I’m writing this from a big MCI intercity coach owned and operated by Vermont Transit.  I just got on, at the Bellows Falls train station, and I’m heading to Boston en-route to Logan Airport and Atlanta.  This is my report of the bus ride.

Immediately I realize this bus is more comfortable than my car.  Not if someone were sitting beside me, but the bus is mostly empty.  The big bus rolls along as if it were on bad railroad track (bad Vermont roads are part of the reason, but I think bad suspension is a bigger cause).  Every frost-heave and crack is magnified in a bouncy rattle, but they don’t make it all the way to the seat – my butt still has steady cushioning underneath.  It’s a glorious way to see a different view of landscape I see everyday and easily forget how beautiful it is.  I gaze over the Connecticut River enjoying being up high.

Five people came off in Bellows Falls (from New York and intermediate points).  Two got on (myself included).  Eight people are riding through to White River Junction.  I think that maybe this schedule is not long for this world.  And it’s a holiday weekend (it’s Memorial Day).  That’s bad if there are this few people onboard on memorial day.  But then I take a look at the timetable.  This is the middle run of three, and reasonably would be the least full.  The next step for Vermont Transit might be to discontinue it, but they’ve had bad experience reducing service, finding that patronage on remaining runs also goes down as people have less options (Amtrak could learn something here).  And then I think about it and realize this is the tail end of a long run from New York and adding Keene and Brattleboro and Greenfield could fill this bus up.  It’s not unreasonable to think each of those stops would contribute 10 passengers (less if it wasn’t a holiday weekend), leaving not enough room for Northampton passengers.  That’s how this run works.  I realize I’ve seen even less people on board other times I observe it.

I’ve never ridden a bus on this part of I-91 before.  I’m closing a gap, and in ten minutes or so when I arrive in White River Junction I’ll have ridden all of the current Vermont Transit system except the Rutland-White River Junction connection.  I think of the bragging rights I’ll have when I interview the General Manager for my story.

I have an assignment to write about Vermont Transit sometime.  Perhaps I should be interviewing people now, but I don’t feel like it.  Nobody looks approachable.  To be frank, 40% look like welfare cases, but this is coming out of my judgmental side.  Still, in the world of Greyhound, that’s a good ratio.  Most of us look like we have a choice.

In fact I’ve spent a good hour and a half trying to figure out my choices.  I don’t want to drive to Boston because parking costs a fortune – a fortune and a half since it’s for two weeks.  It wasn’t long ago that Vermont Transit had two direct trips into Boston from Rutland, Brattleboro and Bellows Falls.  Last Time I took that run it’s passenger numbers were in the single digits (perhaps six?) and it was discontinued in the last two years or so.  So now there is no good option.  There’s an airport transporter service, but that costs a fortune too.  You can take a bus via Springfield MA or go north to White River Junction and backtrack.  That’s what I’m doing (the schedule’s better).  I left at 3:35 (having left my home 20 minutes earlier) and I’ll arrive at 7:50 – Four and a half hours for a run that could be driven in three.  Not too bad, actually.