Amtrak Thruway buses - routes?

[user 6862]

Looking at a journey from Los Angeles to Denver and see the Southwest Chief runs a Thruway bus 8804 from Albuquerque to Denver taking 9 hours. Is it possible to find the route and timetable for this bus as it's not on the SWC route schedule?

Have found the 8604 bus route and schedule from Raton and surprised they run 2 services up to Denver, but it's the Albuquerque to Denver that looks interesting.

Thanks

 

[railiner]

Why would you want to get off the train at Albuquerque and ride a later bus, a longer bus ride, and get to Denver a couple of hours later?

BTW, the Albuquerque to Denver thruway bus in number 8804...the Raton to Denver is 8604

 

[AmtrakBlue]

Why would you want to get off the train at Albuquerque and ride a later bus, a longer bus ride, and get to Denver a couple of hours later?

BTW, the Albuquerque to Denver thruway bus in number 8804...the Raton to Denver is 8604

Have you not followed the OPs adventures?

. He and is wife enjoy bus rides as much as train rides. And perhaps the scenery along that route interests them.

 

[user 6862]

That could be about it railiner, just as AmtrakBlue writes. Saving time isn't a big part of our travels, it's often fellow travellers or what's outside the window that's more important to us.

Did see that the 8804 is listed as one of the Raton to Denver options, but when I put a LAX to Denver ticket request in it gave the option at Albuquerque to take the 8804 from there, although there is no schedule or route shown for it. If we knew the route we could decide if it's a ride we'd like to take.

Thanks to you both

 

[Philly Amtrak Fan]

Why would you want to get off the train at Albuquerque and ride a later bus, a longer bus ride, and get to Denver a couple of hours later?

BTW, the Albuquerque to Denver thruway bus in number 8804...the Raton to Denver is 8604

Have you not followed the OPs adventures?

. He and is wife enjoy bus rides as much as train rides. And perhaps the scenery along that route interests them.

Who enjoys BUS rides? And the "scenery"? Wouldn't that be the highways? Couldn't you just drive it?

 

[user 6862]

Prefer to have a driver for vacations... and yes we often like the yukky scenery too.

 

[railiner]

If you compare I-25, with the Amtrak route, other than going thru Santa Fe instead of Lamy, there really isn't much difference in the scenery...the routes are pretty much parallel....

I might add the fact, that the earlier thruway bus originates at Raton, is primarily to serve the train connection, while the later bus, is a thru schedule from El Paso, and will probably be more crowded when you board at Albuquerque, if that matters to you at all....

As you may know, both of these "Thruway's" are in fact regular Greyhound schedules, that also serve bus passenger's, unlike the dedicated Thruway's you might be familiar with in California....

 

[chakk]

The bus from Albuquerque to Denver follows I-25 all the way, only diverging from that route for short distances in the cities in which it stops, which include Raton, Trinidad, Pueblo, and Colorado Springs.

 

[Devil's Advocate]

Why would you want to get off the train at Albuquerque and ride a later bus, a longer bus ride, and get to Denver a couple of hours later?

BTW, the Albuquerque to Denver thruway bus in number 8804...the Raton to Denver is 8604

Have you not followed the OPs adventures? He and is wife enjoy bus rides as much as train rides. And perhaps the scenery along that route interests them.

Who enjoys BUS rides? And the "scenery"? Wouldn't that be the highways? Couldn't you just drive it?

Not all buses are bad. For instance, I really enjoyed the tourist buses in Southern Germany. They may not be cheap but they were clean and comfortable with amazing scenery and easily worth every cent. I've also sometimes chosen a short duration regional bus in order to avoid funding a taxi mafia shakedown. That being said, the few buses I've ridden in the US were so uncomfortable (seats) and disgusting (restrooms) that I'd be hard pressed to choose another one over a train or plane or rental car. I'd probably have to be down to my last few dollars and heading to a last chance job opportunity in another state to willingly ride another US interstate bus.

 

[user 6862]

Thanks for all the help, I was hoping that the bus would follow the 285 for all or some of the way between Albuquerque and Denver, maybe to serve smaller communities away from rail track and the Interstate. Now see that it largely follows the SWC route. What puzzled me is the route of the 8804 bus in the separate route/schedule Thruway panels was not listed as leaving Albuquerque, it was only shown as leaving Raton, although it is a separate listed Albuquerque service when buying a ticket.

