Las Vegas bus service dropoff?

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Old MM

Old MM

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Getting extremely apprehensive after looking up the address in Las Vegas where the Amtrak Thruway Bus connection drops off passengers. 200 S. Main St., which also happens to be the Greyhound terminal. The disheartening part is reading all the Yelp reviews about the station being overrun with crackheads, drug dealers, prostitutes and pimps. I'm not exaggerating. Stopped reading them after the second or third reviewer who mentioned the need for a long shower after either being inside the terminal or on Greyhound. I'm behind on reading travelogues anyway, so off to catch up there and look for any recent SWC reports, but if anyone has experience with this station and area, please weigh in. I've got no problem with public transport and seldom if ever pay for cabs, but what was described doesn't even sound like a safe area.
 
No firsthand information here. The station is, by all accounts, unpleasant. But within less than a block of downtown Las Vegas which is fine.

Frankly the reviews of the Greyhound station make it sound just like my experience of downtown Columbus. Lots of begging, possible risk of theft, seriously depressing, but no real risk of violence.

I wouldn't be bothered by arriving there (though I'd keep my hand on my wallet).

But I wouldn't want to be waiting for a bus there. Especially after reading the reviews of how the local Greyhound staff behaves -- it doesn't sound like there's really any guarantee that your bus will be on time or that you'll be told when it arrives.

You should realize that the Amtrak Thruway buses on the LA-Las Vegas and Salt Lake-Las Vegas routes are operated by Greyhound. With all the operational problems which that implies.
 
No firsthand experience of the actual station myself either, but I lived in Las Vegas for a few years. It's not in the best part of town, but it is near several casinos and hotels, and Fremont Street, which is regularly patrolled by Las Vegas Metro Police and other security. I always felt completely safe down on Fremont Street, so I wouldn't be overly concerned. Yes, there will be a few members of a 'bad element' hanging around, but you get that in all major towns. When I lived there, I once heard that Los Angeles rounds up all of the homeless and puts them on a bus to Vegas, and a couple of days later, Vegas does the same thing, and sends them all on a bus back to LA! Don't know how true that is, but that just confirms that it is an epidemic everywhere. That being said, of course, always be aware of your surroundings and your possessions. Fremont Street is closed off to vehicles, but there are always cabs to be found on the surrounding streets, especially on Main. I'm headed to Vegas in the morning; if I get a chance, I'll be happy to swing down to the bus station and check it out for you; message me if you want me to.
 
It looks like the bus that transfers off the SWC gets in around 5 PM; the area will likely be fairly busy with the tourist crowd by that point. While I didn't go inside, I was in Las Vegas recently and walked by the Greyhound terminal-at nearly midnight on a Wednesday. I didn't see anything that should cause overt concern even then. It's right by a large, decent hotel (the Plaza, also the site of the former Amtrak station) and a longish block from Fremont Street, a major casino and entertainment district. Downtown Las Vegas in general is much cleaner and safe-feeling than was even a few years ago and eons better than it was a decade ago. If you're staying on the Strip, you can catch the "Deuce" or "Strip/Downtown Express" buses, both of which stop a few blocks south on Casino Center Drive.

If you're really concerned about using the depot, another option that's actually significantly faster if you're coming from east is using the "Las Vegas-Airport Service" option on Amtrak's site (station code LAS instead of LVS) and transfer in Kingman, AZ to a van-the airport is closer to the Strip than downtown anyway and you don't have to go all the way to LA and double back. The downside of this is that you have to get off the Chief at 1 AM and get dropped in Vegas at 4 AM, which may be unworkable.
 
Please disregard any reviews from before October 2013 because in October 2013 Greyhound greatly improved all services based from Los Angeles Garage with a large fleet of new D4505 coaches that are significantly (I MEAN IT!) superior to the old smelly G4500's. In fact, the D4505's are even better than LuxBus America's H3-45's which have less legroom, this is proven through measurements.

This includes the Los Angeles-Las Vegas, Las Vegas-Phoenix, and Las Vegas-Salt Lake City routes. The Las Vegas-Denver route was upgraded a long time ago with elite equipment based from Denver.

Greyhound staff at stations are really hit-and-miss, though most of their drivers are awesome! Make sure you have valid photo ID as that is now required for ALL passengers at boarding.

If you are worried about safety, check this out: http://www.crimemapping.com/.

BTW, I was in Oakland Greyhound which is a supposedly very dangerous area but I got off without a scratch. Everything's fine in daytime, just don't go there at night. Again, on CrimeMapping, the Greyhound Oakland spot isn't actually that bad.

Whatever you want to know about Greyhound, I'd be happy to help. If I don't know, I can ask GTE and GTE has enough geeks to answer anything about Greyhound.

You can also consider BoltBus which is owned and operated by Greyhound with the same D4505's but they have different stops in some cities. Really cheaps fare if you get lucky.
 
