Megabus ride from hell
John Pouliot boarded a Megabus for New York at South Station early this morning. Through a series of tweets, he chronicled the driver's rather unusual approach to New York - via I-93 north towards New Hampshire (a route that caused one rider to call the police). His last tweet ends just as the bus finally approaches Connecticut; we can only hope he finally made it to New York and is not lying at the bottom of a river somewhere or trapped on a remote mountaintop road in West Virginia. Uh, oh: Kristen Salerno was also on the bus, and her last tweet was shortly after 3 a.m.
12:58. Megabus started shaking, then turned off I-90 in Newton and is officially lost. Passengers Pissed #LordoftheFlies #needtheconch
1:02. Vocal passengers used 1st Amendment right to be huge bitches,complained so much bus was "too bumpy" that we are turning around
1:10. On Lost/Broken @Megabus on Comm Ave and Harvard Ave, any BU students at Joshua Tree down for a real party bus?
1:34. @NYC bound @Megabus OFF I-90 at Newton, back to Bay Village, westbound on the Pike, then U-Turn to Boston #drivingincircles #oflife
1:39. Missed exit to get to South Station on I-93North, passengers pissed and showing it. Bus driver very literally lost. On the Zakim. #refund
1:49. Passengers yelling at each other/driver we are near Stoneham N on 93 supposed to be NYCbound @Megabus needs to be accountable
1:52. And on the lost-Megabus chaos...a white kid with a boom box starts blasting "Things are Gonna get Better" - and we all stop bickering.
1:56. The screaming ebbs, an old man with a cane slowly steps up to the driver..."You tell me..." he says "Why the FUCK are we in Woburn?"
2:13. Cops. Passengers called the cops. Escort to Woburn and now some self-congratulatory snide remarks from 1st amendment users. #notcauseImwhite
2:43. Tried to defend @KristenSalerno against @megabus passenger with a valiant "Yo! Shut the Fuck Up!" to no avail...forced to pass out cookies.
2:46. Passed out cookies from backpack. Public opinion on lost @megabus turns towards good. Driver just feels really, really bad. Cookies are M&M.
3:00. 3am and the @Megabus is returning to South Station. Tension lingers like a putrid smoke. Maybe it's Annoying Passenger's bacon-burger&fries
3:09. South Station. "I missed my flight" she says, resigned. A cold fluorescent glow embraces her, shoulders slumped. She departs our number.
3:36. The hum of our engine slows. We cautiously edge through the tolls...I-84 awaits, and through the vaunted spires of Pine...Connecticut. Fuck!
Comments
Somehow I knew this bus was lost
I saw it driving down Washington Street in Brighton around 1 a.m.
MEGABUS COMPLAINTS
If you were on this bus you should email the company and complain. My boyfriend is a Megabus driver (this IS NOT his route however). You don't realize it, but this is one of the toughest jobs I know of.
The problem is two fold - 1) out of state drivers and 2) inexperienced and untrained drivers. The company has only three drivers who are based in Boston - the rest of them are based in Connecticut. This is the first part of the problem - the Connecticut drivers don't know Boston or Boston traffic patterns. They drive from the depot in Bridgeport to either Boston or New York (Boston drivers come in from their depot in Randolph). They then drive what is expected to be a 4.5 hour trip. They then wait anywhere from 1-3 hours then turn around and drive in the other direction. The traffic in Boston and New York and especially through Connecticut can be hell. In the cities it's tight corners, rude, pushy cab drivers, and stupid people. Federal law only allows them to drive for 10 hours per day, so often times they literally have to pull off the road (even with a bus full of passengers) and wait for a relief driver (they try to anticipate when they need relief so there is not too much wait, but it happens).
The second problem is the lack of training - when my boyfriend started (he is one of only two of the original crew of drivers, hired when the company came to the US in 2008) he had two weeks of training - one week of driving back and forth to New York so they could learn the roads. That is not the case anymore, they cannot keep drivers because of the pressure and the working conditions, so they now use whoever they can get to do the route. It drives him crazy when he stories like this one because it reflects badly on the whole company. At least the bus driver expressed how sorry he was - it's too bad for all those passengers though.
My boyfriend leaves his house 2 hours before his route is scheduled - drives to Randolph, picks up his bus - goes up the southeast expressway to South Station - then drives to NY - he has a pretty good early arrival rate - because he has learned the best routes - usually waits about 2 hours - then reloads the bus and heads back - this can take 4 hours or this can take as long as 6 hours or more depending upon whe weather and the day of the week. (Fridays are his longest day). Then he drives the bus back to Randolph and can finally head home. About a week ago he came within 15 minutes of maxing out his hours - a less experienced driver would have needed a relief driver. If you or someone you know needs a job and could handle this kind of pressure - tell them to get their CDL and then call Megabus - they always need drivers. (Oh yeah, the pay is OK - but you are never going to be rich as a bus driver).
BTW - if you are going to NY - take the 8 AM route - then call Megabus and tell them how great your driver was - and show your appreciation by tipping your driver - you got a cheap ride - if you tip a waitress or a cab driver for good service, do the same for your bus driver.
Sorry
I'm just never going to take Megabus again, so your "helpful tipping advice" won't be needed. I'm sure the drivers mostly work hard, but maybe they should organize and demand working commercial GPS or something? I'm sure as hell not going to put up with horrendous service and nasty incompetent employees and a corporate organization that can't be bothered to actually warn you the bus is late when you signed up for alerts.
