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Greyhound restores route through Nevada desert

Last month, with funding from the Nevada Department of Transportation, Greyhound added a route between Reno and Salt Lake City along the I-80 corridor. Greyhound had provided service on this corridor before 2018 but discontinued it due to low ridership. At that time, Greyhound had a through-ticket arrangement with Amtrak, which offers competing service on the California Zephyr route. However, this route does not stop at all the same towns because of its different alignment from the highway. In 2022, Salt Lake Express provided service on the same corridor with a state subsidy but had disputes with Nevada’s authority overseeing motorcoach carriers.

The new connection allows bus-only trips from the Bay Area to Midwest locations like Chicago without passing through Los Angeles. The new trips are overnight both ways, departing Reno and Salt Lake City during the 8pm hour and arriving during the 7am hour in Salt Lake City and 5am hour in Reno. The eastbound California Zephyr is currently scheduled to arrive in Salt Lake City around 3am.

Stops:

Meanwhile, Greyhound added a roundtrip from Sacramento to Seattle, complementing an existing roundtrip through Flixbus. For some time, Greyhound’s owner, Flix Mobility, realigned services and replaced blue Greyhound buses in the Pacific Northwest with green Flixbus, except for trips between Seattle and Vancouver BC and contracted Travel Washington routes, which continue to operate with blue Greyhound buses.

service updates, Southern California

SoCal’s full weekend Amtrak and regional rail shutdown

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This upcoming weekend (Jan 11-12, 2025), Amtrak Surfliner will shut down completely to accommodate track construction in different counties. Additionally, Metrolink will suspend service on the Ventura County, Orange County, and Inland Empire-Orange County lines, which share tracks with Amtrak Surfliner along parts of the corridor. At the south end, Coaster service will also be suspended. Coast Starlight trains, which travel along the entire West Coast, will have service temporarily truncated at Emeryville.

No bus bridge will be provided by any agency for any segment. Although options are available on certain parts of the corridor, traveling longer distances will be difficult. Between San Diego and Los Angeles, intercity buses like Flixbus/Greyhound, or other providers are options. Along the Central Coast, Flixbus offers two trips, along with intercity buses serving LAX.

The Amtrak San Joaquins offer a connection between Northern and Southern California through the Central Valley. Buses connect with trains at Bakersfield to various parts of Southern California.

Local transit provides an alternative for shorter distances, generally within a county. Metro bus service is available at Amtrak and Metrolink stops north of Los Angeles in LA County. Metro Route 161 connects the Metro G Line’s Canoga Station with Thousand Oaks. The VCTC Hwy 101 bus runs from Thousand Oaks to Oxnard on Saturdays.

Metro Route 460 connects Downtown Los Angeles with Disneyland. Riverside Transit Agency’s Route 200 links San Bernardino, Riverside, and Disneyland. OCTA’s Route 90 runs parallel, though not adjacent, to Amtrak and Metrolink between Tustin and Capistrano Beach. NCTD’s bus route 101 also parallels Amtrak and Coaster between Oceanside and UCSD, with a transfer to the San Diego Trolley for Downtown San Diego. Weekend local transit, however, does not exist between Oceanside and Orange County.

Transit issues

Amtrak Thruway Bus is the primary intercity route to the North Coast

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Someone recently noticed in a Facebook transit group that over the summer, Greyhound discontinued service from San Francisco to Eureka. Greyhound had operated buses on this corridor for decades, and before the COVID pandemic, it ran two daily round trips: a daytime trip and an overnight trip.

COVID significantly impacted the intercity bus network throughout the US, further compounded by the sale of Greyhound to Flix Mobility without the bus terminals. Since the merger, the Greyhound network has shrunk in favor of contractor-operated Flixbus, including nearly all routes north of Sacramento.

Besides Greyhound, the state has long provided Amtrak Thruway bus service along the corridor, for many years restricted to riders connecting with Amtrak trains in Martinez, to avoid directly competing with Greyhound for passengers. Since the passage of SB742 in 2019, the San Joaquin Joint Powers Authority, which oversees the route to Eureka, wanted to allow bus-only ticketing to improve productivity and cost-effectiveness. Eventually, SJJPA convinced Greyhound to discontinue the North Coast route, which had already been reduced to a single round trip five days a week post-COVID, and not oppose SJJPA in allowing bus-only ticket sales on its Thruway buses.

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