Bus travel... we're all different and appreciate different things in life, on top of which trains in almost any country don't go to all the places we wish to travel to. I do remember on the very first very long distance Greyhound taken years ago we stopped at a crossroads somewhere in N Dakota , there were 4 buildings one on each corner and that was it as far as the eye could see. It was February, pretty bleak weather wise.

When we de-bussed I was amazed that the café was pretty full already, we were the only bus at the stop. It took a while to realise that the Greyhound stop was the center of the unseen community and this small café was their meeting place. Having grown up in a mega city it was about as opposite to my life as possible and has stuck in my mind ever since.

That 7 day bus ride was the first time I (Rosie wasn't on the Greyhound part of the journey, we met up at the end of it in Phoenix) started to really see America and it's people, the good, bad and the ugly. We had taken at least 5 or 6 US fly drive vacations previous to this covering thousands of miles each time, but that week was a real eye opener.

The inspiration for that first Greyhound ride came from a book called 'The Great American Bus Ride' by Irma Kurtz. She went on a gruelling 3 months Greyhound trip and explains far better than I the allure of sometimes travelling Greyhound. Worth reading to the end as you understand more as to 'the why' the longer her trip lasts.

Thanks again for the comments, it all helps.

DA, southern Germany by road in particular the Deutsche Alpenstrasse is exactly as you write, spectacular. My opinion is the very best way to see that and the eastern side of Bavaria is with a camper, slowly.

 

[Seaboard92]

Thanks for all the help, I was hoping that the bus would follow the 285 for all or some of the way between Albuquerque and Denver, maybe to serve smaller communities away from rail track and the Interstate. Now see that it largely follows the SWC track. What puzzled me is the route of the 8804 bus in the separate route/schedule Thruway panels was not listed as leaving Albuquerque, it was only shown as leaving Raton, although it is a separate listed Albuquerque service when buying a ticket.

Bus travel... we're all different and appreciate different things in life, on top of which trains in almost any country don't go to all the places we wish to travel to. I do remember on the very first very long distance Greyhound taken years ago we stopped at a crossroads somewhere in N Dakota , there were 4 buildings one on each corner and that was it as far as the eye could see. It was February, pretty bleak weather wise.

When we de-bussed I was amazed that the café was pretty full already, we were the only bus at the stop. It took a while to realise that the Greyhound stop was the center of the unseen community and this small café was their meeting place. Having grown up in a mega city it was about as opposite to my life as possible and has stuck in my mind ever since.

That 7 day bus ride was the first time I (Rosie wasn't on the Greyhound part of the journey, we met up at the end of it in Phoenix) started to really see America and it's people, the good, bad and the ugly. We had taken at least 5 or 6 US fly drive vacations previous to this covering thousands of miles each time, but that week was a real eye opener.

The inspiration for that first Greyhound ride came from a book called 'The Great American Bus Ride' by Irma Kurtz. She went on a gruelling 3 months Greyhound trip and explains far better than I the allure of sometimes travelling Greyhound. Worth reading to the end as you understand more as to 'the why' the longer her trip lasts.

Thanks again for the comments, it all helps.

DA, southern Germany by road in particular the Deutsche Alpenstrasse is exactly as you write, spectacular. My opinion is the very best way to see that and the eastern side of Bavaria is with a camper, slowly.

From best I can tell the 6AM bus to Raton from Denver Union Station goes thru to El Paso when I was researching it. And I'm super excited to see that VV is going on another trip as that'll mean another amazing trip report to read.

 

[user 6862]

Thank you Seaboard, that's very kind of you to write that.

The planning goes something like this. In our day to day lives we pick up on odd things from this or that source, a random conversation, something on tv, a news item, from anything and anywhere. Sometimes we wonder what where and why about the random piece of information and follow it up.

The outside chance of returning to the US sooner than we thought was caused by friends in the US, added to a conversation we had a couple of weeks ago with a young US couple living in the Pyrenees mountains, they are customers of ours and for our sins had to deliver to their beautifully located home in a tiny remote village. Following on from that how we could travel in the US experiencing different things to before.

