Posted by Seth on September 4, 2009 under Trip Reports | 
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| A quick stop for breakfast in Seoul |
The routing I took to get to the Philippines offered me either a 3 hour or a 16 hour layover in Seoul, Korea. Given the opportunity to add another country to my list and to wander around town for a few hours, how could I possibly say no? I couldn’t. And even though it meant a 4am arrival at the airport in Korea and waiting around a bit for things to open up and get started early on a Sunday morning I definitely got to experience a bit of Korean hospitality, transportation, food and drink.
The 4am arrival into Incheon airport caused a few problems right from the get-go. The lounge was open so I got to take a quick shower but other than that there was nothing. Even the food options available in the lounge that early pretty much sucked. On the plus side there was plenty of Hite beer available so I had one of those to start off the day and then headed out to see the city. Sortof. I had to wait about 45 minutes for the left luggage facility to open up so I could leave a bag there. I probably could have just left it in the club but with a laptop and other things inside that didn’t seem like a good idea. There are free lockers airside at Incheon – just ask for a key at the information desk near the base of the two spokes in the terminal – but those weren’t open until even later in the day. Instead I sprung for the $5 fee, dropped off my bag and headed into town.
Most folks heading into Seoul from the airport take the bus. There are a few companies offering airport limousine bus service that seems pretty nice. There are some traffic implications to consider with the bus (though not much at 6am on a Sunday) and they offer direct service to many different hotels around town. Since I wasn’t headed to a hotel and since i had no bags I opted for a different trip. I took the train in. Taking the train means riding on a dedicated link from Incheon to Gimpo (the other airport in town, similar to Narita and Handea in Tokyo) and then switching there to the local subway system. The total transit time was just over an hour which is about as good as the buses can do at their best, and the train is much more consistent, but it depends on not needing to be at a particular hotel to really work out well. It also meant that I got another mass transit card for my collection. That is quickly becoming one of my favorite souvenirs to bring home from my travels.
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| A shopper and fishmonger surveying the day’s offerings |
Just after 7:30am I finally made it to the first stop on my tour schedule: Noryangjin Fish Market. The fish market is Seoul’s largest and even on a Sunday morning there was plenty of activity. Not so much with the wholesalers working (at least not that I saw) and even some of the retail folks took the day off, but there was plenty going on inside. The biggest disappointment for me was that all of the restaurants around the market appeared to be closed; that definitely put a crimp in my dining plans for the day. Still, wandering amongst the stalls and seeing the vast spread of fish available is always a fun time. It didn’t seem quite as vast as the Tsukiji market in Tokyo, but it was close and still plenty fun.
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| The romance of train travel |
Following the time in the market I still wanted to wander around town a bit but I was thwarted by a bit of rain. Rather that deal with that I chose to hop on the train – the KTX Bullet Train – and go for a little ride. The trains are reasonably cheap and phenomenally fast. I paid ~$30 for a return ticket with one way in first class and the other in coach for a ride of about an hour each way. That hour had me over 200 kilometers away from Seoul and our top speed was just over 300km/h. The first class car was much nicer and quieter than the coach one and the whole train had WiFi (but I didn’t have a laptop to try it out). The ride was fast and quiet. I truly wish that the United States could figure out how to implement something similar, even if only in limited geographic areas. I know that it will not likely happen in my lifetime, but I can dream.
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| Some of the traditional hanok buildings |
A couple hours after leaving on the train I was back in Seoul and the rain had cleared up, leaving me with no excuses not to wander about a bit more. And wander I did. I was fortunate to have come across a guide that Hanok Girl has put together for some walking tours of the Gahoi-dong neighborhood in central Seoul. The neighborhood includes several old homes and guest houses – a traditional Bukchon hanok village – many of which are now owned by the government and which have been restored to their former glory. The juxtaposition of the old and new adjacent to each other right in the heart of the city, with the old being preserved as a reminder of years gone by, is quite impressive. And the walking tours that Hanok Girl provides are great. I did tour #2 and it was pretty much exactly as the website said it would be.
