By Matthew Bigg. A woman stands next to a Greyhound bus at a bus station in Columbus, Georgia, May 11, Greyhound buses are largely perceived as an affordable if time-consuming, travel alternative. The company boasts 16, daily departures across North America. Bus travel is cheaper and people who lack the money to use other means of transport often go Greyhound.
The passengers on one such trip in May included an elderly couple with the twitchy movements of drug users. They boarded in Mobile, Alabama, and the man promptly locked himself in the bathroom at the back of the bus, refusing to come out.
Something will come up and it will turn into a 4- or 6-hour layover. Or an 8-hour layover. Basically, you will be in Cleveland way longer than anyone has ever wanted to be. There are a number of reasons why your layovers will be longer than advertised.
For one, Greyhound will always have issues with buses being behind schedule. There's traffic, weather, crazy drunks who have to be kicked off the bus, and so many other issues that can arise to make the buses late. Greyhound has also been having trouble lately finding enough drivers to fill all the scheduled routes.
This means that you may have to wait while they find a driver willing to come in at a. No, and neither do the drivers. So your layover may be just a few hours longer while they find one desperate enough to come to work. If you have a Greyhound bus trip over a certain length of time, don't expect to be able to snuggle up and stay on the bus the whole time.
There will be several stops throughout your trip where you will be required to get off the bus. For instance, at some Greyhound stations, your bus will have to be cleaned and serviced and so all passengers will have to exit the bus. Passengers who were already on the bus will be allowed to re-board first before new passengers so they can reclaim their seats, but be prepared to spend an hour or so inside the station.
You will also probably have at least one transfer during your Greyhound bus trip. A transfer is basically changing from route to another which means you will have to change buses.
Most transfers happen at Greyhound stations and you will typically have a layover between transfers. Layovers can last anywhere from 30 minutes to several hours. Your bus will also stop for meal and bathroom breaks every few hours. These breaks are usually at gas stations or fast-food restaurants. You are not required to get off the bus at meal and bathroom stops.
But it's usually a good idea to get off and get something to eat since the food prices at Greyhound stations are pretty high. And using any bathroom is better than using the one on the bus! Just because your ticket says you will arrive at your destination at pm on Saturday does not ensure that you actually will.
In fact, more likely than not you will arrive later than scheduled. How much later you arrive varies but it's usually a good rule of thumb to expect to be at least 2 to 6 hours behind schedule. Greyhound buses have to travel on the same roads as every other motor vehicle out there and this means that they have to deal with traffic accidents, bad weather, road closures, etc.
And all these factors cause buses to run behind schedule. Greyhound Bus Lines has also been experiencing a driver shortage for the past few years. This means that buses are routinely delayed at departure while a driver is found. If your trip is behind schedule from the start then there's a good chance you will be WAY behind schedule by the time you reach your final destination.
It's not uncommon for some passengers to arrive at their destination 12—24 hours late when their bus was initially delayed.
It's very important to keep this in mind if you are traveling to an important event that is taking place at a particular time. DO NOT book a Greyhound trip that is going to get you into town only a few hours before a wedding, funeral, graduation, job interview, etc. To be safe it's usually a good idea to book a ticket that will get you there the day before or maybe even a few days earlier. That way if your bus is late or delayed, you won't miss your important event. You may experience long delays on your Greyhound bus trip that may affect when you arrive at your final destination.
Greyhound employees as a whole are not always known for being forthcoming with answers to passengers' questions. There are some Greyhound employees that provide exceptional customer service, but don't expect this to be true at all stations. You'll be fine though!
I travelled twice from Wisconsin to the West Coast by Greyhound. It was very cheap and actually a quit fun way to travel I wouldn't say it is dangerous, but the busstation can be a bit strange I would recommend you to stop somewhere for a couple days on your way to Vancouver. Sometimes the bus stopped at 1 a. I suspect any of those complaining about Greyhound have ever taken public transportation in other countries.
The Grey Hound is no less dirty then the public transportation in Paris, and riding the grey hound bus in america felt exactly the same as riding the buses in England between cities. Nicer then those in Nepal, not as nice as Madonna's tour bus. One thing to consider though too, is that overnight buses usually guarentee little or no sleep as some of the buses are milk runs and stop in all the small towns along the way. If you are cool with interrupted sleep, greyhound is the way to go.
0コメント