Is the Greyhound in Pittsburgh Safe? (Liberty: to buy, price, food)

[CHIP72]

Originally Posted by xmelax38

Thank you very much! I really appreciate it and it makes me feel better about the trip. I am traveling to Lewistown. I kind of wish there was a Amtrak around here, but there is not. I thought I could take the Bus to Pittsburgh and then the Amtrak to Lewistown, but the schedules are no where close to each other. I am trying to keep the cost down, since I am only going one state away. I live in Central Ohio. I would be taking the bus out of Columbus. A plane ticket to travel to the next state is just way too much for the distance. I am afraid of flying anyway, ha ha.

Lewistown is probably closer to 3 hours from Pittsburgh when driving directly via US 22, and the bus trip appears to be about 5 hours because it stops in a number of different small cities and towns along the way.

P.S. It appears the Amtrak Pennsylvanian train leaves Pittsburgh at 7:30 AM and arrives in Lewistown at 11:21 AM daily.

http://www.amtrak.com/ccurl/638/841/...ule-071513.pdf

I think the Greyhound station is in the middle of Lewistown, while the Amtrak station is a mile or so south of the center of Lewistown.

For whatever it is worth, it is much, much more convenient to use the restroom on an Amtrak train than it is on any intercity bus (Greyhound or another carrier).

[CHIP72]

Originally Posted by xmelax38

Oh oops! I was supposed to go to Lewistown, but it seems the cheaper schedule now is Altoona. The bus still stops in Pittsburgh during the night same time period. I am going to visit some old friends that I have not seen in a very long time. They are going to pick me up from one of the bus stops. The closest to where they live are Lewistown, State College and Altoona. I guess there are no more bus stops other than those in that area.

Where do your friends live? If they live near Huntingdon (which is about the same distance from Altoona, State College, and Lewistown), the Amtrak Pennsylvanian does stop in Huntingdon (in addition to Altoona, Tyrone, and Lewistown).

In Pittsburgh, I'm pretty sure the Amtrak station (which uses a portion of the old Pittsburgh Penn Station) and the Greyhound bus station are across the street from one another.

[xmelax38]

They live real close to Shade Gap. I think somewhere outside of Shade Gap. I've been to that area by Car but it was 18 years ago. I am sure Huntingdon is closer. I will have to re-examine my trip and see what is better/shorter/easier.

[CHIP72]

Shade Gap is definitely closer to Huntingdon than any of the other places listed above. Lewistown is definitely the second-closest. Altoona and especially State College are not particularly close to Shade Gap (though at least in Altoona's case, it would be in the direction of where you're traveling from/traveling to).

I would do some comparison pricing on Greyhound and Amtrak using the following parameters:

Greyhound: Columbus/Pittsburgh + Amtrak: Pittsburgh/Huntingdon (or Pittsburgh/Lewistown) (with the transfer in Pittsburgh)

Vs.

Greyhound: Columbus/Lewistown (with the layover in Pittsburgh)

Greyhound does offer round-trip discounts while Amtrak does not (i.e. on Amtrak there is no cost savings for booking a round-trip ticket vs. booking two one-way tickets that compose a round-trip). Also, both Amtrak and Greyhound have airline-style pricing (i.e. prices are cheaper the further in advance you book), though Amtrak fluctuates its prices to much greater degree than Greyhound. Finally, depending on your schedule and budget, it may make sense to travel one way by Greyhound/Amtrak and the other way by Greyhound entirely.

One other note - Amtrak operates between Pittsburgh and Huntingdon/Lewistown on Norfolk Southern's primary east-west line. (Norfolk Southern is one of the two large freight railroads in the eastern U.S.) It is possible your train may be delayed due to NS trains. On a related note, it is more likely you'll encounter delays on Amtrak (or at least that portion of the Amtrak system) than you will on Greyhound. Conversely, as I noted above, it is considerably more comfortable riding on Amtrak (which has bigger and generally more comfortable seats with a lot more leg room, comparable to airlines' first class seats) than on Greyhound (which has narrower seats and less leg room more similar to airlines' regular coach seats).

P.S. Did you happen to go to Juniata College? Your timeline and location parameters make me think you did. (I graduated from Juniata and coincidentally happen to be the same age as you.)

[xmelax38]

No, I am just from Ohio and I lived in Indiana for awhile but I moved back to Ohio. My friends are originally from PA, but lived here for a short time and we all moved at the same time to Indiana and then they moved away, back to PA. We recently caught back up. They were like family to me for quite some time. I have traveled to PA maybe about 3 or 4 times, but like I said it was over 18 years ago. I was younger and move confident about driving alone...or rather, had no thoughts about anything happening. Except when I went there one time I had a wreck in a rental car. It was the other persons fault. I had to get my parents to come pick me up from there. They were not all too happy, even if I was an adult and not living with them. I think I will never forget that. We ran across the photos of the car and it actually looked worse than I remember (could be the towing co did more damage to it).

[xmelax38]

p.s. thanks for the information/suggestions. I will look into that today.

[Herodotus]

Originally Posted by CHIP72

Incidentally, the Greyhound station in Pittsburgh is pretty new and relatively large; I think they moved a few years ago from being co-located with the Amtrak station to across the street into its own building (or ground floor of a building).

The Greyhound station was never in the building with Amtrak. The old Greyhound station was located on the same spot as the new one. They temporarily moved down by the jail while the old one was razed, and the replacement built.

[xmelax38]

I have to quit reading stuff on the internet (not this thread - just other pages on the net) there is stuff out there that just scares the crap out of me. From Drunk Bus Drivers to something nauseating/scary that happened in Canada, to Buses going off the road and crashing and buses going into a river, etc. I know that there are just as many car accidents, but I hope that a bus is safer than taking a car - I guess there is no safe transportation. I think the older I get the more scared/paranoid I get.

[pman]

it appears theres a red eye out of columbus departing 110 am arriving 435 am which could connect to the amtrak train at 730 am.

[Debbie1125]

I like the advice to bring something to eat. The Greyhound station has vending machines but it's all snack food. I am really surprised that the 7-11 doesn't stay open 24 hours. There really isn't anywhere close where you can grab a bite near Greyhound, Amtrak or the Megabus stops.