The American bus revival

[Piwoslaw]

The American bus revival - BBC News

Motor coaches are the fastest growing form of long-distance transport in the United States, and British-owned companies are leading the charge. So has the US finally learned to love the bus?

Inter-city kerbside bus departures have increased from 589 to 778 a day over the past year, while scheduled departures for the industry as a whole, including Greyhound, which shares a British parent company with BoltBus, increased 7.1% to 2,693.

[MetroMPG]

I didn't realize the extent of British involvement in the bus companies. It probably applies to the Canadian arms of the brands too.

I visit friends in Toronto a couple of times a year (~350 km one way), and the last 2 trips I went by coach (double-decker MegaBus), so I'm apparently part of the bus revival.

New, clean double-decker buses, cheap fares, and available wifi. Before these new coaches, I had never gone by bus.

My rule of thumb is: I'll go by bus (or train) even if the ticket cost is 2x the fuel I would burn in the car, provided I can do a bit of work (wifi) en route.

[MetroMPG]

I'll just add:

My biggest complaint about going by bus was the un-skilled, un-smooth driver on one of the trips: full binary pedal usage (gas full ON or brake full ON) in the city portions of the trip made train travel look darn appealing.

[Frank Lee]

Trains are great until the god dang Duggars get on with 9 screaming kids that make you go hunt for a secluded corner somewhere to get some desperately needed sleep.

[slowmover]

Fire up one of those green Dominican cigars you favor, Frank Lee, that'll send 'em away . . . oh, yeah, no smoking section.

[gone-ot]

...a giant, foul, green "gag-master" beans & cabbage & beer phart usually dispenses people to the 'other end' of the bus in no time!

[Frank Lee]

I wish I could conjure up such a fart at will... it would be useful in many social situations!

[gone-ot]

...unfortunately, my wife tells me that I'm too able to do just that too easily (ha,ha).

...and, in two different classifications, too: (1) SBD's and (2) LSR's.

[Grant-53]

I have found train travel more pleasant than being crammed into an airplane. I have been on some decent buses too. Fuel for a train is supposedly 248 passenger miles per gallon. Amtrack runs on freight line track which can be a little rough. Buses may get up to 500 passenger miles per gallon but no dining car. Our 4 kids were pretty well behaved going from Buffalo to Fort Worth with a layover in Chicago. There is always Granpap's riddle about what's the grey stuff in bird dirt. It's bird dirt too. Just for show bring some in a pill bottle.

[euromodder]

Originally Posted by Grant-53

Fuel for a train is supposedly 248 passenger miles per gallon.

If it's crammed full.
Trains weigh 100s of tons, and take a lot of energy to get moving.
To make things worse, they even go 120 or 160 kph here, despite the relatively short distances.

Buses may get up to 500 passenger miles per gallon but no dining car.

Again, only when full.
And usually, they ain't full.


A local supplier has a contract to build 300 US busses, but will build a second construction plant in Macedonia to assemble them, rather than doing so locally.