Greyhound seats and fleet questions

[Swadian Hardcore]

Greyhound drivers are mostly nice but their contracted Security sucks! They keep stopping me from taking pictures of the buses. I guess BART is no better, AFAIK they also prohibit taking pictures. What's the reason of this stupid policy?

I really didn't think people were interested in this thread, for a long time it was just me, @railiner, and a few others that posted here. I'm glad to see that people are interested in Greyhound, I might make a general help thread that isn't so focused on specifics like "Where'd the G4500's go?!" But not right now.

Say, I have a question myself, how crowded is Greyhound during the New Year's travel season? I rarely travel in the winter so I'm not sure, but I expect heavy loads. I know Christmas is packed, what about the days before and after New Year's?

 

[rickycourtney]

BART doesn't prohibit taking pictures. Here's a summary of the policy:

Amateur photography is allowed on BART by paying riders in the course of their travels under various conditions; permits are required for commercial photography.

That's a pretty standard position from most public transportation agencies. What I find interesting is that Greyhound is really the only transportation provider that goes out of their way to stop people from taking pictures. Here's the official (confusing) policy:

Photography, video or audio recording of Greyhound personnel, equipment or procedures is strictly prohibited. For your safety and the safety of those around you, passengers should remain seated while the bus is in motion. Audio, video and camera equipment should be stored with other carry-ons when not in use.

What I don't get is that if photography "is strictly prohibited" why do they say that camera equipment should be stored "when not in use." If they're not allowed to be used... when would they be in use? Also since "passengers should remain seated while the bus is in motion", when would they use the restroom? When the bus is stopped at a station? Why not go inside and use that restroom?

What's even more confusing... is that Greyhound occasionally shares photos taken by passengers on its social media pages. Why would you tacitly approve of something that "is strictly prohibited"?

When it comes to photography Greyhound needs to lighten up and adopt a more enlightened policy. Nothing turns an excited passenger into a frustrated one faster than a contracted security guard telling them to stop taking pictures to document their exciting trip.

 

[Swadian Hardcore]

Well, it's even more annoying when you're an avid bus fan. "Come on now, I'm supporting your company, oh wait, you're not Greyhound employee....."

I don't know when Greyhound adopted that policy but I think it's basically for preventing people from badmouthing Greyhound by taking pictures of a burning G4500. They end up supporting your pics when you support them, but the contractors don't understand.

In the end, it really dosen't affect me that much.

 

[rickycourtney]

I think you're right... Greyhound probably instituted this policy to prevent passengers from taking disparaging pictures of their buses and terminals. But I stand by my prior remark... Greyhound needs to lighten up and adopt a more enlightened photography policy.

 

[railiner]

Could be simply "security theater" - post 9-11.....just like the ridiculous 'wanding' they sometimes perform on passenger's on line for departures......

 

[railiner]

Well we had a very busy Thanksgiving holiday here....extra sections were way up from last year. And as usual, the holiday brings out all of the 'mothball fleet'.....couldn't believe seeing an MC-12 here....22-- something or other...forgot last two digits.....thought they were all gone, but no.....there it was!

New Years holiday is fairly busy, but nothing like Thanksgiving...the days leading up to Christmas get heavy, passenger's tend to have a lot more baggage with gifts, etc., and college students carry a lot more with them than they do for Thanksgiving since school semester ends until mid January. The entire week between Christmas and New Years is heavy due to all schools closed. Lots of family travel over longer distances than Thanksgiving. Used to be heavy between here and Orlando, especially, Now, not as much due to more air travel, and GL not operating the fast thru schedules they used to. The Sunday after New Years will be heavy, but nothing like this past Sunday.

The holiday period doesn't really end until all the colleges go back mid to late January.

 

[Swadian Hardcore]

That's interesting, 'cause I haven't seen any college students riding Greyhound in a long time. More and more individuals and family travel. Good or bad?

I thought the MC-12's were prohibited from operating scheduled service because they have no wheelchair lifts. Are you sure it was a 2200? I thought those were all scrapped or sold, they're 1993 MC-12's. Any 102D3's?

 

[Swadian Hardcore]

It appears that I made a mistake about those two big fans above the engine. Upon further research, it appears that those are the radiator fans, not the air intake. This really does explain why the G4500 keeps overheating and catching on fire. I'm not sure where the air intake is, but it's probably mounted somewhere close to the radiator. In fact, it could be those little openings to the sides of the engine.

Edit: This picture offers a good idea of what I'm talking about: http://www.flickr.com/photos/65855127@N07/5995739713/sizes/o/

 

[railiner]

That's interesting, 'cause I haven't seen any college students riding Greyhound in a long time. More and more individuals and family travel. Good or bad?

I thought the MC-12's were prohibited from operating scheduled service because they have no wheelchair lifts. Are you sure it was a 2200? I thought those were all scrapped or sold, they're 1993 MC-12's. Any 102D3's?

It was indeed an MC-12. There were also several unrefurbed DL's. According to GL source, the 'white buses' are used for charter service, where they can still run without a wheelchair lift.

