I used to think Bus Eireann were bad – then I rode the Greyhound in the US

truffle5

On a recent trip to the States, I naively presumed bus travel in America would be similar to Europe. How wrong was I.

First off the Greyhound buses are packed full as the company purposefully oversells tickets. They claim that buying a ticket does not guarantee a seat. So a bus that starts its journey in Atlanta, arrives in Dallas, but there are no free seats to allow the new Dallas passengers on. Tough for them – they have to wait 6 hours for the next bus, where maybe there will be a free seat.

The bus stations themselves are often in the more dangerous, ghetto areas of the cities. Imagine Bus Aras but 10 times worse. Expect to be harassed for change by a stampede of bums as soon as you exit the station. Sometimes inside the station too. Security guards will check your luggage as you enter the station to ensure you’re not transporting drugs or carrying guns (a common occurrence on these buses apparently). Don’t even think of using the toilets unless you want to walk out covered in faeces and catch a few new diseases.

But the worst part of all are the other passengers. “Normal” people simply don’t ride the bus in America. Everybody drives or flies. Only the homeless, crazies, or convicted felons ride Greyhound. Prisons actually use Greyhound to transfer low risk prisoners between facilties. I’m not kidding. Illegal Mexican immigrants also prefer the bus as they don’t have a passport for flying.

The size of the average American means you’ll likely be squashed half to death and forced to sit on half a seat. Due to the huge distances in the US, many of the passengers will have been on the bus for days. This means they haven’t showered and will be cranky from lack of sleep. The sweat of their enormous buttocks will be soaked into the seat cushion ready to wet the bottom of the next passenger. Because the bus only stops at gas stations, passengers survive on buckets of KFC and other smelly, greasy foods. Rubbish and leftovers will be left in the aisle. God help you if the toilet on board clogs up early into your journey. The repugnant stench wafted through the aisle for hours on my journey.

I’ll never badmouth Bus Eireann ever again. Anybody else ever have the misfortune of riding the Greyhound?

devnull

Greyhound Express and the other spin offs of the main brand tend to be an awful lot better, but certainly some of the regular Greyhound routes leave a lot to be desired.

Moneymaker

And that's why I hired a car when I went on holidays there.

bruce wayne

I'll just leave this here

http://m.vice.com/read/the-man-who-decapitated-his-seatmate-on-a-greyhound-bus-in-winnipeg-is-getting-out

keano25

So how was your holiday then?

monument

Only thing I've ever heard about Greyhound is stories of their dodgy stations locations.

Amtrak's Acela Express is nice. Train stations in NYC, DC and LA are stunning.

My most experience with public transport in the US is a week of LA Metro bus and metro, which was mainly a week of combining both to get downtown (West Hollywood to the Convention Centre, with a bus/metro switch at Hollywood and Highland, and a metro/metro switch Downtown). Buses were infrequent off-peak but ok when I was commuting. The metro was great and the LA County Sheriff's office doing ticket inspections and security added to the system greatly.

No Pants

I thought you were talking about the Greyhound pub in Blanch for a minute. Some of the description looked familiar.

whomitconcerns

I got a peter pan bus (same thing) from NYC to Baltimore once. Learned my lesson then....

AlanS181824

My Mam travelled on the Express Grey house, think that's what it's called.

She only complained about the station locations and some of the staff tended to come off very hostile.

Had no idea it was that bad.

Feel sorry for you OP!

KCAccidental

I got a boltbus from Baltimore to NY last year. Wasn't too bad I have to say. They seem to be one of the better companies, comfortable bus and wifi, plus the driver rapped the safety announcement but as with megabus the timetables are a bit pie in the sky. We were 90 mins late into NY due to long term roadworks on the New Jersey turnpike backing up traffic. Otherwise couldn't really complain. Much prefer the train though!

I dread to think what the greyhound station would be like in Baltimore!

cgcsb

I've heard stories of wild eyed individuals sharpening knives etc. I'd give them a miss. There must be an opportunity for someone to set up a european style bus company in the US.

Skuxx

I was on the Megabus over there and can't complain at all! I did 12 hours on a greyhound and again it was fine, no complaints!

