What it's like to take the new sleeper bus from LA to SF

Yeah, for what it’s worth, this was on a Megabus, and the seat belts were sort of “vestigial”… utterly unused, some missing entirely, or broken. I can’t speak to BoltBus and I’m certain the Fung Wah has never heard of seatbelts.

1 Like

It’s got a single shared bathroom, man. Show some compassion to your fellow travellers!

3 Likes

Aw. I was hoping for something more like this:

18 Likes

Yikes! The sleepers I’ve taken were in the UK, and they were cozy to the extreme, with little sleep booties and a Penguin paperback waiting for me in my cabin, and tea the next morning. A wonderful way to get from Glasgow to London.

3 Likes

For those not in the know. This is from the parody The Big Bus, and they really did make a working version of the bus and drove it around California for filming. As far as i recall it came out around the same time as the Airplane movie and was totally overshadowed by its success.

Edit: Here’s a short Jalopnik aritcle about the bus itself:

8 Likes

Fair enough, if you have to get there, an overnight bus sounds like a great plan.

1 Like

I understand that each new occupant has fresh clean bedding waiting for them. But what about the cleanliness of the walls, ceiling, and draw curtain?

The (relatively) new LAX Flyaway buses have seatbelts. First bus seatbelts I’ve seen.

_Page Not Found | Boing Boing

5 Likes

the green tortoise.

i haven’t thought of that american chicken bus for years.

Let me know how it works out.

One brown mouse, sitting in a pod. (Sorry, Jethro Tull.)

2 Likes

smile your little smile, take some tea with me a while. :wink:

3 Likes

I had a lot of fun rides on the Tortoise way back when. Good people.

There is a tour bus operation that’s been doing this for years…Rotel.

Back when Ocracoke Island was pretty much undeveloped (and still is) there were several isolated “primitive” campgrounds only a couple hundred feet from the Atlantic. This was pre-1970’s and the area was still pristine. And desolate. If you didn’t come for the water…you didn’t come.
My family was into camping and we stayed at one of those for a week.
One morning one of these showed up:

3 Likes

A modern Pullman car!

1 Like

Amtrak is pretty great going from Philly to either D.C. Or NY. Going to Boston- it’s cheaper -$150 -and easier to fly. Only an hour and a half.

There’s no great way to get to Pitt. Amtrak slows to 30 mph & takes longer than driving - since it’s not a hub - $750 to fly.

2 Likes

Or a salmon bake! R.I.P. Green Tortoise.

I’ve only done it from Budapest to Chisinau on those ancient Soviet trains, but it was very enjoyable to sleep under down comforters in the middle of winter.

2 Likes

How many people can they stack in there? Something about the economics of it feels hinky.

Trying again with better reading comprehension. They can stack 24 people in there. So they’d be grossing $2,760 on a fully loaded trip, maybe $3,000 with snacks and such.

I wouldn’t think that’d be enough for permits, taxes, driver, attendant, gas, maintenance, insurance, office overhead, etc. But hey, happy to be wrong!

1 Like

Love this idea and have fond memories of taking overnight trains with sleeper cars. Plus, I didn’t see mention of another selling feature; Not waisting an hour in a security line compared to flying.

2 Likes