Greyhound seats and fleet questions

[railiner]

I know you strongly dislike them, but the Van Hool's have better legroom than either the MCI's or Prevost's...

The reason is that their back seat is at the actual back of the bus.....the others have about a 2 foot equipment space between the rear bulkhead and the back. That is why the Van Hool's can offer an optional back window, while the other's can't. Spread that space out a couple inches to each row.....

 

[Swadian Hardcore]

I know you strongly dislike them, but the Van Hool's have better legroom than either the MCI's or Prevost's...

The reason is that their back seat is at the actual back of the bus.....the others have about a 2 foot equipment space between the rear bulkhead and the back. That is why the Van Hool's can offer an optional back window, while the other's can't. Spread that space out a couple inches to each row.....

Oh, that's why the Van Hools can have 59 seats with a lavatory! That makes sense, but it's probably why they're so unreliable anyways, just isn't enough equipment space.

So the G4500 also had more legroom because it had smaller equipment than the 102DL3, but then again it's much more unreliable.

Pretty much every driver hates the Van Hools and Dinas (G4500) anyway.

 

[railiner]

You get no argument from me on that....the Van Hool's are considerably cheaper to purchase than the Prevost's and MCI's.

What was that saying.....'You get what you pay for'.....

 

[Swadian Hardcore]

You get no argument from me on that....the Van Hool's are considerably cheaper to purchase than the Prevost's and MCI's.

What was that saying.....'You get what you pay for'.....

Do you know how much it actually costs? I'm guessing about $400,000? Are you not allowed to disclose the prices? I mean, just tell me the list prices, no discounts and no extra options.

Thanks.

 

[railiner]

I'm not sure, but i believe you are pretty close. The Prevost and MCI are about 25% higher than that figure.....

 

[Swadian Hardcore]

I'm not sure, but i believe you are pretty close. The Prevost and MCI are about 25% higher than that figure.....

Ah, I see, so a new MCI with no options would be about $500,000. Even more expensive with options. Thanks a bunch.

Any more news on the J4500s?

 

[Swadian Hardcore]

Greyhound has posted a new Service Alert for rreroutes out of Denver due to severe weather. See: http://www.greyhound.com/en/servicealerts.aspx.

The reroutes involve the Denver-Portland buses which usually travel through Wyoming on I-80 via Rawlins. The buses now travel through Grand Junction on I-70. That's weird, I-70 weather is usually worse than I-80 because of the mountains. Pax get to enjoy the scenery I guess.

Why isn't the Denver-Reno getting detoured? It runs on US 40 which gets the worst weather.

 

[railiner]

Not knowing the actual weather,,,,there is a long distance between the two or three routes between DEN and SLC, and weather conditions can vary between each.

While I-80 is the best highway, the segment between Laramie and Rawlins via Elk Mountain, is notorious for blizzard conditions. When they built that road, the local rancher's warned the state that they were making a big mistake taking that route. Instead, they said they should build it over or parallel to US 30, the Lincoln Highway route, via Medicine Bow. Many times 80 is closed, and traffic is detoured that way.....

 

[Swadian Hardcore]

Not knowing the actual weather,,,,there is a long distance between the two or three routes between DEN and SLC, and weather conditions can vary between each.

While I-80 is the best highway, the segment between Laramie and Rawlins via Elk Mountain, is notorious for blizzard conditions. When they built that road, the local rancher's warned the state that they were making a big mistake taking that route. Instead, they said they should build it over or parallel to US 30, the Lincoln Highway route, via Medicine Bow. Many times 80 is closed, and traffic is detoured that way.....

Why dosen't Greyhund detour vis Medicine Bow? They could still serve most of the pax along the regular route instead of going through Grand Junction. BTW, Greyhound no longer has a regular DEN-SLC route through Grand Junction, all Grand Junction buses are DEN-LVG.

 

[railiner]

Greyhound does detour via Medicine Bow, along with everyone else when schedules using 80 are affected. But in this case, perhaps the issue was more wide spread, or elsewhere along the route.

I am very surprised (I guess I shouldn't be, the way they have been abandoning routes), to see they no longer run a schedule from Grand Junction to SLC. I remember when there were four a day on that route....now the California Zephyr is the only way to go on that segment.....

 

[Swadian Hardcore]

Greyhound does detour via Medicine Bow, along with everyone else when schedules using 80 are affected. But in this case, perhaps the issue was more wide spread, or elsewhere along the route.

I am very surprised (I guess I shouldn't be, the way they have been abandoning routes), to see they no longer run a schedule from Grand Junction to SLC. I remember when there were four a day on that route....now the California Zephyr is the only way to go on that segment.....

Argh, they did cancel that route a few years ago along with theGrand Junction-Albuquerque. They might restart the route as a Greyhound Connection route but the albuquerque route seems unlikely.