At that point I was pretty much exhausted so it was back to the airport to collect my bags and head off for the flight to Manila. There are plenty of things I didn’t get to see in Seoul so I’ll have to go back at some point, but for a quick introduction I think I did pretty well. And I’m intrigued enough to want to go back which is a good thing.
Posted by Seth on August 25, 2009 under Uncategorized |
Forgetting for a minute that travel today was dictated by work (only the second time this year!) and that I was actually busy the entire day, it really was a great day to be out and about. Today’s trip was a quick one – a day trip from New York City to Washington, DC – but it was also two great travel experiences wrapped around a relatively normal work day.
The day started on the train out to JFK and a quick(-ish) flight down to Washington. Yeah, I flew out of JFK. LaGuardia has the shuttle flights, and I intended to fly US Airways to extend the expiration date on my miles there, but I put off booking the flights and by the time I got around to actually doing it the appropriately timed flights from LaGuardia were way too expensive. So I booked out of JFK instead. I was somewhat hoping to fly on American Airlines and catch a new airplane type, the ERJ-135 or –140, but again the fares were too expensive. So I booked on Delta and a CRJ-900 and accepted the relatively crappy seat 16-A that I was able to get during the booking and check-in process (one in the same since I was within 24 hours of the flight time).
The plane turned out to be pretty much empty – I think only one of the pairs of seats had two people in it – so I was able to self upgrade to the exit row seat 13-D. The seat is pretty much the same as the first class seats on that flight in terms of legroom, and I don’t really need the extra width, so as far as I’m concerned I got the good seat on the cheap. The in-flight “service” was questionable – the thought that a 40 minute flight is too short for beverage service is rather laughable considering that from LaGuardia I can have two drinks in that time and that half the plane was asleep – but I was (eventually) able to get a cup of water to enjoy with the yogurt that I liberated from the SkyClub at JFK so it wasn’t all bad, just mostly. But I was flying, and that makes up for a myriad of sins.
The flight was a first for me: my first JFK-DCA segment. Sure, it isn’t particularly exotic like the random flights to Korea and back that I’ll get next week, but it is still a new line of my version of a map of the world and that is always a good thing. Plus it meant getting to watch the climb-out from JFK which is one of my favorites.
And then, about 40 minutes later, I was on the ground at Washington National Airport. Another 20 minutes on the Metro and I was in the office putting out fires and smacking vendors around which is always a good time. Eight hours later and I was headed out of the office and over to Union Station to catch a train back up to NYC. Always a train in the evening. The actual time in transit when using public transportation to and from the stations is the same and the train back to NYC is WAY more reliable in terms of timing. Plus it means a few hours of open bar when sitting up front rather than racing to down two beers on the Shuttle flights. And I’ve done my best to ensure that I drink my fill. It is a bit annoying that the Amtrak lounges have no booze available – even if I wanted to pay for it – but such is life. The fact that the attendant just offered me a double so I’d stop asking for refills is a win in my book.
At the end of the day (which is rapidly approaching, as the sky grows dark outside the train windows) I’m reasonably convinced that pretty much everything went right today. I was out traveling, I wasn’t particularly delayed at either end of my trip and my total travel time round trip was about as good as it could be. Oh, and I had plenty of vodka on the ride home. All in all, a good day. These are the type of business travel days that I remember fondly when I think back to my days as a road warrior travel guy.
Posted by Seth on August 10, 2009 under Uncategorized |
Amtrak’s Guest Rewards program is sortof a “Little Engine that Could” in the loyalty marketplace. They certainly don’t need to have a program – most of their customers are not folks who have a choice in their train travel needs – but it is nice of them to offer it and it certainly helps them compete in the NE Corridor area from Washington, DC to Boston, the area where they are the closest to profitable. I actually was involved in a focus group many years ago to help them define and improve the program (some of the benefits discussed even made it into production!) so I have a special place in my heart for AGR.
