Tag Archives: greyhound

News

Yes, New Seattle-to-Portland BoltBus Service Will Take Bikes

As Geekwire mentioned the other day, a new low-cost bus service is coming to town. As of May 17, 2012, BoltBus will offer 4-runs-per-day service between Seattle and Portland: 8:30 a.m., 12:30 p.m., 2 p.m., and 6 p.m., with the trip estimated to take three hours and 15 minutes.

Prices will range depending upon demand (factors include day, time of day, advance purchase, number of tickets, trip sales volume): A promotional all-seats-$1 offer from May 17 through May 20 is selling out (though every regular trip sells one seat for $1, randomly), but after that your reserved seat (aisle or window?) will likely cost between $6 and $15 one-way. (You can purchase walk-up tickets, as well as online.) That is much less expensive than the Amtrak Cascades regular one-way fares of $32 to $45, and fifteen minutes faster (without adding in the risk of wintertime mudslides).

In Seattle, board your BoltBus at 5th Avenue South and King Street, next to the International District Station; it’ll drop you off at 647 SW Salmon Street in Portland, which is a bit more central than Amtrak’s Union Station. You can ease your transition at the Starbucks right there, if need be.

Because Portland is one of the most bike-friendly cities to visit you can imagine, my first question was whether I could bring a bike along. This led to a helpful tutorial on BoltBus baggage policy: “You are allowed one piece of baggage under the coach and two small bags to carry on (purse or backpack).” In theory, your bicycle is the under-the-coach item: “We do allow them and consider them to be oversize items as long as space is available in the baggage area.”

That “as long as space is available” seems to suggest that you should get there early with your bike. (BoltBus suggests checking in at least 15 minutes before departure anyway; at five minutes, reservations are released to stand-bys.) You are in charge of stuffing your bike into the compartment, by the way. Tag your luggage because: “If a bag is left mistakenly behind and is properly marked we will return it to you free of charge.” They don’t say if that applies to the “one infant under the age of two,” you’re allowed to bring on free as well. You can bring food and non-alcoholic drinks “for personal consumption,” and, happily, there’s a restroom.

First established in the northeastern U.S., BoltBus was a partnership between Greyhound and Peter Pan Bus Lines; way out west, it’s exclusively a Greyhound venture, employing yield management economics to offer low-cost fares. But Geekwire is more interested in the fact that BoltBus is that chimerical creature, a low-cost bus line with high-tech perks, emphasizing the “leather seats, free Wi-Fi, and electrical outlets so laptop hounds like us can geek out along the way.” There’s also extra legroom, and a buy-eight-trips-get-one-way-free offer for regular riders.

At the moment, the BoltBus site is distinctly no-frills. They promise mobile site “enhancements” are coming soon, and there’s a FAQ, but the main thing it does is sell you a ticket. Again, that’s in contrast to the Amtrak site, which boasts a scheduling widget that doesn’t understand “seattle, wa” as a departure. It’s “Seattle, WA (SEA),” thank you. Of course it is.

News, Transportation, Travel

Will King Street Station Adopt a Greyhound? (Plus, Seattle’s Jumbo Ferry Passenger Problem)

King Street Station (Photo: MvB)

Crosscut alerts you the impending eviction of Greyhound from its Stewart Street location downtown. After 83 years in that spot, redevelopment has caught up with them, and they need to find a new station by April of 2013. Previously, planners had wanted to add Greyhound into the King Street Station‘s multimodal mix, so you could catch an Amtrak, Sounder, or light rail train; a Metro bus or city streetcar; or a Greyhound.

But Amtrak, rail freight giant BNSF, and Greyhound were never able to agree on where Greyhound might fit in at the station–perfectly happy in its old location, Greyhound was under no pressure to agree a reduced presence, or even curbside service. Now Greyhound is howling for attention, says C.B. Hall:

Greyhound’s first choice, says district manager Mike Timlin, “would be to go in with King Street Station, with other providers, to turn King Street into a sort of intermodal hub.” […] “We’re keeping all options open,” Timlin said. “We may have to leave the City of Seattle if we can’t find anything reasonably priced within the city limits.”

