An addendum to my scathing review of the defunct Trailways system back at post 4 ...

The NH to Boston section of that route is now "Concord Coach Lines". It is now the absolute best way to get to Boston's Logan Airport (or South Station for Amtrak) from northern NH or Maine if timing fits your flight schedule. There's another bus line further south in Portsmouth NH with more frequent trips but there's no way to get there from up here aside from being driven or driving & using long term parking.

A clean fleet of buses, polite & competent drivers & excellent staff at their terminal in Concord NH. Very bike friendly, you can often place your bike unboxed below. That said, boxing it ahead of time at home prepares it for a continuing flight.

A sleeping bag liner can be pretty nice if the air conditioning is a bit chilly for you. I just bought a new air mattress this morning so after reading reviews on that model of air mattress, my brain is still thinking about sleeping gear. On my Amtrak trip last summer I remember bringing warmer clothing onto the train in my carry on for sleeping in a coach seat, that warming clothing came in handy.

Greyhound used to be so big, they OWNED Motor Coach Industries and used their buses exclusively. No longer, which is why the OP pic is surprising, it's a Prevost ("Pray-voh") coach made in Quebec, a good coach, but as I said, I don't like the reduced radiator intake size on all the new coaches.

[QUOTE=venturi95;23530398]My only train trip was in 2021 on Amtrak and traveling with my 20" folding bike was a breeze, just tossed on the luggage rack inside the passenger car. It had bike hooks in the baggage car, no boxing needed (but $10 fee), but my rear wheel coming loose descending stairs delayed me just enough to miss baggage loading, so I just folded the bike and tossed everything into the passenger car, low passengers due to pandemic. So I could load on or off at any station. I was told by an experienced train user that baggage service is a problem at small stations, however what I witnessed was that was true for on-loading, but for off-loading, you just notify the conductor a few minutes ahead of a small stop, and they help you grab your luggage and bike out of the baggage car just prior to stopping. On the way back I took the Starlight with the higher cars, didn't like it, no better view in that area, and luggage shelves were down stairs right at the doors so I went down to watch my bike at every stop, lest someone quickly grab and offload it.

My biggest complaint was the seats; Plenty roomy for me, much roomier in the seat and legroom over airline seating, but the bottom padding was rock hard with no contouring so a half-day ride was my absolute limit.

Flixbus operates between Oregon and Washington whereas it's Greyhound between Oregon and California. I've had decent experience with Flixbus, no issues, but much prefer Amtrak. Maybe it's better than greyhound, maybe just luck.
I do one way bike rides between Portland and Olympia WA frequently, using Amtrak the other way. Also one way between Portland and Eugene a couple times a year, also using Amtrak. Ezpz. Eugene and Olympia are small stations and you hand the bike up/ down, at Portland you usually roll it into the baggage room. I've done a one way ride to Klamath Falls once, Amtrak return. Same deal. Compared to flying with a bike, which I've also done quite a lot, Amtrak (here) is super easy.

There's no way I'd deal with the hassle of flying between Portland and Seattle, given any choice.

This would never happen with the Green Tortoise

https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...db7977bfe9.jpg

Is the Green Tortoise still in business !?!? Are there any comparable present day companies?

It looks online like they are. I have no experience with them and didn't know what they are about, but I saw a bus for sale in years past that was labeled as such and had bunk beds inside.

Reminds me of the time I did a cross country bus trip back in the early 70s. At that time I think they had a deal going that was like $19.99 anywhere. So I decided to take a bus from Boston to Los Angeles, just for the experience. We pulled into Omaha Nebraska around 11 pm - about 45 minutes early. There were six of us on the bus. Yea we were having a good time. One of the guys had a guitar, there was some weed, there was some beer, but there was nobody else other than the driver on the bus. The driver, when we arrived in Omaha, told us we'd be there for an hour since we were running ahead of schedule and that we could get off the bus if we wanted. So we all got off the bus, headed to a local Mexican restaurant that was open, ordered some food, got the food, and started eating. Just about the the time we were putting our first bites into our food we saw a bus drive by. We were only about 30 minutes into our one hour break and didn't think much about it. We walked back to the bus station only to find our bus had left without us - and all our belongings were still on the bus!! We raised holy hell. One of the guys called a taxi. We all jumped in and told the driver to get us to the next scheduled stop for the bus - in Lincoln Nebraska, about 60 miles away. The driver hit the gas and we were on our way. We pulled into Lincoln just as the bus was about to pull out. One of the guys stood in front of the bus to prevent the bus from moving forward. The station manager came out. We presented our story. The driver told him we were being unruly and then "I thought they were asleep in the back of the bus." The taxi driver starts asking, "Who's going to pay for the ride?" We piled back onto the bus and as far as we know the station manager paid the taxi driver, because none of us shelled out a single dollar and the bus left the station heading for Denver. I got to LA a couple days later - completely worn out. It was quite the adventure, but one I'd never want to repeat today.

consider walking...or ride a bike

Where is the problem?¿

If he started the show with the Pizza, it would have still been hot...LOL!

