Hacker News Reader

Comment by DominikPeters | Hacker News Reader

Lots of intercity bus advocates in the comments; I wonder if those people are frequent users. I’ve always regretted when I’ve chosen intercity buses. They are uncomfortable and cramped, get stuck in traffic, and you can’t properly do laptop work. I once took a flixbus from DC to NY to save $30 over Amtrak - what a terrible decision. (Riding Greyhound is an even more self-hating experience.) The price difference is telling: no one takes a bus when a train is available at the same price.

View on HN

As someone who had the distinct pleasure of some long bus rides in college:

I would rather staple myself to the bottom of a semi than ride a bus between 2 cities. I’d rather hitchhike, end up temporarily imprisoned in a grain silo, and fight free using my wits and a corn cob than ride a bus again. If my choice was a bus or simply never traveling again: well welcome to my cloister.

https://www.news-gazette.com/news/suburban-express-shuts-dow...

This. This made my morning. Thank you.

Yes, fine, the particular bus service I utilized in school was remarkably evil…

Suburban Express allegedly denied credit cards from ZIP codes with high Jewish populations, instructed employees to avoid handing out coupons to certain students who appeared not to speak English well and recorded a YouTube video in a UI dorm while complaining about the lack of English speakers and mocking Asian accents by saying "No Engrish."

…which may color my opinion just a bit.

European and some South American buses are quite nice, and I did the laptop thing on a bus in Chile no problem. Even had free wi-fi!

My last long bus ride between Chenzhou Hunan and Guangzhou was a bit meh. Chinese buses are a bit nicer than American ones, but the ride is bumpier and traffic can screw up the schedule. But there isn’t much of a choice when HSR tickets are hard to score on that leg.

From western Europe : No. The wifi did not work. You had commute times at in shitholes at the middle of the night. Overall the traject lasted two more hours than was announced. It's very uncomfortable. Don't do it without taking some kind of pillow. Even if the buses were faster by two hours trains, I would still take the train. Actually, now that I have some money, I actually feel like I am treating myself when booking a train.

I took a 5eu special from Amsterdam to London and it was perfectly pleasant, and we even got to walk around in the eurotunnel. Don't recall any Wi-Fi though.

Ahhh hello fellow Illini. I didn't mind the long bus rides too much, but I was ~20 and probably hungover most if not every time. Not something I'd rely on as a functioning adult, that's for sure :).

I'm not quite as down on busses, but trains really are vastly more comfortable. After a bus ride I am physically tired because I need to engage my core to stay balanced through the bumps and turns. On a train you can actually rest.

I want to like trains, but riding Amtrak a couple of years ago was disappointing. It was significantly more expensive than flying and took days rather than hours (though you don't have to show up 2 hours early for security thankfully.) The train itself was pretty run down compared to what I would have expected given the fare.

On the up side, there is lot of space for luggage and stretching out, you can walk around the train, and there was an observation car and a café car (the food being more functional than palatable, but the scenery being rather nice.) So it's kind of like taking a break from reality and hanging out on a train for a few days while it slowly moves toward your destination.

So it had its moments, but I'm in no hurry to do it again.

How long did you travel? Trains sweet spot is a few dozen to a couple hundred miles. Anything longer really should be fulfilled with high-speed rail, or air.

Being in no hurry is a prerequisite for train travel.

Agree, the experience of intercity buses is terrible. Sometimes no restrooms, sometimes restrooms don't have running water hand wash, cramped seats, you have to carefully plan when you board the bus if you want to be able to pick who you sit next to (mostly because I want 100% of my seat space not 70% damnit), no food service, bumpy ride that you can't get work done on, hard to sleep on, and Greyhound sometimes makes you get off the bus and re-board the same damn bus every few hours.

Horrible experience. Trains are so, so much nicer. I always prefer trains over buses or planes (time permitting).

Trains are also much safer than buses, statistically.

I used to take Boltbus semi-frequently intercity, and it was spacious. I'm relatively tall and found it had adequate leg room and room for a laptop.

The killer feature for me on multiple occasions was that they were one of the few transit options with enlightened bicycle policies. I once rode Boltbus to NYC, purchased a bicycle there, and took it back to Philadelphia in the space under the bus. They say you can only bring a bike if there is room under the bus, but I've never seen the cargo space fill up ever.

Frustratingly, even though Amtrak is starting to support bicycles, they do not allow bikes over 50lbs, which eliminates every e-bike or cargo bike that I've owned. This was not an issue on Boltbus.

I hope Boltbus resumes service soon.

> no one takes a bus when a train is available at the same price.

I agree, although I'm curious - was this trip to NYC, or somewhere else? Round-trip Amtrak tickets from DC to NYC sell for $150+ dollars, while equivalent bus rides are usually $60 or lower, depending on your departure times.

I've happily taken buses over trains, despite the cramped conditions, just so I don't have to pay $100 more.

Sorry, I just guessed the difference. It was DC to Manhattan one-way. Looking at emails, I paid $20 for Flixbus in Nov 2019, booking three days in advance. I recently took the same trip by Amtrak and paid $29, but I booked two weeks in advance, plus pandemic. Booking an Amtrak departure for three days from now costs $128-196. [A related way to save money I've regretted is flying from Paris to London rather than taking Eurostar. More false economy.]

Yeah, obviously the difference in price. I can go Manchester-London on a bus for 3£ (which I've already done a couple times overnight), whereas the train would have cost anything from 40£ to >100£.

But yeah, it's bad.

I've enjoyed BestBus for DC <-> NY. I picked them based on reviews and had a good experience.

I think DC <-> NY is a special case where there's a lot of competition and it's possible to have a good experience.

IIRC Amtrak would've been about $200 vs $60 for the bus, and only about an hour faster.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com