This is only one of 4 or 5 ideas we are considering seriously, they will get filtered down to two, maybe three journeys we will actually take. Time and finance are usually the final arbiter, but other factors come into play too. For example. We had our hearts set on Iran, mostly by train to get there and moving around the country too, but their regulation for the type of visa UK, US and Canadian citizens have to have has turned us away from the idea, for now anyways. So even when we have determined a journey it can all fall down.

Hope this hasn't put you to sleep reading this, but reading back I think we'll call all future journeys 'Random Travels #?'

 

[PVD]

Funny, I have to be in Colorado Springs on Weds of next week, I will take the CZ to Denver and drive the opposite direction. But that's out of Chicago not the West Coast. CZ from the West Coast to Denver has great scenery, but from LA you would have to make a trip up the coast to get it.The stretch of I-25 once you leave Denver offers pretty good views of the Rockies. Not sure what South of the Springs looks like from the road.

 

[cirdan]

Not all buses are bad. For instance, I really enjoyed the tourist buses in Southern Germany. They may not be cheap but they were clean and comfortable with amazing scenery and easily worth every cent. I've also sometimes chosen a short duration regional bus in order to avoid funding a taxi mafia shakedown. That being said, the few buses I've ridden in the US were so uncomfortable (seats) and disgusting (restrooms) that I'd be hard pressed to choose another one over a train or plane or rental car. I'd probably have to be down to my last few dollars and heading to a last chance job opportunity in another state to willingly ride another US interstate bus.

Not necessarily.

I very much prefer Amtrak and will use Amtrak even if it takes longer and I have to change trains several times.

But there are many places you can't get to by train, no matter how convoluted the route you chose. So I do end up doing that here and there.

I find long distance bus routes, and buses in general do also have something that makes them fascinating. The spartan and no frills approach to getting the job done for example. Despite my pro rail bias I do end up liking buses.

 

[Devil's Advocate]

We had our hearts set on Iran, mostly by train to get there and moving around the country too, but their regulation for the type of visa UK, US and Canadian citizens have to have has turned us away from the idea, for now anyways. So even when we have determined a journey it can all fall down.

Please consider the following before you abandon the idea completely. As difficult and tedious as it may be to visit Iran right now it's not likely to get any easier anytime soon. In fact it's likely to become much more difficult or even impossible in the future. By the time Iran becomes easy to enter again it may have been ravaged by yet another war or even wiped off the face of the Earth. By turning away from Iran to revisit the US you'd be indirectly rewarding the primary instigator and least rational culprit in this whole mess. It's true that Iran makes it difficult for average Westerners to visit, but if you think that's a pain consider the difficulty of visiting the US/UK as an average Iranian citizen. I didn't mention it at the time but your previous comments on this topic have moved me to see it a little differently than before.

 

[railiner]

The ability to go "everywhere, and anytime" by intercity bus has gone away in the past few decades, compared to what once was. Greyhound Lines alone, is less than a fifth of their former size, and is still abandoning many routes, with every new timetable, seemingly. The once competitive Trailways system, is now not even a shadow of its former size. While other companies such as Megabus have come in, over the most lucrative "corridor" routes, and some independent carrier's, such as Jefferson Lines, as taken over many former abandoned routes, overall, the route map, and the frequent service, have shrunk tremendously.

Another downgrade is the station's. At one time, they operated full service terminal's in all major cities, and many smaller cities, as well, all in the heart of town. Now, except for some government built intermodal terminal's, they are barely adequate, often at some freeway exit at the edge of town, or just curbside street loading, in places.

One improvement is the buses themselves. They are quieter, less polluting, more reliable, offer power plugs and wifi, and also have e-ticketing.