GL is probably the only company I'm aware of that puts their oldest buses on charters........charter service is not a primary source of revenue to them....they do very few.

That is not always true, as they recently had a large charter for a movie production here, and they held brand-new just delivered X-3's for the charter. Of course I should mention that one of them appeared in the film....

As for not seeing college students....that is inconceivable to me....here in the Northeast, college traffic accounts for the vast majority of GL passenger's, especially on Friday/Sunday during college session. Just check out the queue waiting on the New York City - Boston gate.....

 

[Swadian Hardcore]

I'll tell ya, no college students ride around here! We don't even have much colleges around here. There is probably some college students, but either I haven't seen them or they don't look like college students. I've seen a few, but not much.

I'm pretty sure the guys with mustaches and overalls are not college students. Nor is the slouching middle-aged man with an old leather jacket. Most of the people I see on Greyhound are too old to be college students.

I could try taking a picture of the pax next time but they could get mad at me.

Edit: Oh yes, any G4500's pop up over Thanksgiving?

 

[railiner]

Since we were swamped, I never did get a chance to go over to the North Wing, hence did not notice any G's....(they are never used on the 'Upstate and Canada routes' that operate where I work in the South Wing).

More info on that MC-12 I had seen.....apparently it is no longer in revenue service, but has in fact been converted into a maintenance support vehicle--call it a glorified 'shop truck', if you will.....it contains various supplies and tools for mobile maintenance. It was stationed at the lot in Hoboken as a 'holiday command center', for dispatching buses and driver's , including "rental buses" from various other carrier's, contracted to supplement GL's vehicles Whenever they ran low at The Port, they would call them to send over more buses from Hoboken. They also had mechanics stationed with it. There are supposed to be some other's like it, scattered around the country.

 

[Swadian Hardcore]

So Greyhound definity didn't break the ADA rules by running a MC-12 in scheduled service. I thought that G4500's were used in the South Wing routes, I remember when they ran New York-Toronto and New York-Montreal. Plus, New York-Boston was one of their orignal routes.

Were there any 102D3's? Some of those have wheelchair lifts.

 

[metrolinecoach111]

Since we were swamped, I never did get a chance to go over to the North Wing, hence did not notice any G's....(they are never used on the 'Upstate and Canada routes' that operate where I work in the South Wing).

More info on that MC-12 I had seen.....apparently it is no longer in revenue service, but has in fact been converted into a maintenance support vehicle--call it a glorified 'shop truck', if you will.....it contains various supplies and tools for mobile maintenance. It was stationed at the lot in Hoboken as a 'holiday command center', for dispatching buses and driver's , including "rental buses" from various other carrier's, contracted to supplement GL's vehicles Whenever they ran low at The Port, they would call them to send over more buses from Hoboken. They also had mechanics stationed with it. There are supposed to be some other's like it, scattered around the country.

That's hilarious. And I thought The Booth was a comedy club...

All jokes aside, its a very smart idea, especially since Greyhound doesn't have a maintenance facility in NYC.

 

[Swadian Hardcore]

Since we were swamped, I never did get a chance to go over to the North Wing, hence did not notice any G's....(they are never used on the 'Upstate and Canada routes' that operate where I work in the South Wing).

More info on that MC-12 I had seen.....apparently it is no longer in revenue service, but has in fact been converted into a maintenance support vehicle--call it a glorified 'shop truck', if you will.....it contains various supplies and tools for mobile maintenance. It was stationed at the lot in Hoboken as a 'holiday command center', for dispatching buses and driver's , including "rental buses" from various other carrier's, contracted to supplement GL's vehicles Whenever they ran low at The Port, they would call them to send over more buses from Hoboken. They also had mechanics stationed with it. There are supposed to be some other's like it, scattered around the country.

That's hilarious. And I thought The Booth was a comedy club...

All jokes aside, its a very smart idea, especially since Greyhound doesn't have a maintenance facility in NYC.

Yes indeed, would be great to see some pictures of that old -12!

Edit: I saw your PM, but I would rather discuss Greyhound on the public board, just so that everyone can see anything about buses that comes up.

 

[railiner]

So Greyhound definity didn't break the ADA rules by running a MC-12 in scheduled service. I thought that G4500's were used in the South Wing routes, I remember when they ran New York-Toronto and New York-Montreal. Plus, New York-Boston was one of their orignal routes.

Were there any 102D3's? Some of those have wheelchair lifts.

Do you mean the unrefurbed ones? There were some in Hoboken, but I didn't see any used on the South Wing routes, which are New York State, and Canada. Every thing was either an X-3, or a refurb.(or a 'rental')....did see some D4505's, but they used them elsewhere...probably South or West routes.....

And they still have a couple of those Van Hools running...a white one and a red 'Yo Bus'.......they use those to Philly.....

 

[Swadian Hardcore]

So Greyhound definity didn't break the ADA rules by running a MC-12 in scheduled service. I thought that G4500's were used in the South Wing routes, I remember when they ran New York-Toronto and New York-Montreal. Plus, New York-Boston was one of their orignal routes.

Were there any 102D3's? Some of those have wheelchair lifts.