I did 4 hours on the Lucky Star and it was nearly the end of me! It pulled up in Chinatown in New York and dropped everyone, no bus station or anything!
Absolutly horrible!

mickydoomsux

Interstate buses in the US have a reputation for being dirt cheap and as a result they are used by utter headcases who are usually on the run from one thing or another.

SHOVELLER

Been on Greyhound, MegaBus and Peter Pan over there a few times and never had a problem. Of course bus stations the world over do tend to attract the eh lower rungs of the human race.

One thing they dont have is a radio station blaring out ****e you dont want or shouldnt have to listen to.

ireland.man

I stupidly bought a two-month 'tourist' Greyhound bus pass a few years ago when I was visiting the States. I spent two months- TWO MONTHS- travelling the US and Canada solely by Greyhound buses. The amount of insane stories I have will only surprise those who have never experienced Greyhound bus stations in Alabama or Las Vegas, etc.

This was at Xmas time too and it's almost funny in an awful way that while I've stayed for a few hours in probably twenty bus stations, literally only three of them didn't have someone crying in them- they were deeply depressing places. I wouldn't say I saw pick-pockets because that suggest some level of hiding the crime... people openly harassed other people for money and intimidated people until they were offered change. I remember getting on the plane to come home, closing my eyes to have a quick nap and without thinking I wrapped my foot around the strap of my carry-on bag to protect it, that's how frightening it can be to travel by that bus.

Like the OP says, Greyhound carries homeless people moving to warmer climates in winter, and vice versa, and is the only option for poor families. Meth is a big problem in small town America so you inevitably see it there. The staff are horrendous, they're rude people in general and treat the passengers like animals. They shout at passengers, make fun of them openly and these people are so down trodden they just take it.

Saying all that, there was a level of solidarity among most of the passengers I've never seen elsewhere in the States. People would give each other food, water, drugs (but let's accept the generous aspect of that!). I hadn't eaten for a day during one trip (the food in the stops along the route is inedible) and a man sitting across from me noticed. After stopping at one fast food place he got on the bus and threw me a burger without saying anything! It turned out he was just another homeless 'junkie' heading to El Paso for work.

Still preferred that trip than having to go into the Bus Aras toilets though

truffle5

The people who claim that the Greyhound isn't so bad usually have only traveled the short routes, like the short hop from New York to Philly. Try going from Dallas to L.A. You'll encounter people who have been living on the bus for 2 days and stink so bad from not showering. They can also get very defensive over their space. Try asking a crack addict to move his bag at 2am so you can sit down.

I also don't buy the argument that Greyhound is cheap. When you factor in the money you spend on food at gas stations along the way, there isn't much difference in the cost of a plane ticket. For people who are in the US for only a short holiday, you can't put a price on your limited time. Greyhound is tolerable for short trips between the East Coast cities. Otherwise forget it.

ireland.man

truffle5 wrote: »

The people who claim that the Greyhound isn't so bad usually have only traveled the short routes, like the short hop from New York to Philly. Try going from Dallas to L.A. You'll encounter people who have been living on the bus for 2 days and stink so bad from not showering. They can also get very defensive over their space. Try asking a crack addict to move his bag at 2am so you can sit down.

I also don't buy the argument that Greyhound is cheap. When you factor in the money you spend on food at gas stations along the way, there isn't much difference in the cost of a plane ticket. For people who are in the US for only a short holiday, you can't put a price on your limited time. Greyhound is tolerable for short trips between the East Coast cities. Otherwise forget it.

Yeah, that's the sad thing, the company is used by mainly poor people but they still price gouge them in every way imaginable. The portion sizes in those station 'restaurants' are the smallest I've ever seen in the country and so expensive so it's a sad sight to see hungry families after spending a day on a bus sitting around a handful of chips.

Amirani

Did Chicago to New York a couple of years back, wasn't the worst. One of the London > Paris Eurolines I did was my worst ever bus trip, people shooting up on the seat on front of me...

cson

Did Chicago - Milwaukee return which is only like 1.5hrs ish. The ****ing smell of the jacks on the way back... :eek:

Irish Halo

Yeah, back in 2001 was in Florida on a J1 and our airline went bust after Sept 11th so had to get the 24hr greyhound from Tampa to NY ... it was an experience.

