 compared to $164 for same day travel.

[ElizabethDC]

2. Students use it

I'm a college student, and my friends take it all the time.

[mitchum]

14. Yes, I used it all of the time when I was in college...

I didn't need a car at school, but I did need to go see my family from time to time

[enigmatic]

3. I used it to cross the country for more than a decade

As gritty as it was sometimes, I'd never trade those trips for anything.

[pitohui]

5. crazy people not legal to drive and naive europeans who don't realize it costs more by bus

"not much more on a plane" works out to "much more" on the bus because of the time it takes/the fact you gotta feed yourself

basically it preys on young gap year students from europe who have no idea how slow, unsafe, and unreliable it is -- and of course on the people in such desperate straits they can't get on a plane

yes, i've been there, done that, but i would have to be worried about being arrested for a SERIOUS crime before i chose the bus instead of the plane again

when you consider all the costs, the plane is cheaper, and miserable as it is, it's not yet as miserable as greyhound

[snailly]

7. This is over 15 years ago but I used to take it regularly

back and forth to college. All trips were entertaining but some were downright scary. I never got a wink of sleep for safety reasons. The price was good though.

[Orrex]

8. Here's a cautionary tale now fifteen years past

Near the end of my 44-hour journey from Austin, TX to Allentown, PA back in 1992, I chanced to find myself wedged between the window and a man named John who was large enough to occupy the whole double-seat all by himself. Not to disparage the overweight--I'm simply stating a fact of physical dimensions. He was a car salesman from NJ and was returning home after delivering a car to his daughter in Ohio somewhere. We were sitting about 3/4 of the way to the rear of the bus, on the right side.

About ten minutes out of Harrisburg, a guy at about the bus' midpoint struggled to his feet and wobbled down the aisle to speak with the driver. Even from behind, he seemed disoriented, and suddenly the driver barked "This bus is going to Allentown. Allentown!"

So the guy wandered about halfway back to his original seat and flopped into a different unoccupied one. People near me speculated that he might be illiterate, or impaired, or not a native speaker of English and thus unable to read a schedule or the like...

Twenty minutes later he let loose this high-pitched gurgling sound, and he reached across the aisle, grabbed the passenger seated there, and rasped "Kill me! Please kill me!" Then he sprang to his feet and started flailing about, shrieking and sobbing. Everyone immediately freaked out, not least the driver. By this time we were on some interstate or other major route, I believe, with no exit very nearby.

This was long before 9/11, of course, but pretty much everyone assumed that the guy was a crazed murderer itching to gun us all down. Alternatively, we expected an alien larva to burst from his chest.

No one had cellphones back then, either.

Anyway, John leapt from his seat, charged down the aisle, and bear-hugged the guy; John was big enough to restrain him, force him back into a seat, and attempt to calm him down. John then returned to the seat beside me, and we all tried to relax a little.

Meanwhile, we passed a State Police Barracks.

Twenty minutes later the guy jumped up once more, howling and wailing and swinging wildly. John again grabbed him, and this time the driver was able to make it to an exit and find a gas station. "No cops! No cops!" the guy kept begging.

John wrestled him out of the bus and held him immobile in the parking lot while the driver ran into the gas station to call for an ambulance and the police. Fully 45 minutes later the ambulance arrived, and ten minutes after that a State Trooper showed up. They strapped the guy to a gurney and whisked him away to god knows where.

Eventually we determined that he was in heroin withdrawal and basically fucked out of his head. I have to say that John's performance was pretty darned impressive, and he's welcome to crowd me out of a double-wide Greyhound seat any time he wants to.

I learned two things in all of this:

1. Greyhound buses at the time didn't have radios. That's right--a downtown Loop bus maintains radio contact with home base, but a Greyhound travels the country with no way of reporting in until it reaches the next station. This may have changed in the 15 years since then, though.

2. Heroin is bad, but nicotine is worse. I judge this from the fact that, as soon as the heroin-freaked guy was dragged from the bus, a dozen smokers filed out behind him to satisfy their nic-fits.


Go Greyhound, And Leave The High-Speed Forcible Heroin Detox To Us.

[grasswire]

22. Once on a fairly short ride....

....on a long distance route, an elderly lady went bonkers. She decided that she was meant to sit in the driver's lap, and she did everything she could to get there. Repeatedly. Finally we were at a town where the driver could get the local police to respond. The local gendarmes were a bit cruel with her, and it was very sad.

