Bus travel to Seattle and Portland gets a heck of a lot cheaper

by Maya Beckersmith on May 16, 2012 at 4:28 pm

Bus travel has gotten a lot more civilized with the introduction of BoltBus to the Pacific Northwest. Previously offered solely in the northeastern United States, the Greyhound-owned and operated service is coming to Vancouver, with non-stop trips to and from Portland and Seattle. That Portland food tour may be closer (and cheaper) than you think—tickets start at $1. And that’s not a typo.

With visions of Voodoo Doughnut dancing in my head, I searched a one-way trip to Portland from Vancouver. It’s $16 on the random day and time I chose. To sweeten the deal, there is an extra three inches of legroom, Wi-Fi, and power plug-ins. To someone used to the smelly and cramped conditions of the B-Line and regular old Greyhound, this translates to bus heaven.

But, really, they had me at "$1".

Comments (15) Add New Comment
curious6348
May 16, 2012 at 9:34 pm
Likely an introductory price to last a few months.
Then comes the increases due to low ridership and high fuel costs..
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W. End
May 16, 2012 at 10:21 pm
I think most people travelling to Seattle use "QuickShuttle". Can you compare those rates for use? (And QuickShuttle is not "smelly" but it's also now all that "quick.") Or is this really just an ad for Bolt Bus?
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sparklem
May 17, 2012 at 12:05 am
Quick Shuttle is handy but has so many drop off points, (including the Bellingham Airport), that there is not much quick about it and the WiFi is iffy, This new option, and the price, sound too good to be true?


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earlnelly
May 17, 2012 at 6:47 am
i like the train but for the price this sounds pretty good:

http://blogs.seattletimes.com/today/2012/05/boltbus-adds-a-vancouver-b-c...
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Kevin Oseven
May 17, 2012 at 8:49 am
Looks like it is all a publicity scam to me. Just went on the site to try and get a ticket to Seattle for late June and couldn't do anything only got an error saying 'no schedule available - we try to keep schedules 4-6 weeks in advance'. So tried to by a ticket to Portland this weekend instead and got the same message. If you can't even buy tickets on the site it's worthless...
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bus rider
May 17, 2012 at 9:36 am
Quick shuttle costs about $50 each way, and it doesn't usually have internet.
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Maya Beckersmith
May 17, 2012 at 9:37 am
Yes, it's all very gimmicky. And while you may be right about fares going up later, it's a gimmick I'm willing to get sucked in by once and try the service out of sheer curiosity. It sounds like Megabus. And nope, not an ad. Just over excitement from someone without a car.
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Carolyn Ali
May 17, 2012 at 10:48 am
There's so much going on in Seattle this summer with the Pacific Science Center King Tut exhibition and the Seattle Center festivities...this makes it irresistible.

I agree the booking system could use improvement: I'd like to be able to book for July, and I don't think that's too much to ask. That said, I just booked something in June for a total of $11 round trip to Seattle...can't be beat. Will see how it goes!

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Loretta
May 17, 2012 at 5:20 pm
Perhaps they've subsidized the fares to get Canadians spending our money away from home. Perhaps we should do like-ways! :-D

Let's promote cheap bus and rail fare to Canada, so our American neighbours can take a well-deserved vacation up here. We've got the Jazz festival, Granville Island market, the Hyack festival, Grouse mountain, Hell's Gate, the gorgeous Okanagan... and there's still some amazing nature left to see up north wheather sailing up the inside passage or driving. Heck WE haven't even seen it all. Most kids in the lower mainland haven't even camped in nature or even walked in it with their families. Time keeps on ticking, ticking, ticking, into the future.... Do, do, ...do-DO!
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Loretta
May 17, 2012 at 5:40 pm
I wonder if it's that cheap for Americans coming up here?
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Moodier
May 17, 2012 at 7:22 pm
Doesn't Quick have some sort of deal with customs to expedite border crossing (such as not having to remove your bags unless searched?) I can't imagine how long the bus border lineups will be given the new immigrant/welfare market that Bolt is targeting.
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walker
May 17, 2012 at 7:26 pm
They've been doing this sort of pricing in the UK and Europe for years. There are a few seats and silly-low prices and then things are scaled up depending on demand. People booking late are subsidizing those organized to book early. It's airplane pricing taken to the max.
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Car-less
May 18, 2012 at 2:15 am
I read on a different site that this service doesn't start till May 31st and for the first 4 days, fares to Seattle are $1, Seattle to Vancouver also $1. I booked a trip for that weekend and got the $1 fares, additional $1 service fee (I booked for two people). After the promo, fares work on availability. Book early - discount price (eg. $8 to Seattle), as more seats fill up, the price increases, last minute/standby tickets are full fare (not sure how much that is).
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148jules
May 21, 2012 at 6:33 pm
Car-less above beat me to it! The service doesn't start till the end of May/12 and Maya does Straight readers a disservice by not providing all relevant info on the $1 deal which is only available the first weekend when it starts up.
Vancouver >
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Amygdala
May 23, 2012 at 4:27 pm
No complaints here! I've taken Megabus and the china town busses a bunch of times on the east coast montreal/toronto/nyc/boston routes...nothing compared to the train or driving, but compared to greyhound? a steal. Fingers crossed ridership stays high so like Megabus they can keep fares low.
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