At one stage we got off the bus somewhere (IIRC you had to get off a some stops) and because we hadn't been given "boarding passes" to get back on that bus we had to get on the extra one they were running on the route. This meant our luggage was on the other bus! Thankfully we got in to NY before the other bus, I'm not sure what would have happened if 2 suitcases were just turfed off a bus in the Port Authority with no owners about three weeks after the attacks on the twin towers ...

TBF that entire trip was an experience I lost a shed load of weight and saw what America really means for a lot of the population and it was not pretty.

aw

cgcsb wrote: »

There must be an opportunity for someone to set up a european style bus company in the US.

They've gone one better. Only $89!

http://my.limoliner.com/

blackwhite

I travelled from Denver to Las Vegas, and back on Greyhound about 10 years ago.

Denver to Vegas is part of the Chicago to LA route.

Denver to Vegas was fine, no real problems (other than the 16 hour journey). The return was not.

Arrived in the bus station at 8pm, for the 9.30 bus. 10 people in front of us in the queue. The usual assortment of Greyhound station regulars (and three innocent Irish lads who didn't know any better).

Bus arrives at 9.30, 3 people are let on.

12.30 bus comes, full, nobody allowed on.

3.30 bus arrives in, and 6 people are let on.
However, when the bus is due to leave (about 20 minutes after arrival), 5 of the passengers haven't returned. The driver comes into the terminal and tells us that there's five spaces, so we happily get on.

As the bus is pulling out of the station, the five missing passengers appear (from what we could hear of them, they seemed to be French students) and tried to stand in front of the bus and stop it leaving. The driver just kept screaming "you snooze, you lose" at them, and refused to open the door, or let them on. Eventually someone who appeared to be a station manager/supervisor arrived out, and instructed the driver to let them retrieve their bags from the hold.
There must have been at least 30 people still queueing inside the station at this point, so the poor feckers must have had to go inside and queue for god knows how long, all because they took too long on their toilet break (or sneaked into the Plaza for a cheeky game of blackjack!)

After we finally got out of the station, the driver came onto the PA system to warn everyone that if it happened at another stop, he'd just drive over them!

Viva La Gloria

I got the Greyhound once from Gainesville to Jacksonville. And I'm gonna be doing it again in two weeks' time. Twice! Going from Tampa-Gainesville and back again. One is almost 5 hours non-stop. Praying for an absolute miracle that the other passengers will be normal :P

truffle5 wrote: »

Prisons actually use Greyhound to transfer low risk prisoners between facilties. I’m not kidding.

Yep. That time we were on it in Florida, I was sitting on the outside seat and a load of prisoners got on and sat around us. The one adjacent to me was watching me sleep apparently and when I woke up, he said: "Wow, you really went out like a light! Didn't think you were going to wake up." Seems so surreal that this is normal for people in the US to experience, yet it's so absurdly uncomfortable for us over here.

MGWR

monument wrote: »

Only thing I've ever heard about Greyhound is stories of their dodgy stations locations.

Amtrak's Acela Express is nice. Train stations in NYC, DC and LA are stunning.

My most experience with public transport in the US is a week of LA Metro bus and metro, which was mainly a week of combining both to get downtown (West Hollywood to the Convention Centre, with a bus/metro switch at Hollywood and Highland, and a metro/metro switch Downtown). Buses were infrequent off-peak but ok when I was commuting. The metro was great and the LA County Sheriff's office doing ticket inspections and security added to the system greatly.

I do not think that New York's Pennsylvania Station is "stunning" compared to how it used to look. They actually tore down this edifice in 1963 and chucked some of the pieces into New Jersey's Meadowlands.

Madison Square Garden is a poor replacement.

discus

Diego Simeone wrote: »

Did Chicago to New York a couple of years back, wasn't the worst. One of the London > Paris Eurolines I did was my worst ever bus trip, people shooting up on the seat on front of me...