I saw on GTE that Greyhound has bought some cutaway shuttles for connection routes like the Springfield-Ottumwa. Seems like a smart idea compared to using a big 45-foot coach. Also heard on GTE that the J4500s come from Coach America and Lakefront.

 

[rickycourtney]

So speaking of Greyhounds new seats... How many people use the seatbelts?

I notice all new coaches have them (I assume it's the law). Personally I like them and I wear mine but I seldom see people using them on Amtrak Thruway routes.

Does Greyhound do a safety spiel after each major stop encouraging people to use them or is it on people to decide if they want to use them?

 

[Swadian Hardcore]

Nope, nobody tells you to use them, you don't have to use them or even care about them. But the good thing is, these Premier LS seats are designed to ensure safety even when passengers don't use the seat belt, they have very high seatbacks (like school buses) to cushion the impact and stop debris, the driver shield and the roof cap helps to stop debris as well.

Greyhound drivers seem more aggressive with these D4505s than G4500s, they drive faster and ride a lot smoother. I heard that if a G4500 accelerates too fast, the bus could catch on fire! Greyhound has too much padding in their schedules, the D4505s always arrive early even when there is congestion. They need to cut some of the padding. The biggest delay I had this year was 5 minutes and that was a G4500.

 

[railiner]

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

I asked someone yesterday again about the seats....he says they are from Amaya.....

 

[Swadian Hardcore]

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

I asked someone yesterday again about the seats....he says they are from Amaya.....

Oh, you are the Bus Man! Big thanks! Yep, I found out on Amaya's website, those seats are Amaya-Astron Patriot PT: http://www.amaya-astron.com.mx/ES/productos/asientos_foraneos/patriot_pt/.

I also found this video about the modules in the rebuilt 102DL3: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bLOjfHbR6OI. They do appear to line up with the seats.

 

[Swadian Hardcore]

Today a colleage got off a Greyhound from Sacramento told me he rode a "white bus that was dirty and smelled bad". I think it was a G4500, I haven't seen much 102DL3s around here and I haven't seen a white 102DL3 in a very long time.

 

[railiner]

No G's evident for a while here, but a few white DL's parked in Hoboken.....

 

[Swadian Hardcore]

No G's evident for a while here, but a few white DL's parked in Hoboken.....

No G at all? Where'd they go? Rebuild?

 

[railiner]

Where they went, I don't know, but wherever, I hope they just keep on going......

 

[Swadian Hardcore]

Where they went, I don't know, but wherever, I hope they just keep on going......

But they're bad buses, I wouldn't care less if they got scrapped. BTw, what's you Metroblue signature for?

 

[railiner]

Well now...finally!

I've been a member of this forum since March of 2009, and this is the first time someone was curious enough to ask about that....I was wondering if anyone ever would...

Back in the Penn Central era, when the new Metroliner's started operation, when the train starting rolling, there was a PA announcement for the crew that asked:

"Metro, blue?"......a few seconds later it was answered: "Okay, on the blue"....

I'm not sure, but I believe it was a check to be sure that all the trainlined doors had blue indicator lights that they were secured, or something to that effect, or perhaps all the brakes were released....it was probably the latter, because as soon as the okay was given, the engineer 'put the pedal to the metal', and we started accelerating rapidly.

Somehow, that memory just stuck in my mind thru the years and I just kind of adopted it as my signature here. I figured maybe someone would see it and know its meaning.

 

[Swadian Hardcore]

Ah, I get it! I don't quite remember it, I did ride the Metroliners a few times in the 1980 IIRC. Was really small back then. Kinda like my signature, I've ridden the Hound over and over again so that operator tag got stuck in my head everytime I walked around at the rest stops. Nobody else notices it unless they're a serious bus fan.

Just like how no one notices the big air grille in the middle of the 102DL3 rear end. Even bus fans misidentify buses when they look at it from behind.

I've been trying to find an updated Greyhound roster but nobody on GTE has replied yet and the roster on CPTDB has glaring errors. Do you have a Greyhound roster that at least shows the bus types and fleet numbers? I don't need the operating pools but that would help too.

 

[railiner]

I'm on vacation (again! ), next week, so I'll try to remember to see if I can get that for you the week after.....

 

[Swadian Hardcore]

I'm on vacation (again! ), next week, so I'll try to remember to see if I can get that for you the week after.....

Where to?

BTW, more bus service: http://www.timesargus.com/article/20131116/NEWS03/711169946.

 

[railiner]

A 'staycation' this time.....

Good news for Vermont....

But still not even a shadow of the service that the pre-Greyhound ownership, Vermont Transit Lines ran in its hayday......but then that statement applies everywhere, as well....