It also happens to be a program with some very useful rewards to be had. Earning points is pretty straightforward and the redemption rates on train travel are pretty decent, other than the Acela trips. And they do run their fair share of promotions throughout the year, but the one I received notice of today was particularly intriguing. They are about to sign up their 2,000,000th member into the AGR program. And to celebrate they are giving away 2,000,000 points. Rather than a contest or a lottery or some other means, they are just giving them to all their members who ride a train next week. Every AGR member who rides a train on Thursday, August 20th will simply split the 2,000,000 points equally. Obviously that is a bad deal if everyone rides the train that day – one measly bonus point – but I think that the odds are significantly against such a likelihood. Amtrak only sees about 28MM riders annually – about 80,000 daily – and there is no way they are all members of AGR.
I don’t know just how many points each AGR member riding next week will earn on this promo, but I am strongly considering finding a cheap train out of NY Penn for a quick ride in the morning, just to find out. Registration is required in advance of the ride.
Posted by Seth on July 6, 2009 under Uncategorized |
One thing that Europe doesn’t struggle with is castles to tour. From the heart of Prague to the chateaux in France to the ridiculous number of fortified structures in the Irish countryside, there seems to always be a castle available when you’re looking for something historical to see. Denmark is no different with well preserved castles all over the country. There are a few right in and around Copenhagen that make for great visits when in the area. One of these is Kronborg Castle at Helsingør, home of the King, Queen and – in Shakespeare’s mind – Hamlet.
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| The courtyard of Kronborg Castle |
Hamlet does not really exist in history so claiming that the castle is his home is rather off. But there definitely is a royal castle there and it setting works quite well for telling the tale. Plus, it makes for good business with drawing tourists to the site. The Danes have readily adopted Hamlet into their lore and are happy to tell his tale in Helsingør as long as you’re willing to show up.
Helsingør is about 40 kilometers north of Copenhagen, an easy ride of about 55 minutes on the train from one city center to the other. The castle Kronborg is just a short walk outside of downtown Helsingør and is easily accessible to take a tour or simply to wander around the grounds and bask in the glow of royalty. In fact, large parts of the castle grounds do not have any access controls or admission charges. There were a large number of folks simply taking advantage of the well groomed lawns as a site for their picnics and other summer fun. Certainly it is possible to get a good feel for the castle this way, but to truly experience it takes buying in for at least one of the three tours that they offer.
Of the three tours offered the most enjoyable and focused on the history of the castle is that of the Royal Apartments. As it would seem, the tour covers the residential areas of the castle including the royal chambers, guest facilities and the great hall that is still used even today for some royal events. It is also available to rent if you’re throwing a party, though I have no idea just how ridiculous the rates are. There are occasional guided tours of the Royal Apartments and we were fortunate enough to stumble onto one. Having explanations of the history certainly was better than simply walking through the rooms and seeing old furniture and whatnot.
There are plenty of placards around if a guided tour doesn’t seem to be in the cards, but the guided tour is definitely recommended. Taking the guided tour exposes you to such details as the fact that King Christian IV had “seven children by his first wife, eleven by his second wife and five on the loose.” So maybe half the fun of the guided tour is the translations but it was still rather useful information about the history of the castle.
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| A close-up of one of the tapestries. The level of detail is truly amazing. |
The highlight for me of the Royal Apartments tour was the tapestries. They are incredibly detailed and ridiculously large. Some took four years to produce while others were made with threads of silk, silver and gold (that one is rather smaller). The fact that 500 years later they still show much of the same vibrancy and color is truly impressive.
Another impressive bit from the Royal Apartments was the globes they had on display. There are a couple that are about 500 years old and are not completely accurate but certainly give a great insight into how the sailors of that era navigated. Even with the less that perfect maps they seemed to do a pretty good job.
