There has been a discussion of bustitutions in some recent threads, so I thought it might be a good idea to have a special bustitution thread where we can discuss the topic in more detail.
Bustitutions are a 2-edged sword. On the one hand, using a bus bridge to break up a long-distance route, as was proposed for the Southwest Chief a few years ago, is an abomination, and I'm glad it never happened and hope it never happens. On the other hand, when there are temporary service disruptions, a bus bridge allows one to finish the journey in a timely manner.
Here are my experiences with Amtrak Bustitutions:
Capitol Limited: When they were daylighting some of the tunnels in Pennsylvania, they bustituted if the eastbound train got into Pittsburgh more than 2 hours late. Yep, it happened to me, and it was a shame, because I had a really good sleeping car attendant that trip. But they rousted us out in Pittsburgh at about 7 AM, put us on a coach, and off we went at 70 mph on the Pennsylvania Turnpike (sharp curves and stiff grades) in a pouring rainstorm. No food service, but we stopped at the Gateway service center in Breezewood, where we were able to eat. Despite our late departure from Pittsburgh and the Washington DC area traffic, we got to Washington Union Station at the time scheduled for the original train. It was an OK ride, though the bus was stuffed full, so I had a seatmate.
Silver Star/Silver Meteor: On a trip to Tampa, it turned out CSX was doing trackwork, so the Tampa and Lakeland passengers were bussed from Orlando. On the way home, I wanted to get into Baltimore early, so I booked the Thruway bus connection via Orlando on the Meteor. It was an OK ride, though getting off the freeway to meander around Lakeland was a bit of a pain in the neck.
Pennsylvanian: I had wanted to ride over the Horsehoe curve, but when I got to 30th St., I found out that NS had decided to derail a long freight train and dump cargo all over the tracks. So they bussed us from Harrisburg to Pittsburgh. It was actually handled pretty well. They had 4 buses, all of which went to Pittsburgh and a couple of intermediate stations, so no one bus was getting off the highway to stop at all of the stations. I picked the bus that was stopping at Lewiston and Huntington, and it was the least crowded bus of the bunch, so I had a whole seat pair to myself. We made pretty good time, and got into Pittsburgh before the train was scheduled to get in.
My first Amtrak bustitution was in 1972 when my brother and I took the Silverliner (now Keystone)train to Harrisburg to visit my Dad, who was working there. They still hadn't cleaned up the mess from Tropical Storm Agnes, which had passed through a couple of months earlier, so our train was terminated in Lancaster, and we were bussed the rest of they way.
I got a modest voucher for the Capitol Limited bustitutioon due to not having a sleeper from Pittsburgh. I didn't bother to ask for anything for the Silver Star, as I knew it was a bustitution before I left, and I didn't ask for any compensation for the Pennsylvanian, after all, we did get to Pittsburgh early, and I had a nice bus ride.
Bustitutions are a 2-edged sword. On the one hand, using a bus bridge to break up a long-distance route, as was proposed for the Southwest Chief a few years ago, is an abomination, and I'm glad it never happened and hope it never happens. On the other hand, when there are temporary service disruptions, a bus bridge allows one to finish the journey in a timely manner.
Here are my experiences with Amtrak Bustitutions:
Capitol Limited: When they were daylighting some of the tunnels in Pennsylvania, they bustituted if the eastbound train got into Pittsburgh more than 2 hours late. Yep, it happened to me, and it was a shame, because I had a really good sleeping car attendant that trip. But they rousted us out in Pittsburgh at about 7 AM, put us on a coach, and off we went at 70 mph on the Pennsylvania Turnpike (sharp curves and stiff grades) in a pouring rainstorm. No food service, but we stopped at the Gateway service center in Breezewood, where we were able to eat. Despite our late departure from Pittsburgh and the Washington DC area traffic, we got to Washington Union Station at the time scheduled for the original train. It was an OK ride, though the bus was stuffed full, so I had a seatmate.
Silver Star/Silver Meteor: On a trip to Tampa, it turned out CSX was doing trackwork, so the Tampa and Lakeland passengers were bussed from Orlando. On the way home, I wanted to get into Baltimore early, so I booked the Thruway bus connection via Orlando on the Meteor. It was an OK ride, though getting off the freeway to meander around Lakeland was a bit of a pain in the neck.
Pennsylvanian: I had wanted to ride over the Horsehoe curve, but when I got to 30th St., I found out that NS had decided to derail a long freight train and dump cargo all over the tracks. So they bussed us from Harrisburg to Pittsburgh. It was actually handled pretty well. They had 4 buses, all of which went to Pittsburgh and a couple of intermediate stations, so no one bus was getting off the highway to stop at all of the stations. I picked the bus that was stopping at Lewiston and Huntington, and it was the least crowded bus of the bunch, so I had a whole seat pair to myself. We made pretty good time, and got into Pittsburgh before the train was scheduled to get in.
My first Amtrak bustitution was in 1972 when my brother and I took the Silverliner (now Keystone)train to Harrisburg to visit my Dad, who was working there. They still hadn't cleaned up the mess from Tropical Storm Agnes, which had passed through a couple of months earlier, so our train was terminated in Lancaster, and we were bussed the rest of they way.
I got a modest voucher for the Capitol Limited bustitutioon due to not having a sleeper from Pittsburgh. I didn't bother to ask for anything for the Silver Star, as I knew it was a bustitution before I left, and I didn't ask for any compensation for the Pennsylvanian, after all, we did get to Pittsburgh early, and I had a nice bus ride.