Greyhound CEO David Leach has asked for a sit-down with Mayor Mike McGinn, whose office has not been quick to arrange the meeting. [UPDATE: McGinn spokesman Aaron Pickus says the meeting is scheduled for the second week of January, and disputes my suggestion of any foot-dragging on their part, saying: “We received the CEO’s letter in early December and were calling Greyhound soon after to set up a meeting. We’ve already met with OED and SDOT and WSDOT will be meeting soon.”]

Meanwhile, Seattlepi.com/KOMO reports that the Coast Guard has issued new maximum passenger limits for ferries, because, due to the American obesity epidemic, the average American now weighs 185 pounds. (The old regulations had been based on an average between 140 and 160 pounds.) So, a ferry that could carry 2,000 passengers will be rated to carry over 200 fewer people. Ferries don’t often meet passenger-carrying capacity, so riders won’t likely find themselves stranded. It’s just one of those stories that everyone can cluck disapprovingly about, for their own reasons.

News, Travel

Worst. Greyhound. Trip. Ever? (The Itinerary)

1 Comment
Speaking of "Could it be any worse?" remember this? Not a Greyhound. See where impatience gets you?

I recently booked a last-minute red eye to New York City, and I am not looking forward to it. My procrastination earned me the middle seat in the last row of the plane. Of course my immediate reaction was a self-pitying “Geez, could it be any worse?” And then, I thought, yes, by God, it could be a lot worse.

Seattle to Portland, ME, by Greyhound
Imagine that you try to book the four-hour trip to visit your favorite Rose City vegan scone shop, but accidentally choose the wrong option on Greyhound’s dropdown box. Instead, you’ve booked a four-day adventure.

Monday: Board a Greyhound bus at 10:40 a.m. A mere seven stops later (or about at many stops as Capitol Hill’s #10-bus makes every two blocks) you’re changing buses! Of course, it is now 10:25 p.m. You’ve got 45 minutes to enjoy the wonders of the Missoula bus terminal before your 11:15 leaves for an overnight trip to Billings.

Tuesday: Wakey! At 6:00 a.m. you’re off the bus. And still, somehow, in Montana. Step lively, because you’ve got just 15 minutes before your bus heads out toward the sunrise. Denver is your destination, but before your arrive you’ll get short rest stops in the hustly-bustly Wyoming towns of Thermopolis, Casper, and Cheyenne. At 6 p.m. you make Denver, and soon board a new bus. Pick your seat (and neighbor) wisely, as this bus is yours for the next 44 hours.

Wednesday: You’ll arrive in Kansas City, Missouri, at 6:45, with an hour and fifteen minutes to stretch your legs and maybe book a hotel for a shower–it’s been two days. Hopefully you were sleeping and didn’t notice, but you had two long-ish stops overnight: 20 minutes in Colby, Kansas, and 30 in Salina. Get used to this herky-jerky traveling–over the next day and a half of traveling through the Midwest you’ll stop 10 times, for as little as 5 and as long as 80 minutes. Total travel time lost due to the inefficiencies of national bus scheduling? Five hours and five minutes.

Thursday: If you’ve arisen at a normal hour, you’ve missed Pittsburgh! (Okay, okay, you wouldn’t say you really missed it.) You left the Steel City at 5 a.m., on your way for a morning-long drive through Pennsylvania. You’ll get 35 minutes for lunch in Philadelphia, and make New York City in early afternoon–with a 2 hour and 30 minute layover, plenty of time to hit up one of of the several NYC-style delis around the Port Authority Bus Terminal. (Do not under any circumstances eat inside the Port Authority Bus Terminal). Reboard at 5:30 p.m. for the thrill of puttering up I-95 to Boston in rush-hour traffic–a seven-hour ordeal for a trip that’s not much longer than Seattle-Portland, Oregon.

Friday: When the sun rises you’ll have spent five hours at South Station, Boston’s relatively nice bus terminal. At 6 a.m., you board a bus for the final leg of your trip–two hours up the Atlantic coast to Portland, Maine. We did it! And now that red eye doesn’t feel so terrible.