Another time on the same route, a man had a seizure of some kind, and another traveler appointed himself to help this man. He kept everyone else away and said he was an EMT, fussing over the ill man. He wasn't an EMT, he was freaking nuts. By the time it was finished, state troopers took the "EMT" away, and an ambulance took the sick man away. It took forever.

Several times, I rode (on the same route) with a bus driver who freaked out when he would come to a certain small town. He would start screaming cuss words about the town and its inhabitants, and threaten passengers and drive like a maniac. It was very frightening.

[FloridaJudy]

9. I've used it

To get to South Florida. Much cheaper than the plane, the station's closer than the airport, and the seats are more comfortable. Takes about 10 times as long, though, so I wouldn't use it for more than a few hundred miles of travel. We use to have decent Amtrak service, but they closed the local station.

I've traveled around Europe by train, so that's usually my preference.

[Cabcere]

10. I considered it last year

when I wasn't sure if I'd be able to get a ride home for my friend's funeral...luckily I was able to get into a carpool at the last minute. My mom freaked out when I told her I was thinking about going Greyhound - apparently she's had some negative experiences. :shrug:

[Withywindle]

11. I used to take it all the time in college

Had to travel a lot, couldn't afford anything else. Lots of overnights between Virginia, NYC, Ohio....

I could write a book. Someday I want to. Wouldn't do it again, but I can't say I regret it, just for the anecdotal value.

I think every girl should learn how to deal with the kind of smelly bum with a flask in the jacket who's reading the Bible with one hand and trying to grope you with the other. It's been a very useful skill.

[sanguinivorous]

12. Virtually every time I've gone Greyhound...

...there's been something that made it a hideously uncomfortable experience.

On one occasion there was a generic group of endlessly noisy college-aged kids (though none of them acted all that educated).

On a short jaunt from Kalamazoo, MI to Chicago there was an older couple who sat near me and talked literally non-stop for the entire trip without once saying anything EVEN REMOTELY INTERESTING (and no, I'm not exaggerating--those two could have pissed off the crowd at an insurance seminar).

On the last trip, some runt of a overly loud Mexican with a voice that sounded like he was talking through at least a good half-pint or so of snot and gravel got on the bus and decided he had to talk VERY loudly to everybody in his immediate vicinity. The bus driver threatened to throw him off several times. I wish he had. The guy would quiet down for maybe a mionute or two (but never actually shut the hell up) and then start in again. Total fucking asshole. Did I mention that he was VERY LOUD and that his voice sounded like he was gargling gravel and snot?

I've avoided the bus since then.

[Richard Steele]

13. I used to enjoy it a lot. It's a great way to go if you're not in a hurry.

Or at least it used to be.

[SeattleGirl]

15. My daughter has several times, but overall, prefers the train.

The train ride from Seattle to Eugene is gorgeous.

[Roon]

16. I used it

but I won't ever use it again, that's for sure.

[Kutjara]

17. How about would-be authors trying to write...

Kerouac-ish or Steinbeckian novels about the gritty underside of the American dream? Or musicians who see it as the modern inspirational equivalent of "riding the rails?" Or connoisseurs of the aroma of stale bodies and unwashed hair?

[tandot]

18. My husband. He is terrified of flying.

Before we moved to California, he drove all the way with a Greyhound bus from Texas to California to visit family. It took him over 3 days.

[JackBeck]

19. Everyone uses Greyhound. n/t

[stuntcat]

20. not yet but

not yet but I'd like to just so I could say I've tried it :hi:

But I've taken Amtrak a lot, up and down between NC, DC, PA and NYC. I know it's different, but some people won't even take the trains.

[Mythsaje]

21. I traveled from Seattle to Connecticut and back...

I didn't get more than a couple hours sleep in four days.

NEVER AGAIN.

[QMPMom]

23. When I was pregnant with our son and lived 5 hours from

my obstetrician, I would take Greyhound into the city for my Dr. appointments because my husband didn't want me driving all that way while pregnant and he was saving his time off to be with me at the birth.

I'd leave in the wee hours of the morning, get to the city, take a cab to my appointment and then take a cab back to the Greyhound terminal. The terminal was downtown so I'd spend the afternoon shopping and maybe getting my hair done. I'd go have a nice supper and then take the late bus back north. I'd watch the Northern Lights out of the bus window and fall asleep until I got back to our small town.

I loved those trips.

[billyskank]

24. So the obvious question is

WHY is the plane cheaper than the bus?

Presumably the plane gets loads of fat subsidies, right?

In Europe it's the same, you can get flights around Europe for absurdly low prices. Whereas the Eurostar costs a lot more, as do most train rides. It's all fucked up.