The Thruway buses from LAX are actually regularly scheduled Greyhound buses. Thus the reason they go to the Greyhound terminal.

It is in downtown LV, right next to the Union Plaza casino (the location of the former Amtrak stop). Directly across the street is the Golden Nugget casino and the Fremont Street Experience and the other casinos in downtown LV. This is if they haven't moved the location in the last few years - but it was on Main Street.

The shuttle from Kingman goes to the airport.
 
Aloha

During the Day the Area is just fine. You will be as safe as any city. If you pay attention to who and what is around you, I would be concerned maybe between 1 am and 7am. Also 2 blocks south of the station is bad.

There will be taxi's out front during arrival hours.and security patrols the area.

When and Why are you coming? I live about 5 miles from the station I will can help with spefic questions if you PM me.
 
the_traveler said:
The Thruway buses from LAX are actually regularly scheduled Greyhound buses. Thus the reason they go to the Greyhound terminal.
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At last check, the Bakersfield bus was a dedicated thruway not operated by Greyhound, and it also goes to the Greyhound station. I think that this is just the location at which they are authorized to make the drop off; and, if, by magic, they ever start working the tracks in Las Vegas again, this would be a good location for a connecting bus.

I have been there at night, and felt no danger while dragging my luggage up to the cab line at the casino.
 
That's the reason I specified LAX as the OP is coming in on the SWC and said LAX in her post. And if the X-Train (or some other train) ever starts service to LV, they may well build a new station. (I think the X-Train proposed a station nearer to the Strip, not 5-10 miles away in downtown.)
 
As someone who has used the LAX and Bakersfield bus services to Las Vegas LVS, with my 14 year old teenager in tow, I can't see any problems. There may be a few down and out, or dodgy folk around, but nothing to worry about. We just walked from the LVS bus station to the Deuce bus stop and rode down the strip to our (cheap!) hotel.

To be honest the only bus problems we experienced there was the painfully slow Duce service, caused by adult americans who had never used a bus before coming to vegas!!! :)

Ed :cool:
 
Thanks to all. It's sounding better than the Yelp reviews, especially since we don't have to hang out there, just get out and walk to either a Fremont street hotel for the first night, or on to the Strip. Every city has homeless and it doesn't bother me in Chicago, if I have loose change they get it, it won't bother me in Vegas. Frankly the timeshare people are more annoying. I would have thought there would be some police or security presence there, since the aim is to promote and encourage tourism. Anyway the Duece bus service was reliable last I remember, but packed and slow. As far as an Amtrak to Las Vegas, can you imagine...
 
the_traveler said:
That's the reason I specified LAX as the OP is coming in on the SWC and said LAX in her post. And if the X-Train (or some other train) ever starts service to LV, they may well build a new station. (I think the X-Train proposed a station nearer to the Strip, not 5-10 miles away in downtown.)
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Aloha

Sorry to say they announced the Station would be built farther away, within site of the LV Speedway. From What I am seeing of the X-Train I do not think they really want to run trains. I want them to succeed, but I have a nagging feeling they have become a scam. I hope not, but that is how I feel.
 
I agree. If they are going to build near the speedway, instead of 5-10 miles from the Strip (where most people are headed) it would be more like 20-30 miles past the Strip!! That certainly sounds like a scam. It may be faster and easier driving from LA. (Yes I know the traffic on I-15.)
 
GG1 I don't know where the LV Speedway is. Does it make a difference, though, in terms of... it would get Amtrak passengers a lot closer to Vegas than LAX or Salt Lake city? Good lord those trains would be full. Why are people saying it is a scam?
 
The LV Speedway is in the desert well north of LV. Although not the same, it's like a group saying "We're going to start a train from Detroit to Chicago, but the Chicago station will be built in Peoria!"
 
Michigan Mom said:
GG1 I don't know where the LV Speedway is. Does it make a difference, though, in terms of... it would get Amtrak passengers a lot closer to Vegas than LAX or Salt Lake city? Good lord those trains would be full. Why are people saying it is a scam?
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It won't be an Amtrak station, so you would still need to go to LAX to get on this train.
 
MrFSS said:
Nathanael said:
Frankly the reviews of the Greyhound station make it sound just like my experience of downtown Columbus. Lots of begging, possible risk of theft, seriously depressing, but no real risk of violence.
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Which Columbus?
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Ohio. One of the less pleasant downtowns I have visited. The constrast between wealth (looking down from the towers) and poverty (in the streets) is stark and nasty.
 
Michigan Mom said:
GG1 I don't know where the LV Speedway is. Does it make a difference, though, in terms of... it would get Amtrak passengers a lot closer to Vegas than LAX or Salt Lake city? Good lord those trains would be full. Why are people saying it is a scam?
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Aloha

I am not saying "it is a scam" I have a feeling it is. I do not want it to be one. But when their promotional material says 5 minutes to the Strip hotels and the station location is 30 minutes north of the Northern most strip hotel, The Stratosphere, I ave my doubts.

