Greyhound bus

[Ms Independent]

I live in Austin and, most of the time, when I leave the city, it's in an airplane. (Boy, howdy, is it hard to git outta Texas.) But I'm headed to Houston for the weekend and chose Greyhound. Here's why:

• $18 (+$5 service fee) ROUND TRIP (airplane would have cost more than 10x that, driving would have cost almost 8x at $.50/mile)
• 3-hour trip (airplane would have been at least as long, if not longer, with all the airport schlepping)
• When I bought a few days ago, Megabus was already 2.5x more expensive since I was choosing high-demand days (Friday, Sunday)
• Wifi -- that's right, Wifi. I'm telecommuting right now from the Greyhound. The Wifi isn't great (it uses cell towers, I expect it to be spotty), but for what I need, it'll do just fine for 3 hours.
• Not packed. I've got a whole empty seat next to me -- plenty of room for the telecommuting.
• Takes me right to downtown Houston, where I can transit or cab to my final destination.
• Totally. Friendly. Driver.

All that to say -- if you haven't tried Greyhound in awhile, give 'er a whirl. The service has gotten a lot better lately because of competitors like Megabus (nationally) and all sorts of services on the East Coast (Vamoose, Bolt, Chinatown bus).

[benjenn]

Wow, that's good to hear.  I've honestly never taken a Greyhound bus anywhere but with all the extra time in airports these days I can see where it could be a better choice, especially considering the price.  I can see where getting around Texas it could be a good choice, too.  Good for you, Ms. Independent!  Way to go.

[nanu]

I totally agree - I took Greyhound several times between NYC & Boston in the past few years, as well as Megabus and Boltbus.
I usually just take the cheapest of the three for the dates I'm interested in, and Greyhound was the cheapest more often that I would have assumed.
Never had any issues with it, and overall not too bad of a way to travel (when balancing utility, time, and cost)

[Dee18]

Great to hear! In college I rode Greyhound 58 hours to get to Mexico City, to save $75.  I flew home at the end of that trip.

[Gone Fishing]

I rode it several times in college.  I loved the fact that I could check the schedule (think I did it by phone back then), show up, pay for my ticket, get on and get to where I was going with no fuss.  I did accidently get a route with a transfer one time, ended up in the next state, and took 2x as long as the direct route! 

[galliver]

My bf and I used GH for 3 years between Chicago and Champaign, IL about 3x/month to see each other. (Long distance relationships :( :( :( but worth it for the right person!) Very affordable considering we could avoid having cars (and better than all other services on weekends!)

A few times there were screaming children or hot or smelly buses or long waits...but for the most part I was quite happy with price/quality. :)

[peppermint]

Used to take Greyhound all the time when I lived in Toronto to visit friends just outside the city, as well as longer trips to Montreal, Chicago and NYC. Only had a bad experience once - night trip connecting in Detroit to Chicago was pretty sketchy (I was the only woman, the driver had a security guard, he had to throw someone drunk and threatening off the bus)

[RootofGood]

Great to hear! In college I rode Greyhound 58 hours to get to Mexico City, to save $75.  I flew home at the end of that trip.

Ha ha, +1 on that.  We rode from NC to the Mexican border in Laredo TX and then rode other buses south of the border.  It was 2 days down, 3 days back just to the Mexican border and back.  Any ticket anywhere in the "world" for $59 or something like that back in 2000.  We probably saved a lot more than $75 by taking the bus, but it was a looooong journey.  Although I saw a bunch of the SE United States and parts of the gulf coast I probably never would have otherwise... 

Service was decent, but there were some rough characters and rough treatment.

[Ms Independent]

Update: No WiFi on the way home from Houston, but no big deal. I was on the verge of feeling a wee bit grumpy about that, but then I remembered the great Louis CK bit about WiFi on airplanes and shut it down. I was still able to plug in my laptop on the Greyhound and get some writing done.

