What Is an Amtrak Connecting Bus? I’ve Ridden Three. Here’s What to Expect.

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If you’ve ever booked an Amtrak ticket and noticed the website showing you a “bus” option instead of a train, you might have done a double-take. I did.

Yes, Amtrak runs buses too. These scheduled buses are part of the Amtrak network. You can book them right on Amtrak like you book trains, and they’re tied to your Amtrak account.

I’ve been on three Amtrak buses before.

The first two were replacement buses on the Hartford Line in Connecticut, where construction on the tracks meant Amtrak swapped some train routes for charter buses between Springfield and New Haven.

The third one was a longer bus from Washington, D.C. to Virginia Beach.

Here’s what to know about what you may experience on an Amtrak bus.

In this article, I’ll break down…

• Why Amtrak has buses
• What to expect
• How to book one
• What my experiences have been like.

Basically, if you have a question about Amtrak buses, I hope to answer it, so if I don’t, ask it in the comments.

What Even is an Amtrak Connecting Bus? The 3 Types of Amtrak Buses

There’s a short answer and a longer one.

The short answer is that sometimes Amtrak either replaces its trains with buses due to maintenance and repairs, or they have bus routes you can book that fill in gaps in the rail network. None of these buses are run by Amtrak themselves. Rather, Amtrak contracts with bus companies to run them, and Amtrak houses the infrastructure (stations, booking platform, customer service) for the buses.

The longer answer is that I would put all Amtrak buses into one of three categories.

• Thruway Service
• Temporary Service
• Third-Party Service

1) Thruway Service: The Amtrak-Chartered Buses That Always Exist

“Thruway Service” is a term that Amtrak uses. It’s when Amtrak charters a bus directly. These are dedicated to passengers transferring from an Amtrak train.

These thruway buses will wait for you if your train is late, because they’re timed with the trains. I’ll give you two examples of this that run all the time.

One is the Thruway bus that connects California Zephyr riders from Emeryville in the East Bay near Oakland, to San Francisco.

The train terminates in Emeryville. If you book your trip to San Francisco, you’ll transfer to the thruway bus which then takes you over the Bay Bridge into San Francisco. There is no Amtrak train to San Francisco proper. There never has been. The bus is a permanent part of that route.

The Norfolk to Virginia Beach route is another example. Virginia Beach doesn’t have passenger rail service. Several Northeast Regional trains run all the way to Norfolk, VA daily. From there, if you want to book an Amtrak to Virginia Beach, you’ll see that there’s a connecting bus from Norfolk to Virginia Beach.

These buses always exist, and always shuttle passengers from the Norfolk Amtrak station to Virginia Beach.

These are usually short routes within regions. For these, expect a typical charter bus to arrive. The charter companies Amtrak uses for Thruway tend to be a step above budget carriers like Greyhound. These are third-party companies that Amtrak contracts with to run the bus routes. However, since it’s a third-party company, the quality can and will vary.

2) Replacement Bus Service for Train Routes

Sometimes, the buses replace what’s normally a train. Most often, this is because of planned service work.

In Connecticut, as Amtrak did track work on the Hartford Line on weekends, they replaced some trains with buses.

In Virginia, I took an Amtrak bus from D.C. all the way to Virginia Beach, even though it’s normally a train route to Norfolk and a bus transfer.

In these cases, Amtrak hires a charter bus company to run the route. Once, I was on an Academy bus, a reputable charter bus company. Another time, I was on a bus painted with UCONN logos. I assumed they rented the bus from the university.

Like the Thruway buses, expect some variance. Don’t count on wifi or outlets, but you should expect basic cleanliness and service.

3) Third-Party Service: Bus Carriers That Amtrak Contracts (Greyhound)

These ones are different. This is when Amtrak sells you a ticket that includes transportation on another carrier entirely, like Greyhound. You book it through Amtrak, it shows up on your reservation, but you’re on a bus run by another company. These routes are also marked as “Mixed Service” in your Amtrak search.

So how do you know if you’re getting on a coach bus or a Greyhound?

When you click on “Trip Details” it will tell you that it is “Operated by Greyhound.”

Often, these can help you get to places that aren’t served by Amtrak trains and get there on one ticket. Or, they open up your options for low-frequency routes.

It’s kind of like booking a layover flight with two different airlines though. These buses won’t wait for a late train the way a bus chartered by Amtrak to time up with a train will. Greyhound has their own schedule.

