Greyhound bus: how are they now ?

[skysurfer]

In the 1980 and in 2000 I traveled thousands of km with them from Cairns to Alice Springs, Sydney to Melbourne and other routes, despite the long rides 12 hours or more per section) it was a nice experience.
Especially the night stops at the remote roadhouses and seeing a beautiful night sky, but also the passing landscape.

Well my upcoming 2018 trip to Oz I want to rent a car, but I don't want to drive thousands of km and rather ride them on a bus. Flying is another option (and possible cheaper) to get to ASP / Uluru, but does not have that experience.

I checked www.greyhoud.com.au on the schedules and they are still there with modern even wifi equipped (where do the get the signal from: satellites ?) buses, much nicer than in the years I traveled with them.

My question is: are there IIS forumers who have recent Greyhound (or other long distance bus) experience ?

[OzEclipse (Joe Cali)]

Back when you were traveling, bus was very cheap. No longer. These days around Australia, air travel is often much cheaper or the same price as bus over longer distances between major centers and much quicker.

Fly long distances, bus short distances.

Just last week I was looking at getting from Uluru to Alice to Darwin. Bus from ASP-Darwin was 22hrs and $350. Have to add the bus from Uluru to Alice Springs 500km $120 and another 6 hrs arriving at midnight and so a hotel in Alice for the night A total of about $600 including the hotel.

For $536, I booked airfares out of Uluru at 0945 arriving ASP 1030. We have a 7 hr stop over, long enough to take a hire car out to the near parts of the Macdonald ranges (Stanley Chasm, Ellery Creek and downtown Alice) we then board again at 1730 arriving in Darwin at 1915.

If you want to go from Uluru and stay in Alice Springs,
bus transfer is 6hrs $120
air transfer is 45mins and around $200

You'll need to look at each transfer and cost them. My general advice is fly the longer distances but if you enjoy the bus experience, go for it.

Joe

[Zuts]

Hi,

I had to get to melbourne from sydney for a one day meeting on short notice. The only air tickets available were around $450 into tullamarine. I would have had to fly down the night before and so would have needed a hotel for the night.

I took the train. $243 for a sleeper, includes breakfast and access to a shower. Considering a cheap hotel would be around $100 quite a bargain. If you take the day train and opt for economy it's under $50.

Similar price brisbane to sydney.

These are xpt trains which are ok but not like trains from adelaide to darwin, sydney to perth which are like mini hotels and cost $1000's.

Cheers
Paul

[Camelopardalis (Dunk)]

Similarly, check out the half a dozen Queensland Rail long distance routes at http://queenslandrailtravel.com.au it’s a little more pricey, but a comfortable way to see the scenery change.

[GrahamL]

I've done the bus thing recently hated it , actually i used to hate it years ago to , to be honest i would hire a car or fly simply for the time lag ,brisbane to byron bay near where i live took 5 hours you can drive it under 2 hours,overnighters would be better but its no longer the cheap or only way to travel like in the past.

[alan meehan (Alan)]

I would have to agree with graham we took the xpt to Brisbane which does not go to Brisbane but stops at casino then transfer to a old govement bus which we were crammed in like sardines and it took 5 hrs from casino to bris what a disgrace the government should be shot

[GrahamL]

I forgot from some arrival points there are also now small shuttle buses that go to specific destinations without all the "lets stop everywhere"" stuff greyhound and premier do ,they cost a little more though

[skysurfer]

Thanks all.

The XPT SYD-BNE is indeed temporarily suspended between Casino and BNE doe to track upgrade works.

http://www.queenslandrail.com.au/for.../trackclosures

But I saw that Casino appears to have a nice green environment and is dark as well according to DarkSky finder.

http://darksitefinder.com/maps/world.html

So taking the XPT to Casino and renting a car there (I found out) and staying in an AirBNB around can be an option.

[alan meehan (Alan)]

Sky surfer I would not call 3yrs now closed for track work the government in there wisdom stopped trains from nsw going into qld

[Camelopardalis (Dunk)]

Queensland is narrow gauge, NSW is standard gauge. Apparently there is a single standard gauge line that comes up from the south into Roma Street Station in Brisbane CBD, I have heard of it being used occasionally

[sil (Steve)]

If you can afford it the Ghan train runs darwin to adelaide via Ayers rock. Would be an awesome journey, relaxing and room to walk around on board without the stress of driving. Not a cheap way to travel if cheap is high priority. Last bus coach journey I took was taxing, seats still cramped for leg room, but at least aircon and huge windows to enjoy views.

[skysurfer]

I was watching Youtube videos on 'great railways' like the South African Rovos Rail Pretoria-Cape Town and the Australian Indian Pacific Sydney-Perth, but both are very expensive now. In 2000 I took the Ghan ASP-ADL a 20 hrs train ride, but is now also expensive.
But checking www.gsr.com.au I found out the Indian Pacific costs $2300 o/w SYD-PER off season which is too expensive for me.
But I saw a partial option: to ADL only for $800 (I assume the prices on the site are quoted in AU$, not US$ or Euros) and takes 24 hours.
That I might do in my next AU trip the next Feb and rent a car there and drive back.

Do some IIS'ers have Great Southern Railway experience ?