Greyhound seats and fleet questions

[mightyjoe1201]

52672 really gets around.

 

[Swadian Hardcore]

Yeah, I just heard he got some before running out. I think this is basically the kind of "deferred maintenance" that people talk about with Greyhound. #86558 needs DEF fluid to run, but it hadn't been filled in Portland before departure. If it had been, then this wouldn't have happened. At least in this case, the driver was able to buy some DEF fluid and make it to Salt Lake City. #86558 has now departed SLC on time and is heading to Denver.

But then, another disaster in Portland: Greyhound ran out of buses today. I can't believe it happened. 1318 Portland-Denver was supposed to depart at 12:10 PM. But it didn't depart until 5:23 PM. Currently, it's being run by blue G4500 #7125.

How do I know they ran out of buses? 'Cause last night, D4505 #86351 broke down in Redding while running northbound to Vancouver on Schedule 1440. And #7125 was the replacement. So #7125 hightailed it to Portland with a 6-hour delay and then immediately jumped onto the 1318 departure to Denver, with a 5-hour delay. It's obvious that Portland ran out of buses. This is how one breakdown in Redding affected the entire Western network. Now everybody on 1318 will miss their connections.

 

[mightyjoe1201]

If any of you get talking to mechanics can you ask if they've been having problems with the def system not wanting to go into regeneration? We have a bus that keeps doing it and it's driving my boss nuts because he has to hook a computer up to it and force it into regeneration. I'd appreciate it.

 

[railiner]

We occasionally have Regen problems....they are supposed to regen while running, but some times they don't, and we have to perform a forced regen while parked. It usually takes about a half hour or so, and you have to be careful where you do it account the intense heat blasting out of the exhaust pipe.

As for DEF...whenever we fuel our buses, we always top off the DEF tank as well, at our regular servicing points....

 

[Swadian Hardcore]

Greyhound has reported major regen problems with their 86300-series D4505s. These buses will have a "regen failure" while cruising down the highway and spew black smoke out the back until the bus grinds to a halt. I assume this is what happened to #86351. The 86300s are powered by Detroit Diesel Series 60 14L 425hp EGR engines.

 

[mightyjoe1201]

I'm glad others are having trouble. Tho I know there is a difference between line haul coaches and transit buses. The ISL Cummins in our 2012 Gillig is really causing grief. My boss has had to send it out to get the system worked on s des Times but it'll only run a fee dats before it refuses to regenerate

 

[Chaz]

Swadian...Like many on this forum you tend to write normally then suddenly lapse into an abbreviated phrase. In this thread you've done it again with 'def fluid'. By internal reference you could mean 'deferred' fluid . [smiley won't insert??]

Since this is repeated again and again I miss out on the gist lof the conversation--although picturing a driver going store to store asking for def fluid was fun! '

'Regen' is another such abbreviation.

Can you and other bus posters check your posts for comprehension stumbling blocks?

Chaz in Fl.

 

[mightyjoe1201]

I can help clarify some of that for you Chaz. Def fluid stand for diesel exhaust fluid. Def is the industry abbreviation for it.

Regen stands for regeneration. Its part of the exhaust system on newer diesel engines. Its where the exhaust is burned at a high temperature to burn off stuff that the environmental protection agency says gets put in the air. It does this by a process called regeneration. We call it regen for short. Hope that helps.

 

[railiner]

Swadian...Like many on this forum you tend to write normally then suddenly lapse into an abbreviated phrase. In this thread you've done it again with 'def fluid'. By internal reference you could mean 'deferred' fluid . [smiley won't insert??]

Since this is repeated again and again I miss out on the gist lof the conversation--although picturing a driver going store to store asking for def fluid was fun! '

'Regen' is another such abbreviation.

Can you and other bus posters check your posts for comprehension stumbling blocks?

Chaz in Fl.

DEF...... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diesel_exhaust_fluid

DPF....(scroll down to the explanation of REGENeration)....https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diesel_particulate_filter

Swadian (and myself) probably assume most on the AU forum aren't really interested in the technical details we sometimes abbreviate, so please forgive us for that....

Always happy to see new poster's on these 'bus' threads!