I’ve never booked one of these, and to be honest, I’m not sure I’d want to. Amtrak will honor the refund if you miss a connection and it’s their fault, but you’ll still… miss your connection. Probably miss your connection in a town without good transit service.

When I’m in these situations, I’d rather book the bus ticket separately on the bus’s website and give myself a night in between the train and bus, because these connections often mean long routes to places not well-served by transit.

Also, Greyhound isn’t my first choice.

If you’re going to consider this, I’d also compare prices with an aggregator site like Busbud, which I review here.

Know Which Kind of Bus Yours Is

If it’s a short Thruway bus, know that it’ll wait for your train. If it’s replacing a train, you can treat it like a regular Amtrak ride and usually will have the same stations, but know that it’s a bus. If it’s a third-party bus company that’s just listed on Amtrak’s website, expect a Greyhound or Flix Bus to show up, and consider just booking there instead.

Booking an Amtrak Connecting Bus

Booking works the same as any Amtrak ticket. You go to amtrak.com or the app, put in your origin and destination, and the route shows up.

But there are a few things to watch out for.

First is the bus icon. If the icon is a bus, it’s a bus. I repeat: if the icon is a bus, it’s a bus.

Second is the “mixed service” icon. Check this and see the above section to figure out which bus it is and whether you want to take it. If you want a train and know there’s a train, then you can make your search “train only.”

Third, make sure you’re using the right station code.

On Amtrak’s website, this is very confusing. Often, cities will have several “stations.” But they don’t have several train stations. They have a train station and a bus station. In Pittsburgh, for example, the trains all come and go from Pittsburgh Union Station.

The code for this is (PGH). However, when you search Pittsburgh, you’ll also see Pittsburgh Grant Street (PGB). This is where Greyhound buses leave from. Make sure your search has the right station.

This is true across dozens of U.S. cities.

If you see a bus and you think it should be a train, check and make sure you’re looking up the right station code.

Everything else, with regards to booking, is as if it’s a train. Your tickets will show up on the app. You have the same baggage policy, and you can pack like you’d pack for an Amtrak ride (with additional water and snacks because there’s no cafe car on a bus).

What Thruway and Replacement Amtrak Buses Are Like

Again, I’m excluding what the third-party routes are like. If you want to know what to expect on that Greyhound Bus that you’re booking through Amtrak, then check out my article on everything you need to thrive (yes, thrive) on the Greyhound.

But I’ll show you what to expect on the other Amtrak buses. I got photos from my recent D.C. to Virginia bus.

On this trip, the Amtrak bus was a 2-for-1. It was both a Thruway and replacement bus wrapped into one. Normally, this trip would have been a train to Norfolk, with the option to connect to a bus to Virginia Beach. Since Norfolk is in the same area, I likely would’ve just taken the train there, but on this day, the only actual trains were later in the afternoon, and we wanted a morning trip.

So, we took the bus.

Where Amtrak Buses Pick up and Drop off in D.C.

The good news is that this is very easy. Go into D.C. Union Station and follow the signs for Amtrak. You’ll even see the buses on the board for departures and arrivals.

Like other Amtrak trains, they don’t assign the gate until a few minutes before boarding. Eventually, they assigned us Gate D.

We lined up in Gate D, and an Amtrak employee escorted us upstairs to where all the intercity buses leave. This is where Peter Pan, Greyhound, and others depart. They even assigned a bus track.

If you wanted to, you could just go upstairs and wait. But to be honest, downstairs is nicer, so if you’re early like we were, just hang out until they assign a gate, and go to the gate once they do.

The important step is just to get to the Amtrak area of Union Station.

Where the Amtrak Buses Are in Virginia Beach and Norfolk

On the other side, Norfolk buses drop off a block away from the Amtrak station. It’s across the street from the Harbor Park light rail stop.

To Virginia Beach, in our case, the bus brought us to the Virginia Beach Convention Center. This varies from what you’ll see on Google if you look up Virginia Beach Amtrak Bus Stop. However, it’s around the corner. If you’re leaving from Virginia Beach, I would double-check the address on your booking.

The Typical Experience on an Amtrak Connecting Bus

All right, now let’s talk about what it’s like on the bus.

Boarding the Bus

I was relieved to see the “Academy” logo on the bus. Academy is one of the biggest charter bus companies in the country, and you can expect pretty good quality and service when you see it.