Do you mean the unrefurbed ones? There were some in Hoboken, but I didn't see any used on the South Wing routes, which are New York State, and Canada. Every thing was either an X-3, or a refurb.(or a 'rental')....did see some D4505's, but they used them elsewhere...probably South or West routes.....

AFAIK, none of the 102D3's have been rebuilt. Some of the 102DL3's that haven't been rebuilt do have wheelchair lifts, so they can obviously be used to handle crush loads.

The D4505's probably ran to Denver, Chicago, Atlanta, or Miami, those places have quite a bit of D4505's in them, especially Denver. Looking at spottings, a lot of the D4505's in the latter two garages are GA-, LA-, and FL- owned. But I bet there's company-owned buses too.

What type of buses did Greyhound rent?

 

[railiner]

Oh....'D' not 'DL'...'My Bad' for missing that difference....no, did not notice any 40 footers other than the MC-12 'shop truck'....

Greyhound rents from many companies....Academy, Yankee Line, Raritan Valley, James River, and many more with just about anything you can imagine....

 

[metrolinecoach111]

Greyhound has contracts with most reputable regional charter companies in the US. I remember when I did rentals at Bolt I had to use the Greyhound approved nationwide rental list, even though our first step was to run upstairs to Peter Pan to ask.

On the Northeast side - they rented from Bloom, Land/Jet, Tremblays, Constitution, and Yankee to run NYD-HAR-BOS out of Boston and Hartford. Most of those sections were one ways and deadhead back. Those buses are a wide mix - some DL's, some Setras, some older Van Hools.

Thanksgiving brings a nice assortment of equipment to the North Wing

 

[Swadian Hardcore]

Greyhound has contracts with most reputable regional charter companies in the US. I remember when I did rentals at Bolt I had to use the Greyhound approved nationwide rental list, even though our first step was to run upstairs to Peter Pan to ask.

On the Northeast side - they rented from Bloom, Land/Jet, Tremblays, Constitution, and Yankee to run NYD-HAR-BOS out of Boston and Hartford. Most of those sections were one ways and deadhead back. Those buses are a wide mix - some DL's, some Setras, some older Van Hools.

Thanksgiving brings a nice assortment of equipment to the North Wing

You work in the North Wing? What are the buses to Denver now?

 

[railiner]

Saw a G----I think it was 7171 in The Port yesterday....it was between assignments in the North Wing being cleaned. Not sure what trips it was used on....

What a difference a week makes in traffic....very quiet, as the weekend following a busy hoiiday weekend usually is.

 

[Swadian Hardcore]

I remember that Greyhound Canada uses thick dark blue seats, made of something feeling like wool. I haven't seen anything like it on the Greyhounds in the US. I'm trying to find out what model of seats these are. Does anyone know?

Here's a picture:

http://www.barraclou.com/bus/greyhound/greyhound1123_front.jpg. Yes, that's in Fort Nelson, so he might've been riding to Whitehorse.

 

[railiner]

I remember that Greyhound Canada uses thick dark blue seats, made of something feeling like wool. I haven't seen anything like it on the Greyhounds in the US. I'm trying to find out what model of seats these are. Does anyone know?

Here's a picture:

http://www.barraclou.com/bus/greyhound/greyhound1123_front.jpg. Yes, that's in Fort Nelson, so he might've been riding to Whitehorse.

Nice shot....interesting that GLC used to have amenenites like doors on the overheads, and video systems unlike their US counterparts......

 

[Swadian Hardcore]

I remember that Greyhound Canada uses thick dark blue seats, made of something feeling like wool. I haven't seen anything like it on the Greyhounds in the US. I'm trying to find out what model of seats these are. Does anyone know?

Here's a picture:

http://www.barraclou.com/bus/greyhound/greyhound1123_front.jpg. Yes, that's in Fort Nelson, so he might've been riding to Whitehorse.

Nice shot....interesting that GLC used to have amenenites like doors on the overheads, and video systems unlike their US counterparts......

Really is more of a hassle than a good amenity, the doors on the racks block larger items that could stick out and the TV's have audio that blares boring G-rated movies.

 

[railiner]

Well we can debate the pro's and con's of having enclosed overhead bins, but as far as the video....we always use them on line runs with the speakers turned off.....passenger's can plug in their headsets if they wish to hear the soundtrack. The speakers are there if say the bus is on a charter, and the group decides to use the speakers....

 

[Swadian Hardcore]

Yes, I remember the Adirondack Trailways buses have a plugin at the back of each seat where you stick in some headphones and you can listen. I aslo remember a number with an up and down arrow, not sure what that meant.

Greyhound Canada dosen't have that AFAIK, so I guess line haul pax have to deal with the annyoning audio. Here's a back view of some G4500 seats showing the video monitors: http://www.barraclou.com/bus/greyhound/greyhound1199_lift.jpg

The first pic I linked was of a 102DL3 interior, the G4500 seems to have a very similar interior, except with the bigger parcel racks and a flat ceiling instead of the rounded one on the 102DL3. I would still like to know more about these seats.

I got all them pics from here, check out some of those weird interiors: http://www.barraclou.com/bus/interior/.