 

[Swadian Hardcore]

As others have explained, DEF is the official term used in the industry and by the EPA, DOT, etc. (http://lmgtfy.com/?q=DEF+fluid). Same with DPF.

Regen is just regeneration, burning off particulates in the DPF.

From BusTracker, all Greyhound schedules through Salt Lake City currently get a bus change.

 

[rickycourtney]

So watching the BusTracker and hearing about oiky's problems I've realized something... through-routing buses (like Vancouver to LA) seems to be a double-edged sword.

It cause issues where one small delay causes problems that cascade for days. Unlike Amtrak's generous schedule padding, once Greyhound buses are late, they seem to stay late. That hurts passengers who are catching the bus further down the line. In oiky's case I applaud Greyhound starting a second schedule to sweep up passengers, but doing that too frequently can use up buses.

That being said it through-routing buses does really benefit the drivers on-board and the drivers. No longer does a passenger on a delayed bus from say Sacramento to Portland need to worry about making a connection to the bus from Portland to Seattle and drivers feel less pressure to speed to help passengers make their connection.

Also Swad you bring up something that I always assumed happened... just because a schedule travels between two cities... that doesn't mean one coach makes that entire trip. In fact since passengers are required to deboard at major stations for refueling, cleaning and servicing... it may actually make since to just transfer passengers to another coach at that time.

 

[Swadian Hardcore]

That's exactly how Portland ran out of buses. Greyhound ran extra buses to sweep up passengers from a delayed through run. But then they ended up running out of buses for the regular schedules. I'm sure Greyhound actually had a bus planned for 1318 yesterday, but it must have gone Out-of-Service at the last minute due to mechanical trouble. That seems to be happened a lot with the D4505s. Yesterday, a Chicago-Minneapolis D4505 broke down, causing passengers to miss connections.

Greyhound is so short on buses that they are turn-and-burning long-distance schedules. Both Americanos G4500 #60682 and second-hand J4500 #6994 had barely any layover time in Portland before turning back to Denver. Portland seems to heavily short of buses. Americanos never ran to Portland and the J4500s aren't supposed to go there.

Indeed, the Reno-Denver is currently regularly split in Salt Lake City. But something weird happened today. The San Francisco-Reno bus is continuing to Denver with a quick refueling stop in Reno. It's D4505 #86323. Sometimes Greyhound splits schedules, other times they merge.

Also, 1343 Denver-Portland is running with an extra bus. D4500 #6612 is being followed by X3-45 #86070. Fleet shortage evident in Denver and Portland.

 

[rickycourtney]

I'm not sure how Portland works. Every time I've been there they seem to have a TON of buses parked out in the bus bays (including Bolt's buses), but I don't think Greyhound has any sort of base in Portland where buses can be repaired/dispatched.

 

[Swadian Hardcore]

That may be the problem. Greyhound must have tons of buses in Portland, but a lot of them are probably Out-of-Service due to lack of a Maintenance Center.

 

[metrolinecoach111]

I'm not sure how Portland works. Every time I've been there they seem to have a TON of buses parked out in the bus bays (including Bolt's buses), but I don't think Greyhound has any sort of base in Portland where buses can be repaired/dispatched.

Portland doesn't have a maintenance base, just a service lane with mechanics that's split in the first few gates closest to dispatch. The buses that are laid up at the gates are the Portland-based schedules. That said, Portland has a sizeable driver base.

When Portland needs buses, they call the primary base which is Seattle. From there, it's Vancouver if they have a Seattle/LA bus available. When needed for fleet alignment, they will position buses in and out across the country throughout the week to get ready for the weekend.

This happens every week btw - it's called Fleet Planning.

 

[railiner]

Some times it's faster to change a bus on a 'thru' schedule than to take one to a garage, fully service it, and return to a terminal

 

[Swadian Hardcore]

Greyhound expanded their ad campaign to announce "GUARENTEED SEATING ON EVERY BUS". So they basically just said that they "eradicated" overbooking. Also, Greyhound's booking fees are now on a per-person, per-segment basis, rather than a per-transaction basis.

Also, 6362 (15) broke down three times involving two buses on the Phoenix-Las Vegas route.

