Should I take Greyhound for my next trip?

Curiously enough, in the state of New South Wales, Australia , 12 hours on a bus took us from the edge of farming country in Dubbo to Broken Hill in the middle of the Outback. Bus had a huge extra metal bumper in front for hitting kangaroos at night, but he had to lock up brakes and skid to miss a full-sized cow. Highly recommend taking bus or once a week train to Broken Hill if you are near Sydney.

 

yes, it has been quite a few years since we gave it a try. they didn't even have internet back then,
my biggest complaint was that there was a single person in every seat on the whole train, so my wife and i had to sit apart.

 

For us, taking the train from Virginia for a multi day event at Madison Square Garden (Westminster Dog Show) made much more sense than driving.

My wife & son drove one year because he had a dog competing and dogs are not permitted on the train.

 

Years ago I took Amtrak from Pittsburgh, Pa. to NW Indiana. The train didn't leave Pittsburgh until 11PM. I was by myself and didn't take long I fell asleep. When I work up it was morning, the sun was shining and by looking at my watch I thought I should be close to home.
Found out that there was a derailment on our route and we sat on a railroad siding all night. Dah.

 

i take the Amtrak "City of New Orleans" to New Orleans occasionally. (It stops in my town) It is pretty full, quite roomy, and very pleasant, but not particularly fast.

I last took a Greyhound bus in the late '80s but they were crowded, slow and dangerous. Have they improved?

 

I was trying to find where they did the math, and I couldn't find it.

For example with the plane, I see they're assuming a 352 mile flight of 80% occupancy. But 80% occupancy of a 747 is very different than 80% occupancy of a CRJ-800. Also the efficiency of say a CRJ is very different than a 777.

I've taken more DEN-JFK-YYZ flights than I can remember. The JFK to YYZ is usually a CRJ-900 with Delta.

Using Fuelplanner - Advanced Fuel Planner for Microsoft Flight Simulator to get the plan sheet for that flight, it shows 318 NM flight path. 4688 pounds of fuel used, with 9758 pounds of fuel onboard as reserves as required.

Those Delta flights I am on have 12/20/44 seating for a total of 76 seats. Rarely are there any seats available. For tomorrow morning's flight, there are 3 seats in G Fare left steerage is full. So 3 from the back will move up, leaving 3 seats empty in the rear most likely assuming nobody buys in the next 15 hours. So 96% occupancy.

4688 lbs of fuel over 352 miles is an average of 13.318 lbs of fuel per mile. Divided by 73 butts in seats, is 0.18244 lbs of fuel per mile per passenger. The normal units for this is metric in grams of fuel per passenger kilometer. So lets metric convert now. That's 51.42 grams of fuel per passenger per kilometer. AVgas to CO2 is estimated at 3.15 grams of CO2 per grams of fuel. So 162 grams of CO2 per passenger per kilometer.

566km * 162gCO2/pas/km = 91.7 kg CO2/pas (now in kg not g) to harmonize with the NatGeo article. They got 75.3kg CO2/passenger.

Now lets say you fly from LGA instead of JFK. United, Air Canada, and WestJet all fly larger planes on that route. A320's and 737's. About 160+ seats. The WestJet 737-800's have 0/12/156 for 168 seats as an example.

It's a couple miles longer distance, but basically the same to fly out of LGA vs JFK. It will use 6612 lbs of fuel with 13764lbs total onboard. Same 96% occupancy lets say, 6612lbs/360miles = 18.36 lbs of fuel per mile. Divided by 153 butts in seat is 0.12 lbs of fuel per mile per passenger or 33.82 grams of fuel per mile per passenger and 106.53 grams of CO2 per passenger per kilometer and 61.78 kg CO2/pas.

Again very different and now it wins except for the bus. But it is also multiples of times faster, and when was the last time a Greyhound bus had full occupancy? Those numbers seem too good to be true.

So as always, YMMV and it's complicated...

 

I've been resisting that one, glad someone snapped it up.

 

Most recent Greyhound I was on (2017 November) was completely full and actually oversold tickets. It was a near thing for me to get back to Boston and continue journey.

 

Buses are a major part of peoplemover fleet in many countries. I 'bus' a lot in China, including overnight sleeper buses. Just try not to think about fiery crashes and flying off cliffs

 

Not really flying. Gliding with a very poor glide ratio.

 

old bus drivers, or 'influenced'.

 

Uncontrolled descent.

 

Sleep deprived. I buy caffeine drinks for bus drivers as a form of travel insurance.

 

Have not seen Pulse here. Red Bull is long-haul drivers' drug of choice.

 

Also, travel time from east to west is a lot different than west to east. A good tail wind can dramatically change the calculation.

 

A round-trip flight pair I took (Beijing to Newark and back) goes close to North Pole. About 80 oN. Few or no commercial flights go closer. Point is, on any trip, they either go on 'right-hand' or 'left-hand' side, depending on winds.

Save a buck when you can.

 

Totally unintentional but the dog mentioned is a Papillon. That was the year she earned Grand Champion.