Experience with Amtrak bus - Seattle to Richmond, BC

June 7, 2022 11:29 AM

I'm trying to get from Seattle to the Vancouver airport in August. Curious if anyone has recent experience with the Amtrak bus from Seattle to Richmond, BC? (Like, is it typically on time? If I took it same-day with a flight departure scheduled four hours after the bus is supposed to arrive, are chances good I would make the flight?)

I hate flying, so I'm trying to get a nonstop flight and the single daily nonstop from Seattle to Montreal is quite expensive. Vancouver to Montreal is much cheaper but I still have to get from Seattle to Vancouver somehow.

I'd happily take a train but it would appear the Amtrak trains are not running across the border (Amtrak site says "Train will resume when the border reopens" and it's been...at least a year since the border reopened, so not sure what's going on there.)

Another possibility is renting a car but it looks like they're mostly already sold out, so I'm leaning toward the bus.

Open to other ideas, too, if you have done this trip. Thanks for any help!

posted by kittensyay to Travel & Transportation (10 answers total)

Best answer: Hello! I just took the Amtrack bus on this same route, just last weekend.

The bus left Seattle on time. To expedite things, I'd get there an hour early, so the bus driver can get you checked in, and your luggage on the bus, really quickly. The driver will check both your ticket and your ArriveCAN status before you can board, so have both of those squared away.

The only holdup we had was at the Canadian border crossing, and that's because someone got taken back into Secondary screening for more questioning. But that only added 30 minutes to our schedule. I left on a Wednesday morning and came back on a Sunday night; no substantial traffic either way. The buses also have their own special lane for Customs, so that helped expedite things as well.

If time is of the essence, it's worth it to try to sit in the front of the bus; it'll be easier to get off at Richmond then. And also, much less of a wait for Customs; I was the first off the bus, and th efirst one through; I sat and had snacks while I waited fo everyone else.
posted by spinifex23 at 11:59 AM on June 7, 2022 [1 favorite]

The delay at the border is very unpredictable. I would be anxious. Also, it looks like the bus drops at a random airport-area hotel, so while the distance is short, it's not pedestrian-friendly; you'll have to build in time to get a cab (or sneak aboard a shuttle), which can take a little while depending on time of day.

I understand that you don't like flying, but SEA-YVR is basically blink-and-you'll-miss-it length. It's actually a rather homey flight, unless there are annoying American cruise passengers aboard. I would pit your dislike of air travel against the prospect of being stuck on a bus crawling through customs as your flight time approaches, or, worse, getting pulled over for inspection.
posted by praemunire at 12:00 PM on June 7, 2022 [6 favorites]

It seems that Flixbus also has that route now. It goes downtown, and there's a Skytrain from downtown to the airport. Might be more comfortable - worth a look. Things to compare include number of seats, air conditioning, wifi, etc.
posted by dum spiro spero at 12:29 PM on June 7, 2022 [1 favorite]

Speaking as someone who isn't a great fan of flying but ends up doing so with relative frequency, a plane trip out of Seattle with a layover with flights booked together (so that if there is a delay on the airline side, the airlines should automatically rebook you, and at the very least they're on the hook for getting you to your eventual destination) sounds like a much less stressful thing to do than to get on a bus and deal with a land border crossing that may take much longer than you expect and an airline that will most likely just shrug their shoulders if you don't happen to make your flight. I'd only go through with your plan if you plan to do something like go up the day before and spend a night in Vancouver or whatever.
posted by Aleyn at 1:09 PM on June 7, 2022 [4 favorites]

Best answer: There is also the Quick Shuttle bus, which stops very near the Skytrain station so you can quickly get to the airport (the Amtrak bus stops further away).
posted by ssg at 1:56 PM on June 7, 2022

wildcard suggestion/idea: Could you fly from Seattle to upstate NY and then do the bus/train from there to Montreal? US flights tend to be WAY cheaper than Canadian and it looks like it would add about an hour of bus time to reduce any fears about missing the flight.
posted by Sweetchrysanthemum at 2:02 PM on June 7, 2022 [3 favorites]

There's no cross-border Amtrak service right now. Bus service might be a possibility, but I would want to have a very solid idea of how to get from any upstate airport to the corresponding bus station.
posted by praemunire at 2:33 PM on June 7, 2022

If you're going to be flying to Montreal anyway, it really doesn't make much sense to do a land border crossing. I was just looking at Air Canada flights from Seattle to Montreal for next week, and it was half the cost to have a Vancouver stopover than the non-stop to Montreal (as long as you we're willing to leave at 6am).
posted by ShooBoo at 3:47 PM on June 7, 2022 [2 favorites]

(Amtrak had planned to reopen that route this month, I think, but have had staffing shortages and new staff have to go through additional certification or something. Signed, someone who really likes taking the train to Vancouver)
posted by bluedaisy at 4:10 PM on June 7, 2022 [2 favorites]

Following on to what Sweetchrysanthemum said, check the cost of flying to Burlington, VT. There is Greyhound service to Montreal, though it is only once a day. The Burlington airport's lifeblood is Canadians flying to US destinations, so I expect there are options other than Greyhound, but I've only used Greyhound (to go MTL -> BTV, to be clear).

Plattsburgh, NY is another airport in easy striking distance of Montreal, but I think Burlington is bigger.
posted by hoyland at 5:05 PM on June 7, 2022