Connecticut to Pittsburgh by bus 17+ hours!!!!!

[giantsfan2016]

For future reference (I have no money right now), I was looking at the bus schedule from Connecticut to Pittsburgh in case some time I want to go to the notorious Century III Mall in West Mifflin. It's 17+ hours! Farmington, CT to NYC to Baltomore, MD to Pittsburgh, PA. Who the hell came up with that ridiculous schedule?

Not including rest stops, I could drive from Southington, CT to West Mifflin, PA in about 12 hours if I took the back roads all the way!

[TheFugitive]

That is a totally ridiculous route.  Baltimore is WAY south of anyplace you should
ever have to go.   I'm stunned that they don't just turn west at Philly.

Connecticut is relatively close to New York.  I do know that MegaBus runs daily routes
between NYC and Pittsburgh.  People rave about them.  Clean, cheap, they have onboard
WiFi, etc.  I would suggest you make your way to New York and catch the MegaBus.

[BillyGr]

What bus company is that, People's Express? ;)
(An old airline joke - they seemed to route people in odd patterns like that)


However, one could do that (not sure just how easily), since, in the original list you mention CT to NYC, so by taking that bus (whatever brand) then switching to the MegaBus, since that goes NYC to Pittsburgh.

No reason not to split between a couple companies if it works (the question would be how hard it is to get from one to the other, but in NYC it shouldn't be that hard, given the abundance of local transport options the city offers).

It was like the recent discussion about the work at Penn Station - people from upstate NY were trying to figure out how to avoid that (since Amtrak normally goes there, though they are running a few trains to Grand Central over the summer) - not thinking that most of the Amtrak trains stop in Poughkeepsie, where the Metro North line begins to Grand Central, so that combo could work as well, if one couldn't get on the direct to GC Amtrak trains.

[giantsfan2016]

What bus company is that, People's Express? ;)
(An old airline joke - they seemed to route people in odd patterns like that)

It's what came up when I punched up Greyhound's website and entered Farmington, CT to Pittsburgh. PA.

As for airplanes - Don't get me started. Just for shiggles I went on the travel site KAYAK.COM and looked up flights Hartford (Bradley Airport) to Pittsburgh and one of the flights that came up would have me fly Hartford to Detroit to Pittsburgh. There apparently were not any direct flights.

And speaking of flying I flew for the first time in 2002 for a Writing Convention. It was in Baltimore, Maryland. Hartford to Pittsburgh to Baltimore. I was listening to my Walkman on the plane and one of the stations I picked up was from Buffalo, New York. I thought it was really strange that you had to fly up by Buffalo to get to Pittsburgh.

[TheFugitive]

You can't get direct flights from Pittsburgh to anywhere since US Air ceased to exist.
That's a pretty serious problem for the business community here.

I flew US Air from Hartford to Pittsburgh (and from here, on to Toledo) back when I
was working for Ames.  LOOOOOOONG delays on the tarmac at Hartford.

My boss chose to settle in Pittsburgh due to People Express.  He was a grad student
at the Stevens Institute of Technology in Hoboken, NJ, and absolutely HATED living
in Hoboken.  People Express at the time was running a $49 one-way fare to Pittsburgh.
He took a flight and decided he liked it here.  Transferred to Pitt and has been here
ever since.