I've taken the Greyhound to Houston before, but have driven the last couple trips, so I'd forgotten how good Greyhound can be -- and it really has gotten better. You can't beat the city center stops -- makes accessibility to wherever you're going so much easier than the airport would be.

[Kaspian]

I love the Greyhoud because there's nothing to do.  You're awake (most of the time), in a capsule, for 4 or 5 hours with nothing and nobody to bother you, you can watch the scenery and not pay attention to the driving,  and no one actually knows where you are at that given second.  Mobile phones sort of ruined the solitude of the experience.  I've met some good people (and a few loons) on the bus as well.

[netskyblue]

Not sure where you're getting $0.50/mile?  Austin to Houston is ~330 miles, round trip, and on most vehicles that's within 1 tank of gas. 

Wifi and free time (and not having to DRIVE) is of value, though.  Would depend on whether or not I intended to drive at the destination, as using public transit frequently could easily eat up the $14 or so that is saved by going Greyhound.

[CowboyAndIndian]

Not sure where you're getting $0.50/mile?  Austin to Houston is ~330 miles, round trip, and on most vehicles that's within 1 tank of gas. 

Cost of driving a mile in your car is not just the cost of gas.

It includes all of your costs for maintaining a car, Insurance, depreciation, wear and tear, maintenance etc.

The IRS has calculated the average cost per mile to be $0.56/mile (http://www.irs.gov/2014-Standard-Mileage-Rates-for-Business,-Medical-and-Moving-Announced).

[netskyblue]

Not sure where you're getting $0.50/mile?  Austin to Houston is ~330 miles, round trip, and on most vehicles that's within 1 tank of gas. 

Cost of driving a mile in your car is not just the cost of gas.

It includes all of your costs for maintaining a car, Insurance, depreciation, wear and tear, maintenance etc.

The IRS has calculated the average cost per mile to be $0.56/mile (http://www.irs.gov/2014-Standard-Mileage-Rates-for-Business,-Medical-and-Moving-Announced).

Honestly, though, a one-time 330-mile trip is not adding significantly to those costs.  I'd be hard-pressed to believe your annual car ownership costs were over $140 higher than they would have been, had you not taken that one trip to Houston.  Unless - and I suppose there is some argument here - you got into an accident or otherwise suffered actual damage to your car on the trip.  There's always the risk of this.

[sheepstache]

Y'all taking multi-day trips, do you go straight through or are you talking about stopping somewhere each night? I went straight through from NYC to Miami once and the main problem was that I needed to sleep for the first 24 hours after I got to my destination.

[CowboyAndIndian]

Honestly, though, a one-time 330-mile trip is not adding significantly to those costs.  I'd be hard-pressed to believe your annual car ownership costs were over $140 higher than they would have been, had you not taken that one trip to Houston.  Unless - and I suppose there is some argument here - you got into an accident or otherwise suffered actual damage to your car on the trip.  There's always the risk of this.

Not really sure you are understanding what I am saying.

Say for example,  you have insurance which costs $900/year and you spend $300 in oil changes and maintenance and you drive 12000 miles a year and your car gives you 10mpg, with cost of gas being $2/gallon.

So your cost for the year would be
$900+$300+$2400 = $3600

and cost per mile would be $3600/12000 = $0.30/mile

This is a very simplistic example and does not include the fact that you have to add the depreciation of the car also.

That is why companies reimburse you the IRS amount and not just for the gas.

Edit: fixed my math.
All numbers are made up to simplify math.

[netskyblue]

I get what you're saying, I'm just arguing that it's not really relevant to the OP's decision to take a bus (because it was 8x cheaper).

You'd still pay your insurance, 2 oil changes, registration, and maintenance REGARDLESS of taking a trip to Houston.  So, it would not ACTUALLY cost 8x more to drive that trip.  If you made such trips with enough frequency that it would bump up the cost of your insurance or require more oil changes, or put significant wear upon parts, then yes, there's an argument for that.

