Monday, August 6, 2012

NEW ZEALAND GREEN


Jailed New Zealand dope grower vows to sell again
By Mike Dinsdale
10:32 AM Monday Aug 6, 2012

Photo / Thinkstock

A man who walked into Whangarei police station with a number of cannabis seedlings he had been cultivating has vowed to continue defying the country's drug laws when he is released from prison.
But police said they will continue to take action against anybody growing drugs and the man can expect to be arrested if caught.
Brian Borland, 56, has been sentenced to six months' jail after pleading guilty to one charge of cultivating cannabis and one of breaching special release conditions after he went into Whangarei Police Station with up to 39 cannabis seedlings on June 1.
It was initially reported that Borland went to the police station to hand himself in on outstanding warrants and as he had nowhere to live took the plants with him, asking police if they could look after them for him. The plants were destroyed and he was charged with their cultivation.
He appeared in Kaikohe District Court on July 17 where he pleaded guilty to the charges and was sent to Ngawha Prison for six months. He will be released before the end of this month due to the time he had already spent in custody.
But an unrepentant Borland said he would continue to defy the country's marijuana laws when he was released.
"When I experienced the joys of cannabis for the first time in 1973 it wasn't illegal ... it was banned the following year in 1974," he said.
"I could not see any reason why it should be banned, 38 years later I still feel the same way."
Borland said dope prohibition had only made many thousands of ordinary Kiwis criminals, and claimed there were up to 700,000 people in the country who smoked the drug regularly.
However, relieving Whangarei police area commander Inspector Tracy Phillips said officers had a responsibility to enforce the law, and that includes illicit drug cultivation, dealing and manufacturing.
"Cannabis is prolific in Northland and has negative impacts on our communities, particularly our young people," Mr Phillips said.
"It is also associated with other criminal activities such as burglary and violence. If anyone is caught growing or dealing in this or other drugs then we will take action."
Northland is the cannabis capital of the country, with a third of the marijuana plants seized and destroyed by police in six-month long, nationwide operations targeting drug growers and dealers grown in the region.

Peter’s Comment

Borland, who police must regard as a bit of a bore, may have a point about whether or not the law should change.

But breaking the law is not the way to seek change. Borland should think about becoming the local Member of Parliament, but then some would say that Parliament already has an over-supply of bores.

So perhaps the best course of action for Mr Borland will be to demonstrate that he can behave rationally while partaking of the weed. From all accounts, he hasn’t done that yet.

Sunday, August 5, 2012

MEMORIES OF PAST WEATHER

New study links current events to 
climate change
By SETH BORENSTEIN | Associated Press 

WASHINGTON (AP) — The relentless, weather-gone-crazy type of heat that has blistered the United States and other parts of the world in recent years is so rare that it can't be anything but man-made global warming, says a new statistical analysis from a top government scientist.
A cumulonimbus, or  anvil cloud
Photo: National Geographic
The research by a man often called the "godfather of global warming" says that the likelihood of such temperatures occurring from the 1950s through the 1980s was rarer than 1 in 300. Now, the odds are closer to 1 in 10, according to the study by NASA scientist James Hansen. He says that statistically what's happening is not random or normal, but pure and simple climate change.
"This is not some scientific theory. We are now experiencing scientific fact," Hansen told The Associated Press in an interview.
Hansen is a scientist at NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies in New York and a professor at Columbia University. But he is also a strident activist who has called for government action to curb greenhouse gases for years. While his study was published online Saturday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science, it is unlikely to sway opinion among the remaining climate change skeptics.
However, several climate scientists praised the new work.
In a blunt departure from most climate research, Hansen's study — based on statistics, not the more typical climate modeling — blames these three heat waves purely on global warming:
—Last year's devastating Texas-Oklahoma drought.
—The 2010 heat waves in Russia and the Middle East, which led to thousands of deaths.
—The 2003 European heat wave blamed for tens of thousands of deaths, especially among the elderly in France.
The analysis was written before the current drought and record-breaking temperatures that have seared much of the United States this year. But Hansen believes this too is another prime example of global warming at its worst.
Continued below . . . 