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| One of the 500 year old globes that they had on display. Truly amazing! |
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| Looking down on the courtyard from the tower in the Maritime Museum. |
Looking out through one of the leaded glass windows in the tower stairs. |
In addition to the Royal Apartments there are two other sections of the castle that require a paid admission. One is the maritime museum. There is a bit of older history there but most of that museum seems to be a display of random models of ships. They are pretty neat but not all that compelling, particularly as many of them are from the modern shipping era. But the Maritime Museum tour does include access to one of the towers of Kronborg. I’m actually convinced that the only reason to pay for admission to the Maritime Museum is to gain access to that tower – the views from up top are pretty amazing. That, or you’re a big fan of Maersk and their history as a shipping company.
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| The statue of Holger, the basis of the Casements tour. |
The other – and most strange – tour available at the castle is of the Casements. The Casements are essentially the damp, dank, dark basement of the castle. The folks running the show have purposefully kept the casements dark. As in black-out level. I actually used the flash on my camera to light up various areas along the way or I don’t think I would have been able to make it through. Of course they are happy to sell you a flashlight/torch as you enter the basement but it is very, very dark without a light. More than just dark, it is really rather strange. The entire area is set up as a tribute to the legend of Holger the Dane. The walls contain messages written in silver paint that tell the story of Holger, a great defender of Danish life and tradition. Still, without a light it is almost impossible to figure out what the hell is going on or otherwise enjoy the exhibit. Even with a light it still seems a rather strange way to experience the Casements, an area that has housed hundreds of soldiers at various times throughout history.
Beyond the Kronborg Castle there is really little else to recommend Helsingør. There is the church and a few other shops. And there is their single largest industry – selling booze to Swedes who come across to save money on the taxes. But otherwise Helsingør is pretty much just the town that holds Kronborg. Not a bad thing by any stretch, but don’t plan on seeing a lot of other things during the visit unless you head over to Sweden, too.
Note: This post is showing up a couple days later than it actually happened because I’m off in the middle of nowhere enjoying the fjords but didn’t want to leave the blog empty all week.
Posted by Seth on April 21, 2009 under Uncategorized |
The dream of high-speed rail transit in the USA has been unrealized for years. Even with the Acela service in the north-east there just isn’t anything comparable to a true high-speed service available. And that is truly unfortunate as there are regions that could benefit from such service. It almost certainly would not work nation-wide – the United States is just too large – but there are areas where it could make sense. It looks like the US government is going to tease us a bit more on this front with the latest version of the economic stimulus bill that has been proposed. It includes $5 billion for infrastructure development and maybe $8 billion more of additional rail developments.
So why am I calling it a tease? Well…
First up, there are ten different routes/regions being defined:
- A California line from the San Francisco Bay Area south to San Diego via Sacramento and Los Angeles.
- A corridor linking Eugene and Portland, Ore., with Tacoma, Seattle and Vancouver.
- A South Central network linking Tulsa, Oklahoma City, Dallas/Ft. Worth, Austin, San Antonio and Little Rock.
- A Gulf Coast line from Houston to Atlanta via New Orleans, Mobile and Birmingham.
- A Midwest network based at Chicago with high-speed lines to Milwaukee, Minneapolis, St. Louis, Kansas City, Detroit, Toledo, Cleveland, Columbus, Cincinnati, Indianapolis and Louisville.
- Florida Corridor service linking Orlando, Tampa and Miami.
- A Southeast Corridor from Washington D.C. to Richmond, Raleigh, Charlotte, Columbia, Atlanta, Macon, Savannah and Jacksonville.
- A Pennsylvania line from Philadelphia to Pittsburgh via Harrisburg.
- New York State high-speed rail connecting New York City to Albany and Buffalo.
- A New England project linking Boston, Montreal, Portland, Springfield, New Haven and Albany.
