# Greyhound fucking buses



## skyscraper101 (Dec 17, 2007)

Fuck sake. This is the last time I'm ever getting a greyhound bus. I'm posting this from my Blackberry sat in a Burger King in nowheresville USA while for the second time of only twice taking a Greyhound bus it has broken down.  


What the fuck is the deal? They make the Megabus look like a luxury way to travel. Grrrr. Not like there's even a decent bar round here. Fucking Burger Sodding King!  

I'd sit back on the broken bus but there's some homies trying to sell everyone porn DVDs now :d


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## samk (Dec 17, 2007)

My impression is that in The American Way Of Life, public transport is for the dregs of society and the poorest of the poor, so greyhound are just living down to expectations


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## skyscraper101 (Dec 17, 2007)

Yeah it makes our public transport look great in comparison. Round here its either drive yourself or take the bus. 

Where I am (somewhere between Syracuse and NYC) used to have great rail links too. There's some great old rail road stations and even some underground ones used to transport emancipated slaves   Most of the regular stations are disused now though 

So here I am. Burger King. Fuck this for a laugh. Thank God I can connect to Urban on my (work) Blackberry


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## phildwyer (Dec 17, 2007)

samk said:
			
		

> My impression is that in The American Way Of Life, public transport is for the dregs of society and the poorest of the poor, so greyhound are just living down to expectations



Only buses, the trains are very nice, albeit expensive and few.


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## trashpony (Dec 17, 2007)

skyscraper101 said:
			
		

> Thank God I can connect to Urban on my (work) Blackberry



I can't for some reason.  

Burger King's grim and greyhounds are grimmer. You're better off by train (if there are any where you're going) or plane


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## maomao (Dec 17, 2007)

I love Burger King.  Do they have Angus burgers in the US?


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## skyscraper101 (Dec 17, 2007)

Yep the Angus does look tempting. I'd rather have a beer though 

Omg the porn-dealing homies are inside here doing WWF wrestling impressions now.


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## phildwyer (Dec 17, 2007)

skyscraper101 said:
			
		

> Omg the porn-dealing homies are inside here doing WWF wrestling impressions now.



I bet that's not all they're dealing, there may be hope for you yet...


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## maomao (Dec 17, 2007)

skyscraper101 said:
			
		

> Yep the Angus does look tempting. I'd rather have a beer though



They're made out of Scottish people so they're good for society too.


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## skyscraper101 (Dec 17, 2007)

People are well fat in here


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## skyscraper101 (Dec 18, 2007)

6 Hours later....

Finally made it onto another bus after 2 hours in the Burger King. Only this was the next scheduled bus with people already on it. So we all have to have allocated seats and I get put next to a guy who thinks he's 50 Cent who refuses to move his wide open legs or even acknowledge anyone else - just occascionally spitting some lyrics from 50 Cent he's listening to on his 'Zune' D) 'Bitch n**ger f**k etc etc... What a nobber 

Can't wait til I get home on Weds. Seriously pissed off in NYC and in need of a drink


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## paolo (Dec 18, 2007)

skyscraper101 said:
			
		

> 6 Hours later....
> 
> Finally made it onto another bus after 2 hours in the Burger King. Only this was the next scheduled bus with people already on it. So we all have to have allocated seats and I get put next to a guy who thinks he's 50 Cent who refuses to move his wide open legs or even acknowledge anyone else - just occascionally spitting some lyrics from 50 Cent he's listening to on his 'Zune' D) 'Bitch n**ger f**k etc etc... What a nobber
> 
> Can't wait til I get home on Weds. Seriously pissed off in NYC and in need of a drink



You are in some kind of surreal world. Travelling greyhound and posting from the company Blackberry


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## Yuwipi Woman (Dec 18, 2007)

Yeh, Greyhound is shite.  

You're usually better off renting a car.   You can get rentals for as little as $25 a day.


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## Errol's son (Dec 18, 2007)

Renting a car is cheap.  New York state is not super cheap but out in places like Colorado, car hire is very cheap.  Also gas is cheap.  I alwayys rent a car when in America particularly if work are paying.


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## jæd (Dec 18, 2007)

skyscraper101 said:
			
		

> Fuck sake. This is the last time I'm ever getting a greyhound bus. I'm posting this from my Blackberry sat in a Burger King in nowheresville USA while for the second time of only twice taking a Greyhound bus it has broken down.
> 
> 
> What the fuck is the deal? They make the Megabus look like a luxury way to travel. Grrrr. Not like there's even a decent bar round here. Fucking Burger Sodding King!
> ...



Greyhound buses are for people who are too poor to afford a car. And cars are a dime a dozen in the US... 

I once did a trip across the US by Greyhound... Four days on a bus. Somewhere in New Mexico some derro took their shoes off. The bus driver stopped and wouldn't move off until they put them back on...


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## jæd (Dec 18, 2007)

skyscraper101 said:
			
		

> Fuck sake. This is the last time I'm ever getting a greyhound bus. I'm posting this from my Blackberry sat in a Burger King in nowheresville USA while for the second time of only twice taking a Greyhound bus it has broken down.



