CHEAP BUS FARES * USA - The Chinatown Bus Experience
This blog post will cover my recent adventure through Manhattan and the nightmare of an experience with two particular Chinatown bus lines: Apex/Todays Bus...
NY,USA -Sippy's World, by sippy -29 Jun 2008: -- The picture below gives you a glimpse of the chaos you can expect to experience when attempting to board your bus in Chinatown NYC...
However, the return trip from chinatown/NYC at 9:30 6/28/08 was a horror... We asked the two women who were selling tickets which bus was for DC and which was for Philadelphia. They could not communicate to us very well, and just kept repeating “yes, DC” and “yes, Philadelphia” over and over... The result was an oversold bus, full of people that were able to butt in front of us even though we had reservations. We were there 20 minutes early as specified on the ticket, but we had no seat on the bus. There were many other angry reservation holders as well... This new bus arrived 10 minutes later. At this point, everyone was angry and shoving to get a seat on the bus. Luckily we were able to board at the very end, but their were others behind us that were left behind. The bus was overcrowded and we were forced to sit at the back, which smelled so strongly of urine that people were beginning to get sick. The two women continued to sell tickets and even stuffed two people on the bus that had no seat. The driver road about a mile down the road before understanding what had happened, even though the two passengers implored him the entire way to stop... The bus finally departed again, but after going a block or two, it died at a stoplight. Over the next 10 minutes, the bus would die at traffic lights (idling low and then sputtering to a stop) and the driver would get out of the bus (in the middle of traffic), fiddle with the engine, and then recrank it. After an uprising from passengers, the bus driver finally agreed the bus was not suitable for interstate travel and took us back. Back at the street corner again, a new bus showed up and unloaded all of its passengers - we boarded this bus and left... We transfered buses again in Philadelphia for some reason. I think it was at this point that the driver realized he had passengers from DC on his bus, so another bus was called in to take us the rest of the way... The bus driver was the most dangerous driver I had ever experienced. I consider myself an aggressive driver and this person was absolutely uncompromising and reckless. He would swerve in/out of traffic, rev the engine as high as it would go, tailgate other vehicles, speed upwards of 80mph constantly, and take turns at extremely unsafe speeds (at one point the right side wheels briefly left the pavement and skidding back to the surface after an abrupt jerk on the steering wheel). The bus was taking potholes and uneven ripples in the road at such high speeds, that the entire structure was shimmying and rattling violently with each hit. The bus would literally skip across the pavement after each bump was hit going 70+ mph. Even in downtown DC on new york avenue (which has camera-ticketing systems for speeding vehicles), the driver was going 55mph+ and racing past traffic. The shaking was so violent, that it woke me up several times (I was in a near comatose state from lack of sleep), one of which involved a piece of luggage clocking me in the forehead (it was thrown out of the overhead cabin by sheer centripetal force going into an onramp at what must have been an unsafe speed). I was surprised we were not all killed that night. I was certain we were going to flip over... I have been researching the Chinatown bus lines and have learned a lot in the process. For one thing, the bus lines (such as Apex and Today-Bus) actually outsource each trip to various coach lines (as noted in the footnote on their website, in light gray font: Each service is provided by different licensed coach operators). So, you have no reason to expect you will receive a safe driver or a bus that is in good shape. This does not excuse, however, the overselling of tickets that happened and the apparent complete disregard for those that have standing reservations to board first. I would also question the adherence of these coach lines to US DOT required safety standards... My advice is to first consider alternatives to the Chinatown bus lines. Greyhound started a low-fare bus riding service called Boltbus that actually has comparable prices, and you can be reasonably certain the bus and driver will be acceptable. A Jewish-owned low-fare bus service called Vamoose also has extremely cheap rates. If you really want to try a Chinatown bus line, be sure to visit a site like GoToBus.com or Chinatown-bus.org to compare various lines and their policies. Labels: cheap bus fares
posted by Unknown @ 3:26 PM
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