Of these ten, only a couple rally seem viable to me. I think that the California line, the Chicago hub and maybe the New England and South Florida lines could work. The others are pipe dreams at best. But if you want to actually get funding for a project in the US government you have to include spending in states where it will not actually work, just to secure the money for the places that actually have a chance to succeed. That’s why Amtrak is still operating in forty-something states.
And, for reasons that are beyond comprehension to me, the most likely viable corridor for success is missing. There is nothing listed there for the Boston – New York City – Washington, DC corridor. Sure, there is already Acela on that route, but that can hardly be considered high-speed rail. It operates on shared track with the rest of the train traffic in the region meaning that it runs at the slow speeds in areas where commuter rail is operating. That is an impossible solution for true high-speed rail. If they are thinking that Acela is successful enough that we don’t need to improve it then the rest of the projects are doomed to failure as the benchmark is being set way too low.
Finally, the money involved in the proposals – $13 billion – really isn’t enough to make anything happen. Yeah, it is a big number. There are a whole lot of zeros involved. But capital infrastructure projects are ridiculously expensive, especially for something like high speed rail. The most recent major project to be near completion is the Beijing – Shanghai line in China. It is ~1,400 kilometers (~870 miles) of track and the capital cost is about the same as what has been proposed in the United States for a vastly greater scoped project. The island nation of Taiwan invested more in their high-speed network to cover an area smaller than Maryland and Delaware combined. Just acquiring right-of-ways to build track is going to be obscenely expensive in the USA.
I love the idea of investing in infrastructure, especially in mass transit infrastructure. But if we’re going to do it we should actually invest enough money to accomplish something and focus the efforts in a place where it can succeed. But the United States government doesn’t do that sort of thing, so I guess we’re stuck with what we’ve got.
Posted by Seth on January 31, 2009 under Uncategorized |
And I’m not talking about the light chop that our plane has been experiencing for the first two hours of the flight down to Trinidad. Don’t get me wrong – things could have been worse and at the end of the day I’ll be in the Caribbean. But this trip feels a bit like rolling over a rumble strip in a car with no shocks at this point.
I left packing until the last minute this morning and that wasn’t particularly fun. I am good at packing and have a system pretty well established, but getting ready to go in 20 minutes isn’t my forté and I paid the price. I made it all the way to the bagel shop before realizing that I forgot my passport at home. I had just enough time to run back and grab it without missing my train, but it was close.
Then, once I was on the train, I realized that I forgot to pack my books. I actually went out to a great book store in NYC – Idlewild, you should go there – to get a book for the trip. They are a travel book store on 19th Street between 5th and 6th Avenues with an interesting twist. They arrange their books by region but have fiction, non-fiction and guides all mixed together. So in the Trinidad & Tobago section they had some novel written by a native Trinidadian (and a Nobel winner for Literature) amongst everything else. I found one of his books that looked pretty good and picked it up for the trip. And it is sitting on the chair in the living room at home now because I forgot it.
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| Looking down on Newark airport and the fleet of ERJs, plus the El Al jumbo |
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| Ahhh….New Jersey |
The train trip to the airport was actually pretty good. The train was on time and the conductor didn’t bother to collect my ticket so I got a freebie out of the deal. And I picked up another book at the airport book store at the recommendation of a friend (thanks, Mike) that has been pretty good through the first 100 pages so it isn’t a complete loss.
I’ve also managed to empty the catering cart in first class of their rum supply (apparently they only stock 3) though the flight attendant had no troubles dipping in to the coach supply. For those who know me as a vodka drinker I still am, but when going to the Caribbean I feel compelled to play along and go with the local stuff, and that means rum. The “steak” that I ordered for dinner turned out to be a pork loin of some sort, which was an interesting surprise, but it wasn’t too bad and the shellfish appetizer was delicious, so no complaints from me on that front.