[MandalayVA]

I took a Greyhound to Kentucky when I left New Jersey in 1995.  Cheap, yes, but as a young woman traveling alone I attracted every perv on the bus.  The driver took pity on me and sat me in front where he could see me and gave the stinkeye to any guy who looked at me for longer than a second.  Before the end of the trip I was calling him Dad. 

[Jack]

What netskyblue is saying is that the cost per mile for a long road trip is lower than the cost per mile for normal around-town driving.

I'm not sure how much I agree with that argument. Although wear-and-tear is lower for freeway driving than city driving, that only translates into actual savings if you take it into account rather than just blindly doing maintenance at a particular odometer reading (i.e., oil change every X miles) like most people do. Instead, you'd have to be on a time-based maintenance schedule (i.e. oil change every X months) or actually be doing things like used oil analyses to measure actual wear.

[Thalassa]

I took a Greyhound to Kentucky when I left New Jersey in 1995.  Cheap, yes, but as a young woman traveling alone I attracted every perv on the bus.  The driver took pity on me and sat me in front where he could see me and gave the stinkeye to any guy who looked at me for longer than a second.  Before the end of the trip I was calling him Dad.

Haha, a Kiwi friend of mine took the Greyhound bus to visit me in 2012 and when he arrived (a guy mind you), he was almost delirious with the trauma of the experience.  Pee smells, weirdos... I remain unconvinced that Greyhound is worth any savings.

[Taran Wanderer]

What netskyblue is saying is that the cost per mile for a long road trip is lower than the cost per mile for normal around-town driving.

I'm not sure how much I agree with that argument. Although wear-and-tear is lower for freeway driving than city driving, that only translates into actual savings if you take it into account rather than just blindly doing maintenance at a particular odometer reading (i.e., oil change every X miles) like most people do. Instead, you'd have to be on a time-based maintenance schedule (i.e. oil change every X months) or actually be doing things like used oil analyses to measure actual wear.

I've done my own math on cost per mile, and I'm convinced that the IRS rate is based on driving a Suburban. However, in terms of lifecycle cost on the vehicle, any vehicle, you're probably incurring an average cost of at least $0.30 per mile.

Back on topic, I haven't ridden greyhound in a long, long time.  Nice to hear it's working for folks.

[Gone Fishing]

The terms we are missing here are variable and fixed.  Many of the costs of owning a vehicle are fixed: insurance, taxes, registration, inspection, licensing (for the driver) and the portion of depreciation due to age.  The rest are variable: gas, oil, tires, and the depreciation due to mileage.  If you are already incurring the fixed costs of ownership, the additional incremental variable costs of an additional trip are relatively low, probably around $.10-.20 per mile for a reasonably efficient vehicle.     

[RootofGood]

If you are already incurring the fixed costs of ownership, the additional incremental variable costs of an additional trip are relatively low, probably around $.10-.20 per mile for a reasonably efficient vehicle.     

I usually figure $0.20/mile. 

And I hope to report back with positive experiences on Greyhound since we're taking it as a family of 5 across the state to fly out of the Charlotte airport.  $15/ticket for about a 160 mile journey.  The other nice parts of greyhound are that we can ride the city bus to the station from our house, and pick up the light rail at the Charlotte Greyhound to go to our hotel. 

[galliver]

The terms we are missing here are variable and fixed.  Many of the costs of owning a vehicle are fixed: insurance, taxes, registration, inspection, licensing (for the driver) and the portion of depreciation due to age.  The rest are variable: gas, oil, tires, and the depreciation due to mileage.  If you are already incurring the fixed costs of ownership, the additional incremental variable costs of an additional trip are relatively low, probably around $.10-.20 per mile for a reasonably efficient vehicle.     

This makes me feel a lot better about choosing driving over flying for trips from LA to SF. We were doing it for the convenience (having a car up there, choosing when to come and go, no risk of missing the plane, no TSA), and because the only external/tangible cost (gas) was lower. But now it actually feels justifiable (though not for a single person making the trip).