Greyhound seats and fleet questions

[railiner]

Back from vacation, (sigh).....

All is well....thanks for your concern....

I lucked out and missed a very busy Columbus Day/Canadian Thanksgiving holiday while on my annual Canada/New England cruise. Things are back to normal now until the big one (U.S. Thanksgiving). The only concern now is catching up with all the buses near their mileage limits for PM servicing, due to the busy holiday.....

 

[Swadian Hardcore]

Glad all is well. I hope you enjoyed the cruise and vacation. You posted about that in the Ferry thread, but I forgot. I've got some more pics on my Flickr photostream if you want to check it out.

Another bus fan here just messaged me (like a minute ago) that he saw #86555 running Sked 8308 from San Francisco. So Greyhound has at least bought 150 new D4505s.

False news releases.....

 

[Swadian Hardcore]

Now that Greyhound has so many new buses, they should do something about the Sacramento-Portland. The overnight Schedule 1436 is always getting sold out, every day. Another freqeuncy is definately needed, but I can't see a good spot to slide it into the schedule. Sacramento-Portland already has four buses a day.

 

[railiner]

Now that Greyhound has so many new buses, they should do something about the Sacramento-Portland. The overnight Schedule 1436 is always getting sold out, every day. Another freqeuncy is definately needed, but I can't see a good spot to slide it into the schedule. Sacramento-Portland already has four buses a day.

I would like to see them restore San Francisco- Portland service on the coast highway (101). Not likely, but it sure is scenic.....

 

[Swadian Hardcore]

Today was extremly busy, or I would have gone to the station to see what buses they have there.

Also, snow season in kicking in, but no delays for Greyhound runs yet.

Edit: Deleted wrong info.

 

[Swadian Hardcore]

Recent spotters' info, yesterday's Sked 1347 which arrived in Reno today was operated by a G4500! He says it was 720?, he couldn't see the last number.

This is BAD! Railiner, see if you can spot G4500s running the Denver-New York. I want to see what's going on.

Today was extremly busy, or I would have gone to the station to see what buses they have there.

Also, snow season in kicking in, but no delays for Greyhound runs yet.

My friend made a mistake! That G4500 was actually running to San Francisco, not from Denver. The bus from Denver connects to another for San Francisco. The bus was #7209, and it was running Schedule 8309 to San Francisco, not Schedule 1347.

That clears up the confusion.

 

[railiner]

I saw a couple of G's at the Hoboken lot Wednesday AM....didn't see this in time to check what was running to DEN....if I remember, will look later....

 

[rickycourtney]

I happened to be in Seattle this weekend... apparently the Pacific Northwest is the land of the G4500. There were 5 of them at the Seattle station.

 

[Swadian Hardcore]

I saw a couple of G's at the Hoboken lot Wednesday AM....didn't see this in time to check what was running to DEN....if I remember, will look later....

Hey, what happened to the garage in Lower Manhattan? Around 29th Street on the west side?

I happened to be in Seattle this weekend... apparently the Pacific Northwest is the land of the G4500. There were 5 of them at the Seattle station.

Just what I thought. I guess Seattle is home base of them now. I used to live up there a long time ago, back then the MC-12s were new and they were the main forces in Seattle.

Anything else in Seattle?

 

[railiner]

Greyhound lost its lease on both the 30th Street lot, where buses were serviced, and repaired, and the 29th Street lot where buses were fueled and stored. They have been storing buses on the streets where possible, and over at Academy's Hoboken lot number 3. shared with Trailways of NY.

Forgot to check the equipment on the Denver run, sorry.....will try to remember tomorrow...

 

[Swadian Hardcore]

Greyhound lost its lease on both the 30th Street lot, where buses were serviced, and repaired, and the 29th Street lot where buses were fueled and stored. They have been storing buses on the streets where possible, and over at Academy's Hoboken lot number 3. shared with Trailways of NY.

Forgot to check the equipment on the Denver run, sorry.....will try to remember tomorrow...

Dosen't really matter, I don't like anywhere close to Denver anymore so it dosen't affect me.

You used to work in Omaha right? I'm interested, were there transcon schedules through Omaha? What about north-south schedules? Greyhound has bugged out of Omaha, the last bus left in December 2012.

 

[railiner]

I worked for GL at OMD in 1971,72, and 73....

Omaha was at one time the headquarters for 'Overland Greyhound Lines'. It was a very large hub, with mainline and branchline routes extending in all directions. It also had a large garage a few blocks from the depot. The depot, at 18th and Farnam, was an interesting 'art moderne' style, in vogue at the time of it's building in the late 1940's. It had lane style loading undercover, as opposed to sawtooth style platforms. It had the offices and restrooms on a balcony, and also had a Post House lunch counter, and several retail shops.

