Cabin Bus

Darkspeed · August 17, 2017, 11:28:08 AM

http://www.cnn.com/videos/travel/2017/06/30/california-hotel-on-wheels-cabin-orig-kgo.cnn

https://techcrunch.com/2017/06/30/cabin-secures-3-3m-for-its-moving-hotel/

https://www.ridecabin.com/

Iceni John · August 17, 2017, 01:07:37 PM

A modern version of the Pickwick sleeper buses of yore. The promo photos look nice, but they always do - if the clientele is attractive millennials with good personal hygiene, like in the photos, it would be OK, but typical Greyhound riders may give you a different experience! How many berths per bus?

John

Jeremy · August 17, 2017, 01:57:19 PM

Plenty of examples of sleeper buses & hotel buses used in remote areas where there are no alternative facilities....

Jeremy

....But using them in a country that has a perfectly good (and surely superior) railway system? Almost sounds like the contrived comedy plot from a 1970s Hollywood movie...

lvmci · August 17, 2017, 04:05:41 PM

Hi Jeremy, Las Vegas, modern day, was created by a steam railway, the San Pedro, Los Angeles and Salt Lake Railroad it was added to Union Pacific later. But you can't take a passenger train to Las Vegas, not since the 1980s! lvmci...

lostagain · August 17, 2017, 05:12:16 PM

I remember in the 70s a German double decker bus would tour the Canadian Rockies all summer with German tourists. It had many bunks and a kitchen where they cooked all meals. Imagine being the driver! You'd have to like people a lot, a lot more than I do... I haven't seen it for years.

JC

Lin · August 17, 2017, 05:40:09 PM

One like Jeremy's second picture was once parked near us when camping once. There was an outdoor kitchen that stowed for travel and someone was working on dinner (driver?). The people we spoke to were German, and they were visiting several National Parks. I do not think that I would like that type of travel, but it did not seem unreasonable for those that would.

Oonrahnjay · August 17, 2017, 09:28:44 PM

Quote from: lostagain on August 17, 2017, 05:12:16 PMI remember in the 70s a German double decker bus would tour the Canadian Rockies all summer with German tourists. It had many bunks and a kitchen where they cooked all meals. Imagine being the driver! You'd have to like people a lot, a lot more than I do... I haven't seen it for years.

JC

Yes, see Jeremy's second photo. They're "Rotels" -- "Rolling hotels", run by a German company.

Jeremy · August 18, 2017, 01:47:48 AM

I'm actually more impressed by the size of the trailer being pulled by the bus in the first photo..

Jeremy

Oonrahnjay · August 18, 2017, 10:50:02 AM

Quote from: Jeremy on August 18, 2017, 01:47:48 AM
I'm actually more impressed by the size of the trailer being pulled by the bus in the first photo..

Jeremy

Each of those windows is a (coffin-sized) sleeping compartment - single only!

Iceni John · August 18, 2017, 12:44:41 PM

$115 times 24 passengers is $2760 per trip (assuming 100% occupancy). The bus can make only one trip per 24 hours, so it can generate only $82,800 per month. Is that enough to be profitable? I'm wondering what will happen after the initial infusions of investor cash are spent.

ETN in Mexico uses similar-size double-decker buses with only 25 seats, i.e. about the same passenger capacity as the Cabin Bus, but the big difference is that they can be used 24 hours a day, not just at night. Incidentally, ETN has separate men's and women's loos (as do all better MX buses now), and I wonder how the single loo in the Cabin Bus will manage with a surge of use before folk go to bed and after they get up - I would have thought that two loos would be a necessity for a sleeper bus. Does Cabin Bus use US-101 between LA and SF instead of I-5?

I wish Cabin Bus the best of luck, but I have a feeling that long-term profitability might be elusive for them.

John

windtrader · August 20, 2017, 09:11:15 PM

It's not for most but I suspect there are enough to at least make it a niche transportation mode. the pickup is SF is South of Market, very convenient in the heart of tech zone. You can work pretty late until 10:30 and head over to the bus. Get on and wind down and go to bed. Wake up in Santa Monica. If you can sleep well, it is pretty hassle free way to get between the places. Airports have become horrible and simply a huge PIA. I dislike planes so much I bought my own bus. LOL

Slug · August 21, 2017, 04:34:38 AM

They have been in Australia for around 25 years. German based they do 7-14 day tours sit in the bus during the long days on the road then all chip in to help setup and cook at night
The side opens up to form a roof and floor the canvas sides are put on
They cover a lot of ground one side of the country to the other in 7 days and around the country in 14-18 days one would need a holiday after one trip
We have the half coach bed setup as well as full coach and then a prime mover and 52 bed trailer behind
Each to there own I suppose
James

CrabbyMilton · August 21, 2017, 06:50:03 AM

Long term profitability is indeed the key phrase here. It may be a nice novelty for a few years and then the coaches would be sold off.
Some of these premium passenger rail companies have suspended operations due to lack of interest. They had full service sleeper and diner cars. They were pulled behind AMTRAK trains but other than schedules, they operated completely separate.
Even premium service airlines never seemed to get over. Just imagine a 777 with seating for fewer than 50 people and the rest of the plane sleeping and dining areas. Most people want to get out and walk around and sleep in a decent hotel. Nice ideas but if the market isn't there, what can you do?

Zephod · August 21, 2017, 08:01:11 AM

Somebody, somewhere is always willing to pay through the nose for luxury. Jay Z has a gigantic Russian helicopter to take just him around. Needless to say - the lap of luxury. I know one guy who owns his own railway carriage and uses it when he goes anywhere.

Some of the Malaysian airlines have super huge jumbo jets with the inside made up like a luxury hotel. Somebody pays for that level of luxury.

I don't personally know anybody that does (and the guy that owns the carriage owns a pretty well derelict carriage) and don't know anybody that reliably knows somebody that does...

That leads to another question - do such luxury things really exist as anything other than propaganda and do rich people really exist? IS everything fake - in the same vein as Total Recall?

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CrabbyMilton · August 21, 2017, 09:31:56 AM

You're right about some of those airlines that offer that. At least they can reconfigure if the concept loses interest.
I'm sure they exist. I wish I knew people like that.
Maybe Elvis will let you go for a ride on his CONVAIR 880 aka the LISA MARIE if you're nice to him.

Seriously, that's really a well equipped aircraft.
It's no longer airworthy and the cost to put it back in flyable condition would exceed the cost of a brand new one.