Not Bigger On The Inside

For Saturday's trip to Toronto, I booked with Megabus. With the collapse of Greyhound Canada, they were the only inter-city bus service left in Ontario. It has been more than 15 years since I traveled by bus. With a double decker layout, it was tight conditions aboard. I'm small and short and with the exception of leg-room, even I felt cramped. Luckily, there was no one in the next seat. Instead of the local highway 7 route of Greyhound, my bus took the provincial highways.

It was pretty to watch the landscape quiet under freshly-fallen snow from high above. Next time, it might be worth the extra $15 to reserve the front seat. These reserved seats do not allow for the adjacent seat to be occupied so this is a nice perk. But I suspect this is only during the pandemic. So price-wise, Megabus is only competitive with Via Rail for last-minute bookings. Otherwise, the train is more comfortable with more luggage allowance.

The other usual problem with bus travel are road conditions. Today, it was a detour through Belleville, Trenton, and Quinte because of a fatal accident on highway 401. I haven't been through this area in just as long and it was nice to see that sushi and pho were now available even here.

I used Greyhound for years, starting with my very first post-college job interview in Mississauga. Back then, there wasn't much online information. So I don't remember how I found all the details to make my way through 2 transit systems to an industrial park at highway 10 and Eglinton in Mississauga. Then I retraced my route back to downtown Toronto to catch a 9 pm Greyhound to return to Ottawa. But not before I had my one and only Taco Bell experience near Dundas and Yonge, when the area was still seedy and vibrant. That was a long, tiring day but I got a job offer that got me to Toronto.

Frequent travel delays due to road traffic eventually soured my relationship with Greyhound. The nadir was an 8-hour trip where people from the rural towns stood in the bus aisle instead of risking a next ride that may never come. Then for a while I got fancy and bought 10-trip passes from Porter Airlines. My last Greyhound trip was for my brief move back to Ottawa, when I loaded my belongings into 2 large suitcases and bid farewell to the rooming house at College and Dufferin.