When I was there, Greyhound ran six thru transcontinental schedules basically on I-80 from points East, (New York or Washington) Chicago, Davenport, Iowa City, Des Moines to North Platte, Cheyenne, Salt Lake City and points West (Portland, San Francisco, or Los Angeles. In the summer months, they added three additional trips mostly going express. Also trips direct from North Platte to Denver were added. There were also a local to Grand Island via Fremont and Columbus, a local to Norfolk via Fremont, several shuttle trips back and forth to Lincoln, three more trips to Chicago via US 30, thru Ames, Cedar Rapids, and Clinton. There were five daily trips south to Kansas City, some continuing beyond KC. There were also five trips north to Sioux City, some continuing north to Sioux Falls, with connections north to Fargo and Winnipeg. There were three trips northeast to Fairmont and Minneapolis.

Even with nine trips a day west in the summertime, some of them ran in two or three sections regularly.

Not to mention, Continental Trailways also had a similar (although smaller) operation there out of their 16th and Jackson depot....

It truly amazes me how they could go from all that to what is now......

Only Amtrak remains basically unchanged from those years at OMA to what they have today....

 

[Swadian Hardcore]

I worked for GL at OMD in 1971,72, and 73....

Omaha was at one time the headquarters for 'Overland Greyhound Lines'. It was a very large hub, with mainline and branchline routes extending in all directions. It also had a large garage a few blocks from the depot. The depot, at 18th and Farnam, was an interesting 'art moderne' style, in vogue at the time of it's building in the late 1940's. It had lane style loading undercover, as opposed to sawtooth style platforms. It had the offices and restrooms on a balcony, and also had a Post House lunch counter, and several retail shops.

When I was there, Greyhound ran six thru transcontinental schedules basically on I-80 from points East, (New York or Washington) Chicago, Davenport, Iowa City, Des Moines to North Platte, Cheyenne, Salt Lake City and points West (Portland, San Francisco, or Los Angeles. In the summer months, they added three additional trips mostly going express. Also trips direct from North Platte to Denver were added. There were also a local to Grand Island via Fremont and Columbus, a local to Norfolk via Fremont, several shuttle trips back and forth to Lincoln, three more trips to Chicago via US 30, thru Ames, Cedar Rapids, and Clinton. There were five daily trips south to Kansas City, some continuing beyond KC. There were also five trips north to Sioux City, some continuing north to Sioux Falls, with connections north to Fargo and Winnipeg. There were three trips northeast to Fairmont and Minneapolis.

Even with nine trips a day west in the summertime, some of them ran in two or three sections regularly.

Not to mention, Continental Trailways also had a similar (although smaller) operation there out of their 16th and Jackson depot....

It truly amazes me how they could go from all that to what is now......

Only Amtrak remains basically unchanged from those years at OMA to what they have today....

Aw man, that sucks! I do remember that I once rode a throguh Chicago-Seattle, which is also dead now. Chicago Terminal has 24 gates but they are very rarely full anymore. All I can say is that with more buses rolling in, we can expect some degree of service increases over the next few years.

What do you think are likely candidates for service expansion? Following a previous trend, I think the expansions will be on more Limiteds. New York-Richmond-Nashville-Dallas, New York-Saint Louis-Denver, Saint Louis-Albuquerque-Los Angeles, and Los Angeles-Sacramento-Portland are all possible.

Something else I've noticed is that a lot of Greyhound timetables have missing schedule numbers. For example, on the Reno-San Francisco (westbound direction), Skeds 8305 and 8319 are missing "gaps".

 

[railiner]

You mentioned Chicago - Seattle.....I assume you travelled on the 'Northland Greyhound' route...that is Chicago-Minneapolis-Fargo-Billings-Butte-Spokane-Seattle.....when I worked for GL, they ran 3 thru daily trips on that route, and added an express during the summer months. At times, one of the trips ran thru from New York City. And they also ran several more trips west from Spokane, and east from Fargo and Minneapolis at the more populated ends of the route. And they had no competition from Trailways on that route.....Now most of that route is abandoned by GL. Amazing.

 

[OlympianHiawatha]

The Halcyon Days of The Bus. Only today Aunt Martha takes Amtrak!

 

[Swadian Hardcore]

You mentioned Chicago - Seattle.....I assume you travelled on the 'Northland Greyhound' route...that is Chicago-Minneapolis-Fargo-Billings-Butte-Spokane-Seattle.....when I worked for GL, they ran 3 thru daily trips on that route, and added an express during the summer months. At times, one of the trips ran thru from New York City. And they also ran several more trips west from Spokane, and east from Fargo and Minneapolis at the more populated ends of the route. And they had no competition from Trailways on that route.....Now most of that route is abandoned by GL. Amazing.

