12/07/2005
stampa
invia
For fans of Jack Kerouac and his journeys in On The Road, those giant torpedoes with the running greyhound on the side are the mythical
vehicle to use to discover the true America, the country of little towns where
people you’ve never met before ask you, “How ya’ doin?”
It used to be different. It’s not the Thirties anymore. In those days, with the highway system still
somewhat precarious and before the automotive boom, it was a treat to step up
into a Greyhound. The blue-grey coaches were shiny and new pioneers of mass transit
across the United States. As author Alex Roggero writes in La corsa del levriero, “The superb art deco stations (designed by the era’s most famous architects)
were a symbol of progress and adventure in every city, even the most isolated
ones.” Today it’s not the same. The stations are usually anonymous buildings
located in the worst neighborhoods in town. They are centrally-located, yes, but
they have become magnets for the shady and the needy. The buses are old, their
Spartan seats uncomfortable, barely reclining, and legroom is cramped. Intercity
transport in Turkey, in comparison, is luxurious and far less expensive.
No other choice. The fact is that over great distances, unless you have a car, there is often
no alternative. If you have to go from Chicago to New York (approximately 1300
kilometers), you can find a ticket on a low-cost airline for less than 100 bucks.
But if you travel between places off the beaten track, air prices rise precipitously
and often condemn flyers to long layovers. The Amtrak rail system, especially
out west, is a network mapped out 150 years ago, with four east-west lines cutting
horizontal paths across the country. The rail system is little better in the east.
For example, the bus trip from Memphis. Tennessee to Charlotte, North Carolina
takes fifteen hours to cover the approximately 1000 kilometers between the two
cities. To go by train, you have to travel south to New Orleans and change trains,
tripling the mileage covered.
On the road for days. “In the US and Canada, Greyhound takes you everywhere you want to go,” says
Curtis Edwards, smiling. Curtis is an Afro-American bus driver on the evening
shift of the Washington-Dallas route (a day and a half of travel). Not everywhere,
maybe, but almost: in the eastern US, the greyhound network reaches like capillaries
into the smallest places. The traveler just has to be patient and keep and eye
on connections, never falling asleep when it comes time to change buses. Many
people undertake exhausting journeys. “I’m waiting for my son coming back from
California,” says a fifty-year-old man sitting in his off-road vehicle in the
parking lot of the bus station in Knoxville, Tennessee. “How long has your son
been on the road?” “Four days.” The son could probably make it in less, but
many travelers prefer to break their trip along the way, because 100 hours in
a row in a bus is too much to take. I meet a young construction worker, a Greyhound
regular, who is traveling from Florida to Indiana. “What’s the longest trip you’ve
taken?” He answers, “From Bangor, Maine, to Portland, Oregon,” at opposite poles
of the northern part of the States. Five days on four wheels. “But I have no
choice. I don’t have the money to fly,” he says.
Containing Costs. The advantage of Greyhound is that the tickets get proportionally cheaper as
the distance increases. A New York-Washington ticket, four hours of travel, costs
thirty-five dollars if you buy it one day before departure. On the other hand,
A New York-Los Angeles ticket, three days on the road, costs $109, the maximum
price for distances over 4,500 kilometers. For someone who wants to make a coast-to-coast
trip but doesn’t want to drive, therefore, Greyhound can be a good bet. But one
piece of advice: bring a pillow.
stampainvia
Only the poorest use the mythical American bus line anymore
from our correspondent
Alessandro Ursic
For fans of Jack Kerouac and his journeys in On The Road, those giant torpedoes with the running greyhound on the side are the mythical
vehicle to use to discover the true America, the country of little towns where
people you’ve never met before ask you, “How ya’ doin?”But apart from a rare hippie on a coast-to-coast trip, what you find nowadays
on a Greyhound coach are America’s poor: minorities, immigrants, the unemployed,
people without the money for an airplane ticket, whose only travel option is to
endure dozens of hours, if not entire days, seated in a bus.
It used to be different. It’s not the Thirties anymore. In those days, with the highway system still
somewhat precarious and before the automotive boom, it was a treat to step up
into a Greyhound. The blue-grey coaches were shiny and new pioneers of mass transit
across the United States. As author Alex Roggero writes in La corsa del levriero, “The superb art deco stations (designed by the era’s most famous architects)
were a symbol of progress and adventure in every city, even the most isolated
ones.” Today it’s not the same. The stations are usually anonymous buildings
located in the worst neighborhoods in town. They are centrally-located, yes, but
they have become magnets for the shady and the needy. The buses are old, their
Spartan seats uncomfortable, barely reclining, and legroom is cramped. Intercity
transport in Turkey, in comparison, is luxurious and far less expensive.No other choice. The fact is that over great distances, unless you have a car, there is often
no alternative. If you have to go from Chicago to New York (approximately 1300
kilometers), you can find a ticket on a low-cost airline for less than 100 bucks.
But if you travel between places off the beaten track, air prices rise precipitously
and often condemn flyers to long layovers. The Amtrak rail system, especially
out west, is a network mapped out 150 years ago, with four east-west lines cutting
horizontal paths across the country. The rail system is little better in the east.
For example, the bus trip from Memphis. Tennessee to Charlotte, North Carolina
takes fifteen hours to cover the approximately 1000 kilometers between the two
cities. To go by train, you have to travel south to New Orleans and change trains,
tripling the mileage covered.On the road for days. “In the US and Canada, Greyhound takes you everywhere you want to go,” says
Curtis Edwards, smiling. Curtis is an Afro-American bus driver on the evening
shift of the Washington-Dallas route (a day and a half of travel). Not everywhere,
maybe, but almost: in the eastern US, the greyhound network reaches like capillaries
into the smallest places. The traveler just has to be patient and keep and eye
on connections, never falling asleep when it comes time to change buses. Many
people undertake exhausting journeys. “I’m waiting for my son coming back from
California,” says a fifty-year-old man sitting in his off-road vehicle in the
parking lot of the bus station in Knoxville, Tennessee. “How long has your son
been on the road?” “Four days.” The son could probably make it in less, but
many travelers prefer to break their trip along the way, because 100 hours in
a row in a bus is too much to take. I meet a young construction worker, a Greyhound
regular, who is traveling from Florida to Indiana. “What’s the longest trip you’ve
taken?” He answers, “From Bangor, Maine, to Portland, Oregon,” at opposite poles
of the northern part of the States. Five days on four wheels. “But I have no
choice. I don’t have the money to fly,” he says. Containing Costs. The advantage of Greyhound is that the tickets get proportionally cheaper as
the distance increases. A New York-Washington ticket, four hours of travel, costs
thirty-five dollars if you buy it one day before departure. On the other hand,
A New York-Los Angeles ticket, three days on the road, costs $109, the maximum
price for distances over 4,500 kilometers. For someone who wants to make a coast-to-coast
trip but doesn’t want to drive, therefore, Greyhound can be a good bet. But one
piece of advice: bring a pillow.
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