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Comment by ecshafer | Hacker News Reader

Greyhound nyc to dc is like $20 and has a dozen buses a day. Plus you have Amtrak. Why take an Uber?

I would also like to know this. Even a flight would have been cheaper!

Or even renting a car one way!

speed would be my guess. Especially at night. Everything else from renting to even trains is slower and harder to coordinate.

I live in Japan but was thinking of taking a Greyhound for a 2-hour or so ride during a US trip but a friend strongly advised against, the presumably exaggerated analogy was getting herpes just riding it. Another friend more familiar than me with the recent US generally concurred.

So I assume that's one reason to take an Uber? I was going to look into a charter anyways based on that advice.

Amtrak I'm more familiar with but at least in California it's just incredibly slow.

Greyhound is cheap, so yeah you are getting more poor people riding it. I would say its generally fine. I've ridden it dozens of times and never had issues, at least in the north east. Its usually the most cost efficient way between two cities that are nearish. The one hiccup in the north east is often that its hub and spoke which might take longer. If you are going from one small city to another small city, you are probably going to go to nyc first.

My flight got diverted due to some issue in EWR and landed in DC around midnight. There were no other flights that night and no amtrak until the morning. I didn't even think to check Greyhound. I just wanted to go home to see my kids before they head to school.

Because with those other services, you have to be around other people. Americans hate that.

Amtrak at night is quiet, generally pretty empty, and very civilized. Nothing at all like an intracity bus or subway. But I think many Americans would never even give it a chance. Maybe that's why it's so nice...

I've tried to give Amtrak a chance. But I don't live in the northeastern part of the USA. So I would have to drive a few hours to get to a train station, then spend 24 hours longer on the train than I could drive in a car. And it would cost me a lot more to ride the train than to drive myself.

I think there is more than one reason that Americans "never give it a chance".

Well I'm talking in the context of the NE, I'm well aware that the routes are sparse elsewhere. Amtrak is very good for DC to NYC but most Americans wouldn't give it a chance even in this context.

The main issue with Amtrak is the delays. Freight is prioritized over passenger trains on a lot the lines so you can quickly fall behind schedule. This is compounded over the distance so can add up.

If you don't need to be at your destination for a particular time then Amtrak is nice a way to travel if the route works, especially if you get a cabin.

No? Lots of "Americans" use Amtrak and buses. Not sure why you have to denigrate Americans as being uniquely hating being around people.

Is that really the cost or figurative? Because I would take the bus from NYC into PA and it was like $70 twenty years ago.

$20-30 is the code nyc to dc. Philly to nyc was $11 before the pandemic, might be more more now.$70 sounds more like state college or Pittsburgh. Greyhound is you’re only hitting major cities in the north east is super cheap and fast

Highly depends on when you buy the ticket and which bus line.

About 15 years ago I took a bus from Philly to DC and it cost $5.

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