Let's talk about busses

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What is the equivalent of Greyhound busses in UK/Europe? When was the last time you traveled on such a bus? What kind of people use the bus? Any interesting travel stories?

― teeny (teeny), Friday, 21 February 2003 00:46 (twenty-three years ago)

National Express, in the UK, Bus Eirean in Ireland, Eurolines europe wide. However the train is very cheap and much faster and far more extensive than in the states.

― Ed (dali), Friday, 21 February 2003 00:51 (twenty-three years ago)

Most European countries don't really have long distance busses only busses out from railheads to the bits that trains don't reach.

― Ed (dali), Friday, 21 February 2003 00:52 (twenty-three years ago)

Bus Eireann is horrible, I have one vivid memory of having to get one after I finished my first state exams aged 15, I'd been out the night before on maybe my first big night on the beer and was sick all over the bus on two occasions. It was rotten.

― Ronan (Ronan), Friday, 21 February 2003 00:53 (twenty-three years ago)

national express is cheap and extensive. it is also filled with normal people. it is NOT like greyhound!!!

― gareth (gareth), Friday, 21 February 2003 01:48 (twenty-three years ago)

National Express is pretty horrible, but bearable. I've got the one from Manchester to London a few times. It's about half the price of the train, but it's usually packed, you have to choose a bus when you book, the drivers are the biggest cunts in the world and quite often want to leave before departure time. But it's only for a few hours so it doesn't matter.

The other passangers are, um, intriguing. I guess "normal people" covers it. What's the Greyhound like?

― Graham (graham), Friday, 21 February 2003 01:57 (twenty-three years ago)

greyhound is for crackheads and people with chickens and for people that have sex on the seats and people that have knives and chant mantras

― gareth (gareth), Friday, 21 February 2003 02:01 (twenty-three years ago)

buses v. busses

― Horace Mann (Horace Mann), Friday, 21 February 2003 02:31 (twenty-three years ago)

gareth your snobbism is showing; i always thought that the national express waz england's train system; always = since divine comedy song

― Mary (Mary), Friday, 21 February 2003 02:46 (twenty-three years ago)

whycome my endtags never show up?! ignorance

― Mary (Mary), Friday, 21 February 2003 02:47 (twenty-three years ago)

what's wrong with sex?

― gygax! (gygax!), Friday, 21 February 2003 02:49 (twenty-three years ago)

― Graham (graham), Friday, 21 February 2003 02:54 (twenty-three years ago)

gareth is not being a snob, he is telling the truth!

― rosemary (rosemary), Friday, 21 February 2003 03:19 (twenty-three years ago)

nah, as one of my family members once advised me:

"don't be ashamed of the dog"

― gygax! (gygax!), Friday, 21 February 2003 03:21 (twenty-three years ago)

ohh rm why you always be taking his side?

― Mary (Mary), Friday, 21 February 2003 03:24 (twenty-three years ago)

blegggh, a few months ago, i took a 30-hour bus from Kunming, China to Jinghong, China. It was really really hot & humid, and unairconditioned, and the windows were sort of broken, and the driver was driving through the unlit winding one-lane jungle road like a maniac, and the food was disgusting, and it was smoky, and the chinese people were spitting everywhere, and the driver was blasting awful cantonese pop music, and i had to pee.

But luckily it was one of those sleeper buses - so the seats were actually just 2 levels of cheap futons on metal frames. But unluckily, they were made to fit the average [short] chinese man, so they weren't all that comfy.

― phil-two (phil-two), Friday, 21 February 2003 08:03 (twenty-three years ago)

i wasnt dissing on the greyhounds! after all, i shall be experiencing once again in May!

― gareth (gareth), Friday, 21 February 2003 08:08 (twenty-three years ago)

There is nothing but crazy people on greyhounds. crazy people and australian/british backpackers.

My friend Siobhan told me of a time she was riding a Greyhound from NYC to Cleveland and sat next to a crazy white woman who got into a fight with a black woman on the bus after screaming "can't you smell that black woman's poon from here? it stank! it stank!"

― phil-two (phil-two), Friday, 21 February 2003 08:12 (twenty-three years ago)

Busses in Germany tend to be poor Eastern Europeans and Turks headed home for visits, or lagerlouts and Opel drivers on their way to Majorca.

― Colin Meeder (Mert), Friday, 21 February 2003 09:01 (twenty-three years ago)

I had a hilarious 12 hour trip from toronto to new york with a friend on a greyhound. The driver that took over at buffalo made the trip for us, a stereotypical new yorker, who looked very like columbo, but smarter, and boy did he take no crap!

It was much more fun than the overnighter between london and glasgow was.

― Vicky (Vicky), Friday, 21 February 2003 09:50 (twenty-three years ago)

Woo-hoo! We actually have BETTER trains than someone!

― Matt DC (Matt DC), Friday, 21 February 2003 09:51 (twenty-three years ago)

Ride The Dog, baby! Ride The Dog! I know every bump of the road on the route between Albany and NYC, I went on that bus so much. I had to learn how to act scary and intimidating so that little old ladies didnt sit down next to you, spill sandwich crumbs all over you and then fall asleep drooling on your shoulder. Ugh.

I've never done the National Express though. It just reminds me of that terribly funny Divine Comedy video.

― kate, Friday, 21 February 2003 09:53 (twenty-three years ago)

Hell, I thought this thread was about a C16th word for kisses.

But yes, buses. National Express = cheap but fairly nasty. On a trip of any duration you can be sure to visit/change at Birmingham and/or Swindon bus stations, which ain't a whole barrel of laughs, believe me - one New Year I was coming back dah Saaarf from Glasgow and got stuck in Birmingham for 5 hours. Yuck.