And the flight really has been pretty bumpy. We’ve had about 10 minutes of smooth air in the first two hours. Things seem to have finally smoothed out now and I’m hoping that they remain this way for the rest of the flight. After all, I wouldn’t want to spill the little bit of rum they still have available on the plane.
We’re due in to Port of Spain in about two hours and then I have my quick hop up to Tobago to see what the smaller island has to offer. My seatmate has had great things to say so far (though she, too, disbelieves that I’m doing all this for 36 hours on the islands) and a couple decent recommendations. She was also rather impressed that I managed to fly to the islands for $265 round trip in first class both ways. Life is good as a frequent flier.
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| Sunset, somewhere over the Atlantic |
I’m through immigration and customs now in under 10 minutes, despite the fear that the flight attendants instilled in me. I’m checked in for my onward flight to Tobago and will now enjoy the free wireless in the airport for the next hour until my flight departs. I’m truly looking forward to the next couple days.
Posted by Seth on January 9, 2009 under TSA |
I’m just now getting back connected after my jetlag study trip (more on that to come over the weekend) and finally catching up on a few things. It seems that there have been some developments in the “security” space this past week that deserve a bit of attention.
First up is a story out of NYC where a photographer was arrested at Penn Station for taking photographs and refusing to delete them when an Amtrak officer illegally requested that they do so. I’m not in a position to evaluate whether the guy was trespassing or not, as there are some rules about being on the platforms, I believe, but either way the suggestion that the photographer must delete the photos or that someone taking photos today rather than just looking at the photos that have been taken over the rail beds during the past 90+ years that the tracks have been there must be a terrorist is outright ridiculous. I’ve been harassed taking photos at one of the Federal buildings downstairs though wholly within my rights. It certainly is frustrating that guards and officers continue to enforce rules that don’t actually exist and cite “security” as the basis when they are not providing anything of the sort.
The other story comes out of our good friends at the TSA, the department of the federal government most devoted to destroying any actual rights Americans have. Lacking any real threats or other reason to do anything useful, the TSA has decided that their version of “security” needs to be brought to general aviation. Apparently the TSA is convinced that the operators of these small private planes will need to check passengers against no-fly lists that don’t actually have the names of know terrorists on them, restrict what can be brought on the planes in a war against a state of matter that has no publically documented basis in science and generally try to put private operators out of business. The TSA won’t actually provide any of the screening required. They will require the private operators to pay someone else to perform that screening. So they’re creating more useless jobs and adding ridiculous costs that provide no value. But at least they are consistent in their efforts to continue to justify their existence in the absence of any legitimate need for them.
Posted by Seth on January 2, 2009 under Uncategorized |
A couple quick stories this evening from the UK, where they seem to be having some serious trouble this week keeping trains operating smoothly.
First off, a train traveling between East Croydon and Caterham had to skip the last six stops of its run when a satellite link went down. Apparently the GPS signal is critical to the operation of the trains because it indicates to the train where to stop at short platforms and controls the opening of the doors. Someone apparently thought that was a better plan than a little sign on the side of the tracks indicating where the train is supposed to stop, like they’ve been using for years.
A spokesman for Southern said: “A lot of our trains have GPS which recognises where the train is and allows it to open the doors at the station, depending on the length of the train and the length of the platform.”
He added: “Doors can be opened manually in an emergency but we would not recommend it at other times.”
So the doors cannot be opened manually except in case of an emergency. Apparently they’ve got HAL9000 running the trains now.
The other story is actually rather sad. A small propeller plane crashed just outside of Stafford, England on the side of the rail line there, taking out the overhead power lines and stranding thousands of passengers as the lines between London and Manchester, Liverpool and Glasgow, among others. The pilot and passenger on the plane were also killed in the accident. Bad news all around.
Posted by Seth on December 30, 2008 under Uncategorized |
The Japanese have long been regarded as having one of, if not the, most efficient, functional and downright speedy national train grid in operation. So what do you do as the operator of this national network of high-speed trains when you’re looking for an encore? Go faster!
