Would you take a 56-hour bus trip to shrink your carbon footprint?

[SarahZ]

I have spent a whopping three hours on a bus, and I was itching to get off by the time we got there. There is no way in hell I could do 56 hours.

 

[Ispolkom]

I'm sorry you're missing out on the fun.

No, I'm planning a couple of longish bus rides this summer in Norway: Geiringer to Andalsnes over the Eagles Road and the Troll Route, and Fauske to Narvik north of the Arctic Circle. I haven't the faintest clue what brand of buses are used, but neither involve Greyhound, I'm happy to say.

 

[Swadian Hardcore]

I'm sorry you're missing out on the fun.

No, I'm planning a couple of longish bus rides this summer in Norway: Geiringer to Andalsnes over the Eagles Road and the Troll Route, and Fauske to Narvik north of the Arctic Circle. I haven't the faintest clue what brand of buses are used, but neither involve Greyhound, I'm happy to say.

Sorry, it won't be as fun to me because Greyhound's 102DL3 is the best bus I have ridden (and yes I've taken luxury sleeper buses) and it does not operate in Norway. If I went to Norway, I would ride a bunch of trains and maybe take a ship along the coast. But I strongly dislike the body-on-chassis buses which are prominent in Norway.

It seems clear to me that no matter how many posts we make against each other, it's not going to make a factual difference, so you ride what you want, and I ride what I want. Let's just agree to disagree.

 

[jis]

I'm sorry you're missing out on the fun.

No, I'm planning a couple of longish bus rides this summer in Norway: Geiringer to Andalsnes over the Eagles Road and the Troll Route, and Fauske to Narvik north of the Arctic Circle. I haven't the faintest clue what brand of buses are used, but neither involve Greyhound, I'm happy to say.

Geiringer to Andalsnese is a beautiful ride. And then you can take the train from Andalsnese to Trondheim which is a beautiful ride too, or you can take the coastal steamer to wherever along the coast. Consider taking the coastal steamer out to the Lofoten Islands for a quick trip, somewhere like Stamsund) specially in the middle of the night in bright sunshne. I enjoyed that a lot. I took that trip from Bodo, also north of the Arctic Circle.

 

[JayPea]

No way I'd take a bus for 56 hours. I had to do the Southwest Chief Chicago-Los Angeles in coach one time and that was more than enough for me. A bus ride of that length would be a worse, IMHO. The longest I've been on a bus was for 7+ hours, on a bustitution from Portland to Spokane. That wasn't too bad but was about my limit. This was three years ago. I had taken the EB from Spokane to Seattle, and was informed by Amtrak that the train was going to be hours late (this was during all the flooding in Montana and North Dakota; the EB I was on was in fact the next-to-last through train from Chicago for if I recall 6 or 7 weeks) and that there would be an on-time bus going to Seattle. I opted for the train anyway, which shocked both the Amtrak agent and the ticket agent in Spokane. If I'd wanted to take a bus to Seattle, I could have saved myself a drive to Spokane and caught the Thruway bus that stops in front of my apartment.

At any rate, after spending a few days in Seattle, I took the CS to Portland and then a bus back to Spokane, as by that time the EB wasn't running to and from Portland at all. I could have changed my reservation and just returned to Spokane on the stub version of the EB from Seattle, but did voluntarily keep my original reservation, because I wanted to see the Columbia Gorge again. I'd seen the Gorge a gazillion times, but wanted to see it for the gazillion and 1st time, regardless of the method of transportation used to see it. But as I say, that was about my limit. Even the lure of ease of catching the bus right out my front door and the fact that for the portion of my ride from my home town to Spokane I could ride for free doesn't tempt me to take the bus anyplace. The reason I could take it for free from my town to Spokane is that a buddy and, in fact, former roommate of mine is a bus driver for Northwest Trailways, the company that provides Thruway service to my town, and he told me not too long ago that Northwest Trailways has a "friends ride free" policy for the portions of the route the driver happens to be on. No thanks!

 

[Ispolkom]

I'm sorry you're missing out on the fun.

No, I'm planning a couple of longish bus rides this summer in Norway: Geiringer to Andalsnes over the Eagles Road and the Troll Route, and Fauske to Narvik north of the Arctic Circle. I haven't the faintest clue what brand of buses are used, but neither involve Greyhound, I'm happy to say.

Geiringer to Andalsnese is a beautiful ride. And then you can take the train from Andalsnese to Trondheim which is a beautiful ride too, or you can take the coastal steamer to wherever along the coast. Consider taking the coastal steamer out to the Lofoten Islands for a quick trip, somewhere like Stamsund) specially in the middle of the night in bright sunshne. I enjoyed that a lot. I took that trip from Bodo, also north of the Arctic Circle.

Actually, I think that I have you to thank for mentioning the beauty of the Rauma railway. When I found that you can combine it with "the world's most beautiful ferry ride" (Hellsynt-Geiringer), and a vertiginous local bus ride between Geiringer and Andalesnes, I rearranged our travel plans.

I had hoped to use the Hurtigruten coastal steamer, but it seemed quicker and much cheaper to get to Narvik by taking the overnight train from Trondheim to Fauske, then another local bus north. I'm not much enamored of spending five hours on a bus between Fauske and Narvik, but imagine that the scenery will make the time pass quicker. We'll be there in early July, so at least there won't be any shortage of daylight.

So much to do, and so little vacation.

 

[Swadian Hardcore]

Nobody actually spends 56 hours on a bus unless you're riding Toronto-Calgary in one go with no rest stops. My planned 90-hour bus trip will have many many overnight rests at many many different towns and cities, that won't be 90 hours on a bus, not on one bus.

This 56-hour on the article title is actually 4 buses if you take Greyhound and more if you take Megabus. The longest segement on Greyhound would only be 16 hours, hardly a lot as long as you don't ride a leased bus. And leased buses are used only on Thankgiving, Christmas, and Independance Day travel periods.

Northwestern Trailways really isn't great because their E4500 have narrow seats. Greyhound's rebuilt 102DL3 is a very comfortable bus, you don't know it until you ride it. And it seems none of you have ridden it.

Frankly, on my latest bus ride I thought about all those complaints and aversion to Greyhound and I was just appaled, I took a look around the bus a few times and I just could not understand why people hate this thing and don't want to ride it, it's really not bad.

Come on guys, open your mind. I did it, you can do it too.

 

[jis]

As I said, been there, done that. Not again if I can help it. Sorry

 

[tp49]

No thanks. For any trip I would take that could last 56 hours in duration I would look at the plane, then the train, then maybe driving, then not going.