Connecting Bus Service

[Amtrak Watcher]

I like the bus service between Longview and Houston: big seats, friendly drivers, and no problem sitting up front to look out the window "down" on the traffic.

 

[AlanB]

I've only been on two connecting buses, both in Virginia and both run by James River Bus lines. One was to downtown Richmond, and the other was to Virginia Beach.

The bus to Virginia Beach had some charm, as it crosses a few bridges in the area providing some very nice views. The Richmond bus was nothing spectacular heading downtown, and in fact they never showed up for my return trip. I had to take a cab back to the station to avoid missing my train.

Neither bus was anything outstanding, they were just typical long haul coaches.

 

[Superliner Diner]

I've only been on two connecting buses, both in Virginia and both run by James River Bus lines. One was to downtown Richmond, and the other was to Virginia Beach.
The bus to Virginia Beach had some charm, as it crosses a few bridges in the area providing some very nice views. The Richmond bus was nothing spectacular heading downtown, and in fact they never showed up for my return trip. I had to take a cab back to the station to avoid missing my train.

Neither bus was anything outstanding, they were just typical long haul coaches.

The Richmond bus, while a good idea whose time had come many years before it actually started with the move out of town to Staples Mill Road, was very short-lived. I don't think it lasted more than one timetable cycle, if that long. It was not properly publicized, and it never appeared in print in the timetables. I did accidentally find a flyer for the Richmond bus that somebody had left in the seat pocket of a train.

I used the Virginia Beach bus once (round trip) and I agree this trip was nice -- although for me it was crowded as I happened to have taken it on one of the busiest travel days of the year. I thought it was melded well with the train service, because the train crew mentions the bus on arrival into Newport News, and the bus driver mentions the train upon arrival at the Newport News station.

The Thruway trip that I have by far taken the most is the cross-Florida bus that goes from Orlando to the Tampa Bay area. We used to take it to St. Petersburg, but then I realized that my parents had just as far to drive to pick us up, and we would have a shorter bus trip, if we got off at Tampa Union Station.

We used two different Thruway connections on our Michigan trip last summer. I was impressed with the nice modern buses used by Indian Trails.

The only other Thruway bus we've taken was one that ran in Vermont from Burlington to Rutland to hook up with the Ethan Allen Express. That has since been cancelled.

But to name my favorite -- I don't have one. The above Florida trip, roughly 2 hours, is so bumpy and boring that I am going to rent a car this April and drive from Orlando directly to my parents' place.

Many Thruway connections are actually regular Greyhound runs. Therefore you mingle with regular Greyhound passengers, and are subject to Greyhound's, not Amtrak's, rules. We've encountered some strange characters this way. These passengers don't always abide by the rules, such as those governing smoking. We once had to ride near the back of the bus by somebody with a loud box radio. Unlike on trains, there is only one member of the "crew", the driver, and being outnumbered the driver often does not want to get involved with an unruly passenger.