I did London > Dublin on a bus once, was a nightmare. There were a few dublin thugs briefing up some african lads on what to say if customs stopped them - smuggling drugs or people I'd say!

wahesh32

This is funny to read as an American. The only time I used these types of buses was when I was a poor college student. The joke back home was only homeless people and european tourists take buses in the US.

The trick was to try to depart and arrive during daylight hours (which of course wasn't always practical). Some of the bus stations in the major US cities would make the worst areas of Dublin city centre look like paradise.

Irish Halo wrote: »

TBF that entire trip was an experience I lost a shed load of weight and saw what America really means for a lot of the population and it was not pretty.

It seems to me that most Europeans only visit only New York, San Francisco, and possibly a few other nice cities in California or in the north east (and for good reason, they're definitely worth a visit!). But it doesn't give them a balanced picture of the USA. Most of these people never learn that huge areas of the south and mid-west US are practically third-world.

ireland.man

wahesh32 wrote: »

This is funny to read as an American. The only time I used these types of buses was when I was a poor college student. The joke back home was only homeless people and european tourists take buses in the US.

The trick was to try to depart and arrive during daylight hours (which of course wasn't always practical). Some of the bus stations in the major US cities would make the worst areas of Dublin city centre look like paradise.



It seems to me that most Europeans only visit only New York, San Francisco, and possibly a few other nice cities in California or in the north east (and for good reason, they're definitely worth a visit!). But it doesn't give them a balanced picture of the USA. Most of these people never learn that huge areas of the south and mid-west US are practically third-world.

I spent a day in Mobile in Alabama and yeah, some spots there definitely looked third world to me. Very sad. I can't imagine what Ireland would look like without the social welfare state too...

AlekSmart

A friend of mine "Did" Route 66,in 2010 and is still waking up in cold sweats.

Having taken the decision to stay away from the direct Interstate routing,they experienced a good dollop of "Real" America.

No issues with Nut-Jobs or Junkies,just meeting VERY close and in your face with abject poverty and people who'se lives were totally dependent upon the most basic of charity.

There is NO other country on earth where the poorest and richest manage to live their respective societal norms quite often very close together.....an absolute contradiction of a country in SO many ways...God Bless America !

L1011

Local public transport in the US, where it exists, is usually fantastic. Long distance - fly, just bloody fly.

Ben D Bus

wahesh32 wrote: »

Most of these people never learn that huge areas of the south and mid-west US are practically third-world.

Having travelled (by car!) through much of Loiusiana & Mississippi I can vouch for that.

jjbrien

2 years ago i made the mistake of taking Greyhound from Toronto to NYC a 12 hour trip. I only did it as it was a super cheap ticket. Got a return ticket for like $70. The ride from Toronto down to Buffalo NY was fine but after we left Syracuse NY was a different story. It was the last rest stop for this bus which would travel 8 hours picking up people but not stopping. The bus stopped at some very dodgey places and a whole host of rif raff got on. It was close ro 40 degrees outside 100 F for the yanks and the bus had leather seats which made the ride very uncomfortable. Made matters worse that the bus decided in its right mind instead of taking a direct route to the NY bus station it would go around via NJ and there was major delays at the tunnel into NYC adding an additional 2 hours to my journey. The day before I was due to go back to Toronto i decided to fly to Buffalo and avoid all that jaz again was money well spent avoiding greyhound on the way back.

Few years before that i took greyhound from Philly to DC. On the way the bus stopped at Baltimore bus station. I was glad I didnt get off there seemed like the whole homeless population of Baltimore was sleeping there and looked like one of them shanty towns you see in India.

Fred Swanson

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con___manx1

I spent 3 days straight on a greyhound from Montreal to vancouver. seriously the stupidest thing I ever did

jjbrien

con___manx1 wrote: »

I spent 3 days straight on a greyhound from Montreal to vancouver. seriously the stupidest thing I ever did

I was tempted to go from Toronto to Calgary on greyhound until a friend of mine showed me the viarail deals page and went with that instead. Glad I didnt have to do 3 days straight on greyhound. I feel for you

Vic_08

cgcsb wrote: »

I've heard stories of wild eyed individuals sharpening knives etc. I'd give them a miss. There must be an opportunity for someone to set up a european style bus company in the US.