Now I can see lots of people going mad when they book a non-Greyhound bus through Greyhound's website and get overbooked or the bus doesn't have Wi-Fi, power outlets, and leather seats. Perhaps Greyhound should emulate AA and add a search option where the passengers choose the carriers displayed. There could be "Greyhound Only" and "All Carriers". Also, non-Greyhound buses should be clearly marked, when booking, that it is not a Greyhound bus.

 

[mightyjoe1201]

Swadian, when booking thru greyhound, if you look, it tells you when you check what segments of your trip are on greyhound and what is on another carrier. As an example, when I took my trip to Pittsburgh last year, I first looked to go from home and it showed Fullington trailways for the first segment and GLI for the other. And that was before I confirmed my purchase

 

[Swadian Hardcore]

Yeah, but a lot of people are too stupid to read what company they are riding with. That's why some people think every scheduled motorcoach is a Greyhound. People think you can ride Greyhound to Omaha, Fargo, Rapid City, Billings, etc., when Greyhound doesn't go there.

Also, all Greyhound shows before completing the purchase is the Carrier Code, such as GLI, GLC, etc. Most people don't know what that means. Greyhound should explain at the bottom of the choices.

 

[mightyjoe1201]

You got a good point there. Greyhound could spell out each carrier in bold print and people still wouldn't know it's not going to b greyhound.

Considering I've actually had people ask me how I know the buses that cone into our station are trailways not greyhound.

 

[Swadian Hardcore]

If someone asked me that, I'd tell them they say "Trailways" on the side, rather than "Greyhound". To make things more difficult, some people think Trailways is owned by Greyhound.

Does anyone know why a Denver-Reno was cancelled between Salt Lake City and Reno? It's really weird, what's going on here in the West.

 

[rickycourtney]

First off, Greyhound has spent a lot of money to get to this place where they can advertise guaranteed seating on every bus and tout amenities like WiFi, power outlets and leather seats on every bus. All those things are huge wins for customers.

But, it does need to come with a bit of disclosure when you're booking a trip that could include non-Greyhound carriers and I agree putting a cryptic three letter code doesn't cut it.

I've always thought Alaska does a good job of this...



They clearly mark which airline operates which leg of the flight using logos and they also put a number ("1" in this case) for flights that are operated by a contractor (in this case it's Alaska's wholly owned subsidiary, Horizon).

They also put icons for what amenities you can expect on each leg of the trip (WiFi, 110V Power, USB Power). It would be nice for Greyhound to integrate those icons along with icons for restrooms (since Greyhound Connect coaches aren't equipped) and for buses that make en route meal stops.

 

[Swadian Hardcore]

British Airways does the same thing with putting logo on codeshare flights. I think it would work really well. Greyhound uses the rest stop logo "R" in their BusTracker maps. The thing is, some of the rest stops are inaccurate. For example, on 1308 Reno-Salt Lake City, Winnemucca isn't a rest stop while Lovelock is.

The new Chicago-Davenport is going to be operated by Greyhound Connect cutaways. Those won't have restrooms. I guess they're not really "coaches", since they are basically really big shuttle vans. Also, Greyhound is starting QuickLink Commuter Service on the New Orleans-Baton Rouge route. Don't understand maintenance for that one since Greyhound has no Maintenance Center in New Orleans.

Lastly, I found out that, back in 2013, one of Jefferson's 2005 J4500s was completely destroyed by fire near Williston on the Minneapolis-Missoula. Seems like Jefferson is disregarding that route with a 12:30 AM arrival into Billings (from Minneapolis).

 

[Caesar La Rock]

I'm curious, how many J4500s does Greyhound own? What are their numbers and who originally owned them? One of them apparently was reported to have made it down to Miami, FL. I don't know when, but I can tell you it was 6994. What about the Prevost H3-45s and Van Hool C2045s?

 

[Swadian Hardcore]

2003 MCI J4500 Pembina: #6987-6989

2003 MCI J4500 Winnipeg: #6990-6991

2005 MCI J4500 Winnipeg: #6992-6994

All are powered with Detroit Diesel Series 60 12.7L, with the exception of #6994, which is powered with a CAT C13 ACERT.

Edit:

2000 Prevost H3-45: #6666-6669

2005 Prevost H3-45: #6670