Inter-city bus service in the U.S. - a national DISGRACE
i've been working up a head of steam on this subject for a long time...
inter-city bus service in the united states is a disgrace... most every other country in the world beats the sox off the u.s. when it comes to cheap, reliable and, in some cases, truly outstanding bus service... anybody who has traveled greyhound in the u.s. knows it's a pitiful excuse for a bus company... anybody who has traveled by bus in other countries knows what it CAN be... in the u.s., the perception of the bus, be it inter or intra-city, is that it's for the poorest of the poor and, the way it's set up, that's pretty much true... but it doesn't HAVE to be that way...
the usual arguments are these... the u.s. is SUCH A BIG COUNTRY and traveling by bus WOULD TAKE FOREVER... why go by bus WHEN YOU CAN FLY WITHOUT PAYING MUCH MORE... bus stations are DANGEROUS PLACES... with the "kind of people who ride a bus," I WOULDN'T FEEL SAFE... please understand, with nothing but shitty service available, it's perfectly understandable why those arguments are prevalent...
argentina is the 8th largest country in the world, encompassing 2,766,890 km²... the u.s. is the world's 3d largest country after russia and canada with 9,161,930 km², or 7,415,765 km² if you subtract hawaii's 28,311 km² and alaska's 1,717,854 km²... no matter how you look at it, argentina's a BIG country and people have to travel great distances to get from one place to another... but let's take a look at how THEY travel by bus as compared to the piss-poor commercial service in the u.s... some of you know this already but i bet a lot of you don't...
first of all, take a look at the the busses themselves...
new, modern, double-decker, well-maintained, clean...
many of the lines on the busy inter-city routes and the long distance routes offer four classes of service - Servicio Común (standard seat), Servicio Cama (the seat fully reclines into a bed), Servicio Semi Cama (the seat reclines but not fully), and Servicio Primera Clase (the seat not only reclines into a bed but you have full entertainment and meal service and your own private area, equivalent to international first class air travel)... take a look...
not bad, eh...?
and that ain't all... how about flat-panel dvd...? how about wine and well-prepared meals...?
but, WAIT...! there's MORE...! you can actually go online and CHOOSE YOUR SEAT, just like the airlines...
and, no shit, they actually show you where you'll be sitting in relation to the tv monitors and the restroom...! amazing or what...?
i went to the greyhound web site and ya know what...? i couldn't even find a picture of their damn busses except pictures of the little models they sell in their damn online store...
as they say in argentina, "patético..." Submit To Propeller
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inter-city bus service in the united states is a disgrace... most every other country in the world beats the sox off the u.s. when it comes to cheap, reliable and, in some cases, truly outstanding bus service... anybody who has traveled greyhound in the u.s. knows it's a pitiful excuse for a bus company... anybody who has traveled by bus in other countries knows what it CAN be... in the u.s., the perception of the bus, be it inter or intra-city, is that it's for the poorest of the poor and, the way it's set up, that's pretty much true... but it doesn't HAVE to be that way...
the usual arguments are these... the u.s. is SUCH A BIG COUNTRY and traveling by bus WOULD TAKE FOREVER... why go by bus WHEN YOU CAN FLY WITHOUT PAYING MUCH MORE... bus stations are DANGEROUS PLACES... with the "kind of people who ride a bus," I WOULDN'T FEEL SAFE... please understand, with nothing but shitty service available, it's perfectly understandable why those arguments are prevalent...
argentina is the 8th largest country in the world, encompassing 2,766,890 km²... the u.s. is the world's 3d largest country after russia and canada with 9,161,930 km², or 7,415,765 km² if you subtract hawaii's 28,311 km² and alaska's 1,717,854 km²... no matter how you look at it, argentina's a BIG country and people have to travel great distances to get from one place to another... but let's take a look at how THEY travel by bus as compared to the piss-poor commercial service in the u.s... some of you know this already but i bet a lot of you don't...
first of all, take a look at the the busses themselves...
new, modern, double-decker, well-maintained, clean...
many of the lines on the busy inter-city routes and the long distance routes offer four classes of service - Servicio Común (standard seat), Servicio Cama (the seat fully reclines into a bed), Servicio Semi Cama (the seat reclines but not fully), and Servicio Primera Clase (the seat not only reclines into a bed but you have full entertainment and meal service and your own private area, equivalent to international first class air travel)... take a look...
not bad, eh...?
and that ain't all... how about flat-panel dvd...? how about wine and well-prepared meals...?
but, WAIT...! there's MORE...! you can actually go online and CHOOSE YOUR SEAT, just like the airlines...
and, no shit, they actually show you where you'll be sitting in relation to the tv monitors and the restroom...! amazing or what...?
i went to the greyhound web site and ya know what...? i couldn't even find a picture of their damn busses except pictures of the little models they sell in their damn online store...
as they say in argentina, "patético..." Submit To Propeller
Tweet
posted by profmarcus at
9/25/2005