In the meantime, I think it would be far more effective to contact your congress critter. "Customer Service" at Megasuck is a black hole of stupidity, just like the rest of the disorganized mess. If customer complaints meant anything, they wouldn't suck so hard, so bad, and so very often.
It's still ridiculous
Finding your way from Boston to NYC by road is extremely easy, even if you do get stuck in traffic. Just follow signs. A basic knowledge of the important interstate highways in the region is fundamental to any driver, e.g. 84, 90, 93, 95. And many of the signs even say "To New York" even though it is 200 miles away. Not to mention that bus drivers, particularly Megabus, are required to know their routes because they must be concerned with overhead clearance.
I can understand being confused upon arrival in NYC, but the trip there? Is it that hard to follow signs to 95? I wouldn't use 95 personally, but for easy trips, it's right there.
Agree. I was on an epic
Agree. I was on an epic megabus ride where the driver got off 95 before New Haven and got lost on back roads through rural CT. We ended up driving all the way through CT on rural routes and through Rhode Island even though we passed over 95, 91, and 84 several times during our journey. There was no traffic and no alerts to speak of.
Journey took over 7 hours and the driver didn't stop once or explain what was going on. I complained to Megabus, no response. They don't care. I've had better and prompter service with Lucky Star. The only perk to Bolt and Mega (besides the seats) is the internet access which never works anyway.
Driving through manhattan
Does anyone know why the buses all drive into Harlem and through the entire city? I've taken this trip 5-10 times and there was only one time when the driver went a different way, which cuts the ride by 45 minutes at least. It has to be much faster to take the west side highway.
Tell you BF to never, ever
Tell you BF to never, ever drive trucks. If you think that job is bad, you can't imagine what driving trucks over the road is like. The route can change every run, and it's up to you to know how to get there - on time.
Why would someone leave
Why would someone leave Boston at midnight to catch a flight in less than 2 hours - that's just being stupid.
Huh?
Where does it say that her flight was in less than two hours? Much more likely that she left Boston at midnight to catch a flight in 6 or 7 hours, and when she found herself back at South Station at 3 AM she knew she had no chance in hell.
After All the "Fung Wah is Teh Evile" Press
Why isn't the Glob going on a rampage against MegaSuck?
Oh, I guess they aren't run by Chinese upstarts riling the Running Dog and Flying Fairy, who have friends at the Glob?
We don't always see eye to
We don't always see eye to eye, but this comments wins. I just can't stop laughing every time I read Running Dog and Flying Fairy.
Note to self, when leaving
Note to self, when leaving for New York to catch a flight there next week, do not take Megabus...
All that press about how dangerous the Chinatown buses are and how everybody I know always like to joke about talking a "Fung Wah Adventure," at least they know how to get there (and usually pretty fast too).
Megabus 5
Fung-Wah 0
I don't get it.
I don't get it.
Happened to me, over a decade ago
While still living the dorm life, I took Peter Pan Bus Lines to NYC (with home being North Jersey). My father was going to meet me at the Port Authority after he got out of work.
To shorten the story, the driver got lost in NYC and asked for directions. Ask one New Yorker how to get somewhere, you'll get several options. Ask a bus partially filled with New Yorkers, you'll get pandemonium.
Then, it broke down on the West Side..in the 80's. A decent, though boring neighborhood at the time. Anyway, she refused to let passengers off the bus in case anything should happen to us. Funny thing was, some passengers were closer to their destination there, and would have benefited from the circumstances. I used my persuasive powers, after a good while,(whatever happened to them since those days, I don't know..) and convinced her to let me use a payphone.. played the "kid who needs to call dad" card.. and got picked up there. Don't know what happened to everyone else.
Since then, I've always driven, being fortunate enough to have a car. And my story isn't even that bad!
Never had any problem with
Never had any problem with Megabus. Did have a greyhound bus who didnt know how to get to the south station terminal (he followed the signs for south station and ended up outside the main entrance, not at the bus terminal). Fortunately some old ladies who frequently took the bus knew where the bus ramp was.
I am a megabus driver and
I am a megabus driver and bostob to nyc is done by 2 companys dattco and coach usa. Dattco drivers are the original drivers and the lowest in driving experiance ro nyc is 2 years driving the run. I am the most experiance and have logged over 280,000 miles driving the run,
Coach usa drivers are from new jersey and most barely speak english and only are show one way to get to boston from down there and are shown it twice.they are always taking wrong turns and getting lost.Their lack of experiance makes the rest of us look bad. If you want to get there safe and in good time take the 8am 9am 11am or 2pm to nyc these runs are done by dattco drivers and have all the experiance and if you had a good ride it is always nice to tip your driver as you would anyone else and drop a email saying how your ride was because people will write in a sec if they had a bad ride but never comment when it is a good one
I want to give positive
I want to give positive feedback on a Megabus driver from New Jersey (COACH USA), but I want to be sure I'm giving positive feedback on the right guy, how would I go about finding out his last name because his first name is pretty common?
You get what you pay for
You get what you pay for riding these bottom feeder bus lines. Since when do you tip a driver for a good ride? That's his job
Tips?
Quit trying to get yourself extra cash, you and your girlfriend both. And maybe most of the drivers are from Jersey and barely speak English, and *maybe* YOU can speak it, but you can barely write it.