Also they were supposed to run their first train for the new year weekend, which did not happen. And now the are selling tickets to various other trains some of which are very vague. Again I am only saying that something feels wrong.

In post 154 of this forum http://discuss.amtraktrains.com/index.php?/topic/49826-x-train-chugging-along/page-8 I posted on two of their cars.
 
I looked at the X-train tour offerings. It is kind of misleading to say the least. They are not offering ANY services using their own cars except for charters, although the website makes it look like they are.. They are packaging tours on Amtrak and other existing services, specifically the Verde Canyon Railroad. I know they aren't using their own cars because one of the tour packages they are offering is Seattle-Portland, and they are expressly calling out that they will use the Cascades. We all know that you can't couple a PV to the Talgo trainset.

They are offering to charter "mystery trains" and weddings. Good luck with that once someone gets the quote of hooking a PV to Amtrak, plus a percentage for our upstanding friends at X-Train.

We also know that their agreement with UP lapsed when they could not come up with the full amount of funds to fulfil their trackage rights agreement, and forfeited some hundreds of thousands of dollars to UP for their good faith deposit. Lots of info if you search over at Trainorders.com, where anything about X-Train is a source of considerable entertainment. The only actual value it has.

I am not even going to comment about their station location near the Las Vegas speedway, at least 10 or 12 miles northeast of downtown, let alone the strip. Why worry about a station location when they can't run a train since they don't have the trackage rights?

They are flailing, folks. They are just trying to keep it breathing to wring the last penny out of their pump-and-dump scheme. GG-1 may hesitate to call it a scam, but I'm not. It is a scam. The only other reasonable explanation is they are complete idiots.
 
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If you're actually going from somewhere in Michigen to Las Vegas, I would actually suggest taking the CZ to Green River, UT, sleep overnight, then ride a Greyhound from there to Vegas. That bus route is very scenic and uses elite equipment based from Denver. Plus the CZ is scenic too, though the SWC beats it on desert scenery.

I've never heard an Amtrak passenger transferring off the CZ and then going Greyhound to Las Vegas and maybe on to Los Angeles but I've done it and it was not bad at all. Plus in Green River, you only deal with the driver, no station staff, just a good old fashioned bus stop.

Peter KG6LSE said:
I have done the LV bus From SLC .. I am NOT a fan of greyhound . the drivers are nice but the station staff need to get with it .
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Dude, you're missing the point. Until October 2013, the SLC-LLV route 545 was operated with G4500's based from Los Angeles. And the G4500 is a horrible bus, I'm a Greyhound fan and I still think it's JUNK! At least they're out of service for rebuilds.

Station staff, well, the guys in Reno aren't too bad (except for one), though for a lot of stations, yeah I see what you mean.
 
You said you never heard (of) an Amtrak passenger transferring off the CZ and then going Greyhound to LV - and the next paragraph is a reply to a quote of such a passenger! :huh: The schedule for the CZ even includes that run from SLC to LV. The Greyhound station is right next to the Amtrak station in SLC.
 
the_traveler said:
You said you never heard (of) an Amtrak passenger transferring off the CZ and then going Greyhound to LV - and the next paragraph is a reply to a quote of such a passenger! :huh: The schedule for the CZ even includes that run from SLC to LV. The Greyhound station is right next to the Amtrak station in SLC.
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You don't understand! I've never heard of someone transferring from Amtrak to Greyhound at Green River. If you transfer at Salt Lake City, you get off the CZ and onto Greyhound 545 which is based from Los Angeles. OTOH, if you transfer at Green River, you get onto Greyhound 555 which is the Denver-Las Vegas route, this route is often based from Denver and gets better buses.

You see, Greyhound has two buses a day each on the Salt Lake City-Las Vegas (545) and Denver-Las Vegas (555) routes, these are different routes with different equipment. Thus, from the point where Interstate 70 merges with Interstate 15, there are four buses a day to Las Vegas, two from Denver, and two from Salt Lake City.
 
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well, we're in (as in, mostly committed to this trip on the SWC) and finding out that the Greyhound station is actually near Fremont street, was good info, it means we will find an inexpensive Fremont St. area hotel for the first night. This is because of the relatively late arrival time...and the fact that it will be nice to just disembark and walk a short distance to the hotel, now that I know we won't be accosted at gunpoint. Then the next morning we will head up to the Strip for 2 nights before flying back home. The bus ride out of LAX seemed like there was a lot of time allotted, but that must be for the hour McD's lunch. The only suspense now is will there be delays out of Chicago.. another reason to have an inexpensive hotel for the first night.
 
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