Okay, so now I’ve checked around some more, after someone asked me, “Have you tried Greyhound?” and I said, “Duh! No!”
$43 round trip, takes me to the Springfield-Franconia mall, four-tenths of a mile from the Metro station, which saves me the trouble of taking the train into Union Station and having to reverse course. Also, Amtrak is $57 plus parking. But hm, Greyhound is in one of the crappiest sections of town… parking there would be a problem. Taxis are pretty much out of the question in Richmond.
Damn.
American mass transit sucks, outside of New York, New Jersey, and Chicago.
And they wonder why Americans won’t use it.
In many places there are two bus stations. One is what used to be (?) Trailways and is often in a better part of town. Sometimes it is even listed as Trailways still.
Google on Trailways Richmund as well as Greyhound
http://www.yellowpages.com/info-LMS81072791/Abbott-Trailways
http://maps.google.com/maps?client=firefox-a&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&channel=s&hl=en&um=1&ie=UTF-8&q=Trailways&near=Richmond,+Virginia&fb=1&view=text&latlng=12192344183693443623
University of Richmo, VA 23173
(800) 343-9999‎
Abbott Trailways
21st Century Motorcoaches Av
Richmond, VA 23218
800-433-1111
If you’re talking about business hours, there’s a bus shuttle from several points in Richmond to the Fredericksburg VRE station, which gets you to verious points in NoVa and DC (Franconia/Springfield station being one.)
and if you take the bus to the mall, there’s are other buses, TAGS, FFC 401 & 322, which will get you to the metro station.
I’m trying to find an alternative method of travel that doesn’t make me switch buses/trains four or five times. A Greyhound bus trip to the Metro station involves my driving to the bus station, parking, taking the bus to Springfield/Franconia, walking half a mile to the Metro station, and then getting a train to my destination (which may take two trains). I’m not worried about walking half a mile. It’s only a few blocks. I used to walk to work in Manhattan back in the day, only taking a cab or subway when the weather sucked.
Amtrak drops me off at Union Station for $54 round trip, plus parking in one of the two Richmond stations that day. But my car will be safe.
Trailways is a tour/charter company, Sabba Hillel. I don’t think there’s a bus service besides Greyhound that will take me to the DC area. I’ll call and check, though.
Really, there is no decent mass transit in this area. But I’m looking for alternatives to driving 200 miles every Monday in a car that I bought when gas was $1.25 a gallon, and would not buy today.
It is a lot less than a half-mile from the Greyhound kiosk to the Springfield Metro station. It’s more like 300 feet.
If busses and trains are no good, then perhaps it’s time to consider an alternative to the car.
Perhaps selling the car and getting a different one (even several years used) with better mileage might be a possibility. My car is a 2002 Chevrolet Prizm (rebadged Toyota Corolla) – it gets about 40 miles per gallon highway (when I remember to keep my speed to 55).
I have some friends who commute to work by motorcycle. Mileage is great, but you run the risk of having to ride in the rain.
There’s a group in the DC area called “commuter connections” (http://www.mwcog.org/commuter2/) which tries to match up commuters with similar routes, so they may carpool together. I don’t think they’ll have many people driving from Richmond, but it might be worthwhile to check anyway.
I’ve often wished we had better mass transit in the US, but the problem is our low population density. The major urban centers are just too far apart and too numerous to connect them all with high-speed rail, and trains to smaller cities just wouldn’t get the ridership to cover the cost. Gas will have to get a LOT more expensive before we’ll attempt this.
Yeah, I’m thinking about trading in the Jeep. But I don’t want to.
Meantime, the Greyhound employee I just spoke to says that there is light, security, and it’s always busy and that parking by the terminal won’t be dangerous. A cab ride is out of the question—they’re quoting $25-30 one way.
I may give it a shot the week after next.
John, the I-95 corridor is a busy one. I bet if they put more buses between some of the cities, people would use them. There are actually quite a few people from Richmond who commute to NorVa and DC, as well as regular traffic between Petersburg (Fort Lee) and the Pentagon. I think the need is there. Hell, I’d take the bus if I can have safe parking.