 

[user 6862]

PVD - just spent 10 minutes on google street view and see the drive from/to Denver to Colorado Springs looks a lot more interesting on the 285 and 24 than the I-25. If you had the time...

cirdan - that was well put. Greyhound doesn't always stand up technically against Amtrak but it does have a unique charm. If you are on a bus long enough a camaraderie springs up between a few of the long distance riders (nearly put inmates), if the ride is good you share it, if it's a bad one you know you are all suffering the same amount.

railiner - you obviously use LD buses as what you write is spot on in many cases, in particular about siting bus stops and even garages where there is no public transport access. Wrote in a recent blog that this year's 4 LD Greyhound rides had lost a lot of quality in respect of equipment (buses) and Greyhound infrastructure, just hope it's a temporary thing. That said was recently looking at a coast to coast ride of 3 days and I (but not Rosie) got very excited at the prospect.

DA - interesting train of thought but I think that things will calm down in the near future or we're all in trouble.

Just a couple of days ago we were contacted by an Iranian travel agency suggesting they can be quite liberal and less rigid than we imagine it would be, that within a loose frame work there would be an element of 'freedom' to pick and choose (just added freedom to pick and choose on the day).

We had decided on Fall 2019 anyway as we have much to do in Europe with Brexit arriving, or not, so it gives us a little time to investigate this hybrid method of travel further. A possibility is to just spend a few days in northern Iran, Tabriz, Tehran and the coast to the north. We could make Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan the main purpose of the journey.

If the part guided visit worked well we could go back for the 3 or 4 weeks in the rest of the country at a later date, if it didn't it wouldn't ruin the bulk of that vacation and we'd know 100% we would only visit with relaxed rules.

If we do return to the US this year it will mainly be driven by personal reasons, people rather than country this time.

Enjoy reading your posts, never quite sure if some are pure provocation or if they are genuinely what you believe, enjoyable reading anyhow.

 

[oregon pioneer]

If you ever want to take back-road buses west-to-east, from the Oregon coast to the desert, through small towns all the way (and connecting with Amtrak as you cross the Coast Starlight route), let me know. I will tell you where to find the information resources. And we'll get together somehow for that postponed cup of tea!

 

[PVD]

Thanks, I've always just driven down using I-25. I might just try the suggested route on the way back, if time permits.

 

[user 6862]

That sounds like a great idea, but could we find resources to continue on the back roads beyond the desert to Salt Lake City? All together for a cup of tea sounds like an even better idea, we'd have so much to talk about.

Thanks Jennifer

 

[railiner]

v v...as I've told some other's on these boards....you were just "born too late"...

I have been in the bus industry, on and off, for exactly one half century(

), and if you saw one of my "Official Bus Guide's" from the '50's and '60's, you wouldn't believe it...

It was as thick as a Manhattan telephone book, with scheduled buses over virtually every highway, coast to coast, and border to border....

 

[oregon pioneer]

That sounds like a great idea, but could we find resources to continue on the back roads beyond the desert to Salt Lake City? All together for a cup of tea sounds like an even better idea, we'd have so much to talk about.

Thanks Jennifer

Well, I know how to get to (at least) Boise. After that, I believe it's Greyhound down the freeway to SLC. I will keep my eyes open for alternatives.

 

[caravanman]

I second the Irma kurtz book as a great read, but a shame that all these interesting alternatives to flying or car driving are quickly vanishing in America. Sad also that I ended up with a Hyundai rental car , , rather than the pink Cadillac that I was 30 years too late for!

Ed.

 

[Triley]

Looking at a journey from Los Angeles to Denver and see the Southwest Chief runs a Thruway bus 8804 from Albuquerque to Denver taking 9 hours. Is it possible to find the route and timetable for this bus as it's not on the SWC route schedule?

Have found the 8604 bus route and schedule from Raton and surprised they run 2 services up to Denver, but it's the Albuquerque to Denver that looks interesting.

Thanks

Are you sure it's something that's still ran? I don't get why they'd run a bus connection between the two cities when there's a train that runs the segment. We'd just be taking away service from our own trains.
Here's what I found for thruway connections from Denver, as found in the national timetable.

 

[jebr]

It's ticketable on amtrak.com, anyways. That being said, there's a Greyhound route that vaguely follows that timetable but not closely enough to be sure that it's that timetable (it starts 20 minutes earlier and arrives 55 minutes later.) The main timetable PDF also shows 8804 from Raton on a vaguely similar timetable.

EDIT: I see you included that same portion of the timetable. I'm thinking it's that 8804 schedule that they just ticket from Albuquerque instead of Raton when coming from LAX.