Already is, Megabus owned by UK based Stagecoach have a large network across many parts of the US. Oh and Greyhound are owned by UK based First group.

devnull

KCAccidental wrote: »

I got a boltbus from Baltimore to NY last year. Wasn't too bad I have to say. They seem to be one of the better companies, comfortable bus and wifi, plus the driver rapped the safety announcement but as with megabus the timetables are a bit pie in the sky. We were 90 mins late into NY due to long term roadworks on the New Jersey turnpike backing up traffic. Otherwise couldn't really complain. Much prefer the train though!

BoltBus and YoBus are run by Greyhound, but are aimed at a different market from the regular Greyhound brand. Increasingly the regular Greyhound Brand is being cut back a little bit with more focus on the more premium brands such as these and Greyhound Express.

Regular Greyhound isn't for me but they serve a particular part of the market with the other brands serving a different part of the market that people who wouldn't use the basic Greyhound product may be interested in.

kippy

Irish Halo wrote: »

Yeah, back in 2001 was in Florida on a J1 and our airline went bust after Sept 11th so had to get the 24hr greyhound from Tampa to NY ... it was an experience.

At one stage we got off the bus somewhere (IIRC you had to get off a some stops) and because we hadn't been given "boarding passes" to get back on that bus we had to get on the extra one they were running on the route. This meant our luggage was on the other bus! Thankfully we got in to NY before the other bus, I'm not sure what would have happened if 2 suitcases were just turfed off a bus in the Port Authority with no owners about three weeks after the attacks on the twin towers ...

TBF that entire trip was an experience I lost a shed load of weight and saw what America really means for a lot of the population and it was not pretty.

Yep. That is one thing about it. You get to see another side to the US which you often dont.
Was over there the same year as yourself and did a lot of trips via Greyhound, mostly on east coast and no journey over 12 hours. Met some 'interesting' people especially when killing time in Philly station.

Boulevardier

I went on the Greyhound web page and was staggered by the length of the journeys (big country I suppose), e.g 24 hours from NYC to Chicago. How can people do that?

I had also assumed that all these buses had loos. Is this correct?

Fred Swanson

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ANXIOUS

How frequently would the drivers change? Seems crazy.

kippy

My first trip abroad was to the US. I didnt appreciate the size of the country till I spent 14 hours on a bus and still hadn't gone close to getting 1/4 of the distance across it.

Fred Swanson

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jenn1984

When I was in the U.S. for a summer doing my J1- I purchased a 15 day Amtrak pass for roughly $300 which allowed unlimited travel in the eastern and central time zones. Did Boston-New York-Niagara Falls-New York-Boston followed by Boston-New York-Washington D.C.-New Orleans-Chicago-New York. Alot of travelling, New Orleans-Chicago and Chicago-New York both took over 20 hours but doing this on Amtrak means you can easily walk around, have access to limited shower facilities and a small cafe with hot dogs, sandwiches and drinks. Have done shorter journeys on Greyhound e.g. New York-Boston but only when the train tracks were flooded with rain and I had no alternative, would not recommend.

discus

Vic_08 wrote: »

Already is, Megabus owned by UK based Stagecoach have a large network across many parts of the US. Oh and Greyhound are owned by UK based First group.

That explains a lot. Most of the First/Great Western trains I have gotten in the UK have been truly manky, usually delayed, and frequently WITHOUT working toilet facilities. I complained one time about it, and when they tried fobbing me off, I delivered a perfect 9.5/10 rant - somehow without screaming :pac: They then stopped the train at a station for 15 mins for the pax to use the facilities. The local station staff did not seem impressed with the 25+ lines for the mens and ladies loos! First Group truly are ****e

ordinary_girl

Fred Swanson wrote: »

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Sorry if there's a really obvious answer to this question, but why? I assumed on long journeys on Greyhound the toilets are there to be, well, used.

