Buses, Trains Offer Slower Alternatives

Traveling by bus or by train for the holidays? There’s good and bad news.

Bus travel generally is slow but on schedule. If you need to travel east toward Chicago or other hubs, Greyhound has four buses leaving from Seattle daily, stopping in Spokane, then Coeur d’Alene.

The same number of buses leave Chicago and stop here en route to Seattle.

Greyhound, the busiest passenger carrier, guarantees anyone with a ticket that they’ll get aboard.

“But you should call ahead,” said Spokane Greyhound Customer Service Supervisor Bill Keeley. “That way we know whether or not we have to add an extra bus or two.”

The six-hours-plus bus ride to Seattle costs $26 on Greyhound, $47 round-trip.

The two-day Greyhound trip to Chicago costs about $150 one-way, $296 round-trip.

The bad news: Train travel in late December features a guarantee of a different kind, at least according to one local travel agent. No matter whether going east or west, the train you take probably won’t get there at the scheduled time, says Spokane travel agent Katie Hiatt.

As with buses, train travelers need to call Amtrak to see if seats or sleeping berths are available for dates in question. (Call 1-800-USA-RAIL.)

From Dec. 21-24, there are practically no sleeper spots left for trains leaving Spokane, heading toward Chicago.

The round-trip price, including a sleeper car for three adults, leaving Dec. 22: $1,300. “That does include meals,” Hiatt said.

Amtrak says the ride to Chicago from Spokane takes 36 hours. “But you can be sure it’ll be longer. It always is,” said Hiatt.

For coach seating, more tickets are still available, but they’re also going fast.

Round-trip coach tickets between Spokane and Seattle cost $135 to $170 per person.

Coach tickets for the Spokane-Chicago round-trip are in the $600 range, according to Amtrak agents.