Their bus driver was kind and professional. The Amtrak staff member instructed us to get in a single-file line to wait, while the bus driver directed people with luggage toward him.

You put big luggage under the bus in the storage compartment. The driver organized the luggage by stop. That way, your luggage door will only be opened at your stop.

Then, he scanned our Amtrak tickets (I used the QR code on the app) as we boarded.

Seats, Legroom, and Overhead Storage

The bus itself was clean. The seats were fine. They were bus seats. The legroom was okay. Again, it’s a bus. All of this will be more cramped than an Amtrak train. But it had a cupholder and a front pouch. The overhead storage is your standard bus storage. It’s smaller than a train or a plane, so don’t expect to fit any luggage with wheels. Put that luggage underneath the bus. We put our backpacks here without an issue.

Outlets and Wifi

This will vary by Amtrak bus. On the shorter buses I’ve been on, there wasn’t working wifi. In this case, there was wifi, and it was slow but usable for emails and blog writing.

There were outlets under our seats, and they worked, but they were USB-only outlets. So, you may be out of luck if you need a proper outlet or USB-C. Like other buses, I wouldn’t count on wifi and outlets. If you have them, consider them a bonus.

The Bathroom

There are bathrooms on these buses. You can flush them. Unlike with Greyhound, you can expect there to be working hand sanitizer as well.

The View (Or Lack Thereof)

While I like riding Amtrak in and of itself as part of the journey, I can’t lie, the Amtrak bus just makes me want to get to the destination.

The best view I had was mega-highway Virginia traffic.

All of this can and will vary, because Amtrak charters with different companies around the country. However, in every case, there’s a bare minimum quality that you should expect, and it’s a step above Greyhound, closer to a Peter Pan experience.

Amtrak Bus vs. Other Options

I often say that if there’s an Amtrak train to somewhere in the U.S., and the timing is at all comparable to flying or driving, take the train.

It’s comfier, it’s usually cheaper, it’s always better for the environment. I write about this more in why I choose Amtrak over flying (most of the time).

But if it’s not a train, if it’s a bus, you should consider other options. At least, consider other bus options.

Thruway Bus Alternatives: Consider Local Transit

I’ll use the Emeryville example, because I have been on the Zephyr. If you want to avoid the bus connection to San Francisco, instead of getting on/off in Emeryville, get on or off in Richmond. Richmond is served by several BART lines that can take you into San Francisco and other parts of the Bay Area.

Depending on your final destination in the Bay, this will be faster and more convenient. Are you going to have to get on the BART anyway once you’re in SF?

A similar logic applies to other Thruway buses. Norfolk and Virginia Beach are in the same metro area, and only Norfolk is connected to the region’s Light Rail and has way more local buses.

Depending on your final destination, you may want to avoid the bus connection altogether and just take the local transit.

Look Up Other Bus Companies

For the longer bus routes, Amtrak is likely not your only choice. The U.S. has many regional bus companies that most people don’t know about.

For the Hartford Line example, one time, I saw that the train to New Haven was a bus, and I decided not to deal with Amtrak and the Metro-North altogether. Instead, I booked a direct Peter Pan bus from Hartford to New York.

This was just faster. Peter Pan is a fine bus company and the price was the same.

I like to use a website called Busbud, which is like SkyScanner or Google Flights but for buses. It will show you all the bus options available for U.S. routes. So if you’re not sure what the other options are, check.

Preparing for an Amtrak Bus

I’ll wrap this up with a few things to know before your bus ride.

Get there like you’re boarding a train. Amtrak recommends arriving 30 minutes before departure for buses. That’s about right, especially because the buses board in a separate area compared to the trains.

If the Thruway bus is connecting to a train, it will wait. If your train is running late and you’re supposed to catch a Thruway bus at the end, Amtrak coordinates it. The bus holds for you. This is not true for third-party connecting services, so know which type you’ve booked.

You do not need to print your ticket, but you need to show it. Have your QR code ready. The driver will scan or check it. I use the Amtrak app.

You can pack like you’re on a train. Your big luggage will go in the storage under the bus.

Your points count. Amtrak Guest Rewards works on Thruway buses.

Charge your devices. Since the buses will vary, don’t count on reliable outlets or wifi.

Bring snacks and water. There’s no cafe car on a bus. Bring the food you’ll want.

That’s all I got! Have a question about Amtrak buses? Want to share something I missed? Chime in down the comments and let’s help people know what to expect.