I rode Greyhound once on a short trip and it wasn't the worst thing in the world but didn't make me want to do it again. That experience was crazy and makes me even less willing to go Greyhound.

Yes, there really is such a place. Rode by it a few days ago while touring in northern Minnesota. It's obvious that they take as much pride in this as they do their bus line Ha

https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...31c3cd4313.jpg

There are a lot bikers visiting the museum based on that photo. Not sure why.

Obviously they have been reading this thread, ha. No, actually an organized ride was going through this area on the same day.

Haven't ridden Greyhound since college. Last time I took a boxed bike onboard was 1982. No issues except for back then people smoked on the bus and everything reeked of it.

We chartered a motorcoach for our Vegas wedding in 1999. Everyone liked it, even though he drove US 93 a bit (OK, way) too fast.

Took Amtrak from DC to Boston South Station in 2005 with a 20" folding bike, and then took Peter Pan Bus Lines to Falmouth & back for meetings at the old NAS compound at Woods Hole. No problems at all northbound on Amtrak or on the bus. When leaving Boston, the local staff told me my bike wouldn't be allowed onboard, in spite of my waving a printout of their folding bike policy in front of them. Finally, the head conductor comes over, looks at me, looks at the folded bike, and says "Haw come ya ahhnt on boahd alreadah? Weah late - loahditahp!" And made it back to DC with the bike.

They don't call it "Riding the Dog" for nothing.
Greyhound has become the transportation for the poor, the mentally ill, the strung out, and the marginalized.

On one trip a young woman overdosed when the bus was at a convenient store stop.
The EMTs arrived and they worked on her in the parking lot.
Don't know if she survived.

There was a young Chinese couple with a toddler sitting in the front row.
They spoke very little English and looked utterly terrified.
Not what they were expecting to see in the U.S. of A., I suspect.

"But it doesn't have to be that way
What we had should have never have ended" - Jim Croce

https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...4e73a77d43.jpg

It's demographics. It's finance. It's the march of time. It's government policy.

People go on and on about train travel in other countries. I've had some amazing bus trips in foreign lands, in modern, clean, quiet buses with uniformed drivers and a steward that came down the aisle offering chai or Nescafe. For what intercity motorcoach travel could be in America, check out Vonlane

Money talks. During Pete B's watch:

COVID relief money (from the US Transportation Department website):
Airlines: $14,000,000,000
Amtrak: $1,690,000,000
Intercity buses: $0

So, for-profit intercity bus companies no longer have stations but pick you up at the curb, they use contract drivers and operate decrepit buses? Thank Pete B!

I attended a rail line reopening in NJ in August of 2023. The line is freight only, but it’s owned by New Jersey Transit. NJT brought down an old bus that was used for trips to the shore. IIRC, the bus is from the mid-50s. The inside looked very much like the one in that photo, complete with at least one table. One thing that really struck me was it didn’t have power steering.

Some years ago, my sister finished her PhD, and needed to take care of some business in the USA before flying to her overseas job. Not having a car or much money, she bought a greyhound 30 day pass. After that saga, she told me everyone who gets a PhD should be required to ride greyhound for 30 days. A grounding experience.

Memory jog. They used to advertise those passes on TV when I was young. I remember thinking it would be so cool to be able to travel around like that. 😂

EDIT: I think it was called a “TrailPass”.

A former co-worker took a Greyhound from Washington DC to Madison Wisc. He said he would NEVER do that again.

I have no idea why he did that, perhaps it was in Sept 2001 when all the airliners were grounded for several days? I knew a few others from work that were stranded in various places around the country when that happened. My niece was stranded in France when that happened, Greyhound was not an option for her.

I am sure that every seat on Greyhound was taken when the airlines were all grounded. That would be one good reason to not want to ride the bus ever again.

I am 66, and have taken buses regularly around the USA, and most of the other continents, since the '60s when i was a kid. Obviously bike-tourers are mostly economically privileged folks, but damn- listening to y'all talking about that one time you had to take the bus is just embarrassing. Ditto for most discussion of Amtrak on here.

"Check your privilege", as the kids say. People ride buses because they need to get from point A to point B, and they are poor. American society has been set up to systematically screw over poor folks for as long as any living person has been alive. Public transportation in the USA sucks because it is intended to suck. Public transportation is much better in even the poorest countries outside the USA, because it is designed to provide transportation, rather than being designed to shave off a few pennies more at every turn.

Stating these very obvious facts is "political", and likely to get modded, whereas whining about how buses suck isn't. Hmmm.

As a person with a PhD (and a law degree), i would heartily that every PhD, and every other grad degree, and every job paying more than X amount, should all come with a mandatory 30 days on the bus.

Correct.

Like a number of Americans our age (including my slightly older PhD sister), I grew up in poverty and took advantage of affordable education to achieve that status of economic privilege. That economic path has been priced out of reach.