Yep, that was the route. Amazing limited bus service now. At least Reno still has decent service. I wish they would reintroduce Reno-Los Angeles and the Seattle-Phoenix, which are both unlikely.

I saw those Scenicruiser commercials before, I wish Greyhound still made commercials. Well, I've abandoned Amtrak in favour of Greyhound due to prohibitively high fares and poor schedules. This year's tally so far:

15 Greyhound trips, 5,400 miles, 5xD4505, 1x102DL3, 9xG4500.

0 Amtrak trips, 0 miles, 'nuff said.

It's not that I hate trains, it's just that I will NOT ride Amtrak. I'm not paying $51 one-way to go to EMY while sitting on the train for a full 8 hours. I still ride plenty of other rail. But for intercity transport in the US, Go Greyhound!

BTW, who made the current 102DL3 seats? I know G4500 has the Amaya Brazil and D4505/X3-45 has the American Seating Premier LS, what about the current102DL3 seats? I know they used to have different seats before EE refurbs.

 

[railiner]

The Halcyon Days of The Bus. Only today Aunt Martha takes Amtrak!

What a great find.....thanks so much for posting those!

And as Louis Nye would say to Steve Allen......... Hi Ho, Steverino!

 

[railiner]

If you liked those, than you might like this.....http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aTwXPMdGv9Y

 

[Swadian Hardcore]

If you liked those, than you might like this.....http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aTwXPMdGv9Y

I watched that one too. I don't get the routes but I do get the meaning. I would upload some vids to YouTube if I had a video camera but I don't.

I'm still interested in those 102DL3 seats, what model are they?

 

[railiner]

Not sure what model, but I believe the DL-3's have American Seating, as well....although they might be National Seating....not sure, Perhaps you can ask GL corporate this one...

 

[Swadian Hardcore]

Not sure what model, but I believe the DL-3's have American Seating, as well....although they might be National Seating....not sure, Perhaps you can ask GL corporate this one...

I can't find anything like it on American or National Seating. This is really confusing, I'm looking for that dip in the middle and the rounded headrest bump at the top. All the seat pictures I've seen are either rectangular or have a separate headrest.

How do you ask corporate?

 

[railiner]

Not sure what model, but I believe the DL-3's have American Seating, as well....although they might be National Seating....not sure, Perhaps you can ask GL corporate this one...

I can't find anything like it on American or National Seating. This is really confusing, I'm looking for that dip in the middle and the rounded headrest bump at the top. All the seat pictures I've seen are either rectangular or have a separate headrest.

How do you ask corporate?

There is a number here for the corporate office. I would tell the receptionist that you are doing research or something to that effect, and would appreciate being put in contact with someone from their purchasing department that could answer your question.......good luck!

http://www.greyhound.com/en/contactus.aspx

 

[Swadian Hardcore]

Ah, it didn't work out! They wouldn't say what type of seat it was. Oh well, too bad.

This brings me to another question: I understand that on the 102DL3, each seat pair has its own overhead module with reading lights and a speaker. When Greyhound increased legroom on the bus by removing one row of seats, how did they make sure the modules would match up?

 

[railiner]

Ah, it didn't work out! They wouldn't say what type of seat it was. Oh well, too bad.

This brings me to another question: I understand that on the 102DL3, each seat pair has its own overhead module with reading lights and a speaker. When Greyhound increased legroom on the bus by removing one row of seats, how did they make sure the modules would match up?

Wonder why they wouldn't answer....could be that they didn't know and didn't want to make the effort to research it, or possibly they weren't comfortable revealing that kind of info to someone they didn't know, or what the ultimate purpose was.....

As for the overhead modules, good question...have you actually noticed if they do match up? Perhaps they didn't bother, so now some rows have no module overhead, while the next row may have 2 modules......I'm not sure myself....

 

[Swadian Hardcore]

Ah, it didn't work out! They wouldn't say what type of seat it was. Oh well, too bad.

This brings me to another question: I understand that on the 102DL3, each seat pair has its own overhead module with reading lights and a speaker. When Greyhound increased legroom on the bus by removing one row of seats, how did they make sure the modules would match up?

Wonder why they wouldn't answer....could be that they didn't know and didn't want to make the effort to research it, or possibly they weren't comfortable revealing that kind of info to someone they didn't know, or what the ultimate purpose was.....

As for the overhead modules, good question...have you actually noticed if they do match up? Perhaps they didn't bother, so now some rows have no module overhead, while the next row may have 2 modules......I'm not sure myself....

I haven't paid much attention to the modules, I haven't gotten to ride many 102DL3s this year. If I ride one again, I'll try and see.

Greyhound also claimed back in 2001 that the G4500s had "more legroom", but I never quite understood how they created more legroom with 55 seats in a 45-footer compared to the 102DL3's old config.