I took the Vamoose Bus home from NYC to DC today, in an effort to save a little money ($25 for the bus, versus $169 for the Acela). In the future, I’ll probably just take the Acela. This was my second time taking the bus and twice is enough.
We were supposed to leave at 11 AM and so we left sometime around 11:25. The ride was more or less smooth up until we reached Laurel, MD. That’s when the bus started having transmission problems. We pulled over to the side of B/W Parkway while the driver tried to figure out what was going on. The bus wouldn’t go out of first gear. After trying a few things, it seemed to work again, and then dropped back down into second gear. Driving past the East-West Highway exit on 295, I hoped the bus would just break down there for good. It was within 2 miles of my house and I could walk home.
No such luck, however. We made our way back into DC driving 35 miles/hour the entire way.
I finally got home around 5:30 PM.
Yes, it is cheaper than Acela, but the fact is that I can afford Acela and I have gotten used to the speed and relative luxury in which I travel on Acela, so I will probably stick with that in the future.