You do see the countryside, though, even if it is from a vantage point filled with screaming kids and, yes, little old ladies who get crumbs all over you and want to talk about their cats. I always take books, my CD player and a plentiful supply of murderous looks for people who try to sit beside me.

― Liz :x (Liz :x), Friday, 21 February 2003 10:02 (twenty-three years ago)

I am grateful that I can take a train most places in Britain, even if it is dirty, late and slow. For I get sick as a dog who's just eaten a parrot on National Express, or in fact anything that travels on a road (or sea). Hurrah for rail!

― Archel (Archel), Friday, 21 February 2003 11:00 (twenty-three years ago)

On the other hand, if you're going to places within an hour or so of London, like Canterbury or Oxford, the National Express is actually much quicker, cheaper and more comfortable than the train. And that's not to mention the 24-hour wonder that is the Oxford Tube.

― Matt DC (Matt DC), Friday, 21 February 2003 11:06 (twenty-three years ago)

I would do whatever it took to get the extra cash to take a train rather than a bus. Buses are awful awful awful things, long distance at least.

I have to take the train in the States in a fortnight, which makes me a bit apprehensive as I don't know a single American who has *ever* used their railway. Does the Raritan Valley Line in New Jersey mean anything to anyone?

― Mark C (Mark C), Friday, 21 February 2003 11:08 (twenty-three years ago)

Mark, you'll be fine.. The reason most Americans don't take the train is because the distances are usually too long, and there is little price differential between the train and flying. But then again, train travel along the Boston/NYC/DC corridor is pretty common. Where in NJ are you going, anyhow?

― phil-two (phil-two), Friday, 21 February 2003 11:11 (twenty-three years ago)

I took a 31-hour bus journey from Bratislava to London a few years ago and ended up being a surrogate Tourist Information Centre once it became known there was actually a Brit on board and not only au pairs and illegal arms traders. Ah, the memories.

― darren (darren), Friday, 21 February 2003 12:57 (twenty-three years ago)

I'm going to a wedding in Bridgewater, NJ. I have no idea what to expect!

― Mark C (Mark C), Friday, 21 February 2003 17:26 (twenty-three years ago)

Like Archel, I end up vomiting on any sort of long-distance bus journey. Trains are the way to go.

― caitlin (caitlin), Friday, 21 February 2003 17:31 (twenty-three years ago)

NJ Transit from what i remember is something between a propah train and a subway, but no snack car, can anyone confirm this?

― Tracer Hand (tracerhand), Friday, 21 February 2003 17:46 (twenty-three years ago)

when you travel by bus in Ireland you are obliged to listen to country and irish music.

the longest bus journey I ever took was from London to Prague. 20 hours on the bus. HARDCORE. Not as hardcore as Darren, mind. We got the bus thinking everyone would be cheapskate tourists like us, but actually the other people were all Czechs. on that bus we first experienced the fabled taciturnity of that amiable race.

― DV (dirtyvicar), Friday, 21 February 2003 17:49 (twenty-three years ago)

The new city busses in Los Angeles are powered by Compressed Natural Gas. the air quality improvement has been drastic.

― Spencer Chow (spencermfi), Friday, 21 February 2003 19:01 (twenty-three years ago)

like anyone rides the bus in LA besides "the help"...

is it still called RTD?

― gygax! (gygax!), Friday, 21 February 2003 19:02 (twenty-three years ago)

Mark, are you taking the train from Hoboken or Penn Station? NJ Transit is fine, it's mainly commuters rather than crazy people.

― rosemary (rosemary), Friday, 21 February 2003 19:09 (twenty-three years ago)

crazy people and australian/british backpackers.

There's a difference?

― rosemary (rosemary), Friday, 21 February 2003 19:10 (twenty-three years ago)

has anyone else had the bad fortune to ride on a peter pan bus in NE in the years (94–98) just before they were bought out by greyhound? i've waited three hours for a bus ride (middletown-->new haven) that was supposed to take 40 minutes. twice the bus broke down in bridgeport. lots of crazy people on the bus, of course. stations closed when they're supposed to be open (thus, waiting at 2 AM in very bad connecticut towns in the middle of the sidewalk, alone). etc. etc. their website's schedules were 6 mths out of date and there was lots of blinking text.

― Amateurist (amateurist), Friday, 21 February 2003 19:14 (twenty-three years ago)

greyhound is for crackheads and people with chickens and for people that have sex on the seats and people that have knives and chant mantras

Greyhound also has its drawbacks, but at the moment I'm pressed to list them.

― Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Friday, 21 February 2003 19:16 (twenty-three years ago)

say something interesting about this bus

― gygax! (gygax!), Friday, 21 February 2003 19:21 (twenty-three years ago)

A friend would periodically ride Greyhound from college to home. Once, her bus stopped by a prison to pick up some newly released passengers. There was a layover, during which she took a seat at the bus station. To her horror, she noticed a former prisoner in a nearby seat openly utilizing a copy of Hustler for the act of self-abuse. Her parents bought her a car shortly after that experience.

― Ernest P. (ernestp), Friday, 21 February 2003 19:22 (twenty-three years ago)

Words desert me. Bloody foreigners.

― Lara (Lara), Friday, 21 February 2003 19:22 (twenty-three years ago)

Re: Dutch bus thing not Ernest P.

― Lara (Lara), Friday, 21 February 2003 19:22 (twenty-three years ago)

like anyone rides the bus in LA besides "the help"...
is it still called RTD?

actually, I haven't actually taken a ride on one of these busses, but I've certainly driven behind them and there's virtually no exhaust (Santa Monica, always one-upping L.A. on the eco tip, is now also all electric busses).

The RTD is now called the MTA (Metropolitan Transit Authority)

― Spencer Chow (spencermfi), Friday, 21 February 2003 19:34 (twenty-three years ago)

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