The Central Japan Railway Company has stated that they intend to proceed with their previously announced plans to build an even faster train network over then next 16 years, starting with the Tokyo – Nagoya route. The new train is expected to operate at ~500 km/h (~310 mph), cutting the trip time between the two cities to about 45 minutes.
The build-out is currently budgeted for about 5.1 trillion yen (~$56 Bn), which is pretty expensive, especially when the global economy seems to be in a rather precarious state. But the chairman of the company is having none of the doomsday gloom:
"We can’t expect conditions to be unchanged all the time," chairman Yoshiyuki Kasai told a news conference. "There are some days of good wind and some days of bad wind."
He also noted that they expect the debt service costs to decrease since interest rates are dropping like a rock these days.
I was very much looking forward to a ride on the existing bullet trains when I was planning our trip to Japan for earlier this year that never materialized. Now I’ll have something even better (or at least faster) to look forward to once I get another trip to Japan scheduled.
Posted by Seth on November 18, 2008 under Uncategorized |
One hundred twenty five years ago today, November 18, 1883, the United States finally decided to adopt a single source for telling time – Railroad Time. Wired has a fantastic article about it, with some great bits of history mixed in to the overall development of a coordinated time schedule.
Railroad timetables used about a hundred different standards. A single railroad that traveled east to west would use multiple noons: The Union Pacific, for example, had six different settings in what are today the Central and Mountain zones. The Union Station that served multiple railroads in a big city might have five or six different clocks, one for each railroad in the station, each running on is own time.
It took a full 35 years for the United States government to catch up with the industry and declare an official Standard Time for the country. In the interim the country simply followed the lead of the dominant industry of the time, the railroads.
Posted by Seth on September 15, 2008 under Trip Reports |
Apparently bus travel is the new hotness in travel in the North East Corridor. There are about 5 new companies operating in the Boston – Washington, DC area. Some of them are just new brands on old names, like BoltBus and MegaBus instead of Greyhound and Champion, and some would seem to be newcomers to the space. And these are decidedly NOT the typical Chinatown bus setups. Yes, they leave from a random street corner somewhere in the cities they serve, but they also have real websites where they sell tickets and publish schedules. Some of them (at least Bolt and Mega) have on-board WiFi and plugs at the seats. I’m on the bus now and plugged in and posting away, as well as getting some work done.
On the down side, it is still a bus. Only about 30% of the seats are full on the mid-day Monday New York-Philly run, but I can imagine it being rather uncomfortable if it got more crowded. And I did just get to listen to J.K. (the woman across the aisle) talk to about 4 different people at top volume about getting her time sheet in and her expenses paid. I suppose that happens all the time on the train, too, but it was still pretty annoying. And there is always the potential for traffic problems, but we’ve managed to avoid them thus far.
And we managed to pace an inbound flight on final approach into Newark as we headed down the NJ Turnpike, affording me this fun shot from basically right outside the window:
Overall, I’m satisfied thus far, especially since it is rather less expensive than the train options and is a non-stop trip, at least to Philly, but I don’t know that it would be a great option on a crowded ride. I’ll potentially find out next week when I make the final leg of my ridiculous 2x to Hawaii in 10 days trip back from the Philly airport and try MegaBus out (I’m on BoltBus today).
Turns out that the WiFi isn’t very good, which is too bad. I just dropped offline (from the bus to the internet, not locally) though it was working OK about 10 minutes ago. And now I’m sortof back, though it is slower than the free WiFi at a Continental Presidents Club, which is saying a lot.
Update (~5pm): After spending about an hour in traffic thanks to a fire somewhere on or near the Ben Franklin Bridge into Philly I’m not as convinced of the value of the bus. If it really was a train fire as was indicated online then I might’ve been just as delayed on the train, but this is getting to be pretty painful, even with the Internet (which has been pretty good during the hour delay).