Btw, probably a good idea to hide the Blackberry...!


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## Yuwipi Woman (Dec 18, 2007)

jæd said:
			
		

> Btw, probably a good idea to hide the Blackberry...!



Double check the wallet and don't let anyone walk you down a dark alley.


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## catrina (Dec 18, 2007)

IME, Greyhound is far better than Amtrak. I once took a Greyhound somewhere in the middle of a blizzard and it took 7 hours, and then the return on the Amtrak took 11. 

Public transport in the US is shocking, though, even the planes these days are appalling by European standards.

When you're under 25 in the US you can't rent a car without a massive fee, so Greyhound becomes very useful to get around if you're too scared (or too poor) to get on a little prop plane. Same with trains.


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## D (Dec 19, 2007)

I am happy to say I haven't been on a Greyhound, per se, in some time; but I used to take 'em all the time.  They're usually pretty rank, though I remember the Greyhound from NYC to Montreal not being so bad.  When I head upstate to visit my aunt I generally take the bus - Adirondack Trails, if you care to know - and it's fine.

***

I recently met an urbanite (!) in Miami who described to me his experience riding the bus to work every day.  In NYC you get a great cross-section of the city's residents on public transportation because with the exception, I presume, of the inordinately, unfathomably, chauffeured wealthy, pretty much everyone walks and takes the bus/subway everywhere (or bikes, like I do).  In Miami, said urbanite told me, the only people on the bus with him are people in wheelchairs, homeless people, very low income folks, and European professionals.  So skyscraper's not alone in his Greyhound/company Blackberry paradox.  I used to take the bus from South Broward county to Miami Beach as a kid - took me aaaaaaages.


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## Rainingstairs (Dec 19, 2007)

yeah...skip the greyhounds if you can and split the cost of a rental car if traveling with buddies. greyhounds are HELL on wheels


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## Kenny Vermouth (Dec 20, 2007)

phildwyer said:
			
		

> Only buses, the trains are very nice, albeit expensive and few.


I got a train from New York to Providence a few years ago. It was punctual, comfortable and my friend and I enjoyed eating tasty hotdogs and sinking ice cold Coronas.

We than had a massive piss-up in Providence.


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## skyscraper101 (Dec 20, 2007)

People did seem to think it odd that I was on a greyhound AND from the UK. Like it was just some kind of thing poor people and students travel on in the US. I don't get it. If your rail network is far from brilliant you'd think it would be the most logical solution for everyone.

It took a whole hour getting from NJ Turnpike to the other side of Holland Tunnel due to the car traffic ffs


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## mhendo (Dec 26, 2007)

skyscraper101 said:
			
		

> It took a whole hour getting from NJ Turnpike to the other side of Holland Tunnel due to the car traffic ffs


Yeah, traffic is a nightmare in New York at the best of times, and around Christmas it's diabolical.

My partner and i spent last week in New York, and returned on Baltimore on Saturday evening (Dec. 22) by bus. The Lincoln Tunnel was closed, so all traffic heading for New Jersey had to go through the Holland Tunnel. The trip from Penn Station to the entrance of the tunnel (about 2.6 miles) took an 1 hour and 20 minutes. I could have walked it twice in the same time period.

If you're traveling around the northeast, and you prefer not to pay Amtrak's inflated prices, you might see if you can take one of the (non-Greyhound) independent bus companies. When we travel between Baltimore and New York, we usually take one of the so-called Chinatown buses. They are, as the name suggests, often run by Chinese (sometimes Korean) owners, and they have routes between quite a few of the major cities in the northeast. 

They are generally quite comfortable, and i've done a whole bunch of trips without once encountering an unsavory character. In demographic terms, the customers aren't that much different from Greyhound passengers--backpackers, students, low-income people (white and black), as well as a fairly high proportion of Chinese--but they don't seem to attract any of the worrying characters that you so often find on Greyhound.

Baltimore to New York is $20 one way and $35 for a return ticket. Compare that to $70 one way and $140 return on Amtrak, and the two of us save ourselves about $200 each trip, compared to the train.

Here's a couple of websites, where you can check out which cities they serve. There are a bunch of different carriers represented on these sites. A lot of the cities they serve are in the northeast (Washington, Baltimore, Wilmington, Philadelphia, Newark, New York, Albany, Hartford, Boston), but some of them also serve cities even further afield in California, Washington, Arizona, Florida, etc..

http://www.ivymedia.com/
http://www.chinatown-bus.com/

Despite the name, not all of the buses pick up and drop off in Chinatown in NY. The one we caught the other day picked us up on 31st St., right next to Penn Station, and we've also used companies that pick up and drop off outside Macy's, on 34th St.

One word of warning: if you get a bus that picks up in multiple locations (e.g., some pick up in Chinatown and then in Midtown), it's better to get on at the first stop. I've seen people at the second stop miss out on seats because the bus is already full.


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