Fred Swanson

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jjbrien

discus wrote: »

That explains a lot. Most of the First/Great Western trains I have gotten in the UK have been truly manky, usually delayed, and frequently WITHOUT working toilet facilities. I complained one time about it, and when they tried fobbing me off, I delivered a perfect 9.5/10 rant - somehow without screaming :pac: They then stopped the train at a station for 15 mins for the pax to use the facilities. The local station staff did not seem impressed with the 25+ lines for the mens and ladies loos! First Group truly are ****e

When I lived in Liverpool the brits have a funny name for first. First North Western and First Great Western they call it Worst North Western and Worst Great Western. Was so bad that the government took the first north western franchise away from them. Bad bad company IMO. Heading to the states in 2 weeks we wont be touching greyhound.

devnull

Incidentally the guy who ran First North Western for a period is now in charge of Irish Rail! It's true to say that North Western had their difficulties, although they were not helped by some extremely unreliable rolling stock supplied by Alstom that wasn't much better than the famed 8200 Darts.

No problems with First Great Western myself, although they've been dealt a rough hand by the British government who are running several years late with the promised infrastructure improvement on the line and the government are also years behind schedule with the rolling stock procurement for the area, through no fault of the company, which is causing overcrowding and there is not a damn thing they can do about it until the new rolling stock arrives.

Political interference and micromanagement of rolling stock orders and long drawn out bureaucratic processes on the procurement of new trains in the UK has been a problem for a good few years now, and it serves nobody, be that the operators, manufacturers or passengers well.

SandyfordGuy

Another part of the rolling stock madness is just starting as well, since due to department of transport incompetence, Transpennine Express will shortly lose a number of trains it badly needs due to delays in re-franchising, since it cannot extend train leases beyond the end of the franchise and government dithering over any extension or new franchise has continued, the trains will transfer elsewhere since the lease is now in a period where offers can be made for the trains once it ends, and they will go to another operator.

This same operator got a raw deal 8 years ago when they wanted to order a large amount of four car trains, only for the government to cut the order and also reduce the length to three cars saying they were not needed, a couple of years later and the knives are out for overcrowding on the company, despite the fact that the cut in carriages was a government and not operator decision.

FGW should improve when the new Intercity trains arrive, but they are already 5 or so years behind schedules since the government took over the tendering of the contract and it took several years after the awarding of the tender to even place an order and the department of transport. All FGW have been able to do is find any mk3 carriages they can and convert them into seating acommodation, they've already converted kitchens and buffets that haven't been in use for years and done this.

It's not ideal, but until the government starts listening to the operators and allow them to order enough capacity to serve lines for now and into the future and removes the ridiculous time taken over tenders, overcrowding is going to be aproblem on Britains railways.

discus

3 very eye opening posts, thanks! I had assumed it was penny pinching on Worst Great Westerns part. How can Virgin run so smoothly with such crap oversight? Virgin have a fantastic service, great trains, and lovely staff...

SandyfordGuy

Virgin had the luxury of having all of the infrastructure on their line replaced over the last number of years, carry mainly leisure passengers and serve mostly big cities on lines which for the most part whilst also having a young fleet. As a company they are only interested in operating on the big intercity routes, which whilst they do well, is a lot easier than running a huge diverse operation like FGW.

A franchise like FGW has to deal with a much wider mix of services including sleeper trains, rural and local branch lines, the busiest commuter route in the country (Reading to London) whilst also trying to please a large amount of intercity, business and leisure travellers on old rolling stock that was due for replacement years ago, and infrastructure and stations that were never designed to take the amount of services they are now handling.

FGW did have a poor period a good few years ago when they didn't help themselves, and there was a fare strike and management was given a much needed shake-up, although some of the timetable cutbacks and rolling stock cutbacks around that time were dictated to them by government officials. Lately they have been concerting large numbers of disused MK3 carriages and buffets into seating accommodation at their own cost to add an extra carriage to their high speed trains, whilst also cutting back the first class accommodation on some trains and concerting the coaches to standard.

All of this is treating the symptoms rather than the problem, the long term fix is this, note how many delays the project has been hit by The tender was issued in 2007 The winner was announced in 2009 The deal was signed in 2012 whichever way you look at it, that's ridiculous. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intercity_Express_Programme#Tender_and_specifications

The really bad operators we've had down the years have been National Express East Coast, National Express East Anglia and Connex they were a perfect example of penny pinching.