Don't be alarmed by climate change alarmists
Relax with a good book

The new research makes the case for the severity of global warming in a different way than most scientific studies and uses simple math instead of relying on complex climate models or an understanding of atmospheric physics. It also doesn't bother with the usual caveats about individual weather events having numerous causes.
The increase in the chance of extreme heat, drought and heavy downpours in certain regions is so huge that scientists should stop hemming and hawing, Hansen said. "This is happening often enough, over a big enough area that people can see it happening," he said.
Scientists have generally responded that it's impossible to say whether single events are caused by global warming, because of the influence of natural weather variability.
However, that position has been shifting in recent months, as other studies too have concluded climate change is happening right before our eyes.
Hansen hopes his new study will shift people's thinking about climate change and goad governments into action. He wrote an op-ed piece that appeared online Friday in the Washington Post.
"There is still time to act and avoid a worsening climate, but we are wasting precious time," he wrote.
The science in Hansen's study is excellent "and reframes the question," said Andrew Weaver, a climate scientist at the University of Victoria in British Columbia who was a member of the Nobel Prize-winning international panel of climate scientists that issued a series of reports on global warming.
"Rather than say, 'Is this because of climate change?' That's the wrong question. What you can say is, 'How likely is this to have occurred with the absence of global warming?' It's so extraordinarily unlikely that it has to be due to global warming," Weaver said.

Peter’s Piece

We’ve heard all this before. It’s the same old recycled trash.

Climate has always been changing and always will change, but the notion that the change is man-made is not logical. Climate change comes naturally in cycles that can last months, years, decades, centuries and millenniums and with much greater extremes than anything experienced during man’s time on the planet.

Hansen talks about a supposed recent increase in extreme weather events and I can understand that people will fall for that argument. He is depending on peoples flawed memories of past events. We tend only to remember one hot summer, one cold winter, or one severe tornado or other serious happening.

But the fact remains that the highest temperatures ever recorded date from the early twentieth century rather than the late twentieth or twenty-first centuries. Similarly, world records for wind, floods, thunder storms and tornadoes were recorded before most of us were born.

Hansen will call me a skeptic. I call him an alarmist.


Saturday, August 4, 2012

ON THE ROAD IN AUSTRALIA


Australian road train driver
Australia is about the size of the U.S., but most of our people live within ten miles of the sea in a handful of cities. The inland of Australia is made up of a few cattle ranches which they call cattle stations. They are hundreds of square miles in size, but because the land is so dry and there is not much water, few cattle are spread over a lot of land. Most of the land is still unused government land.
Railways are few and far between in central Australia. There is no freeway from coast to coast. The numbers of cars are few and the roads are narrow with one lane in each direction. When you get two trucks passing each other, they are only a few feet apart.
With thousands of miles of road between the cities and few hills to cross, the Australian Road Train makes good sense. The normal road train is made up of three, 44-foot trailers with a twin axle turn table dolly under the front of the trailer hooked up to the back of the trailer in front of it with a ring feeder and a dolly bar. The load is 120 tons, spread over the three trailers. The normal road train is made up of three trailers, but in the mining game they haul six trailers or more.
For training to get a road train license you have to be over 18 years old and you start with what's called a TAFE course that is held at a collage. I am an old-time driver that has not done this course, but from what I have been told you learn everything from how to tie ropes to how much air to put into the tyres--you notice we spell tyre differently to Americans. After a passing the TAFE course, you then have to do a heavy truck-driving test on the road.
It is one thing to get a license, but another thing to get a job driving a road train. You have to get a permit from a company that will give you a job. So, it is a catch 22. No one will give you a job unless you have experience and unless you know someone who will give you a go at it; it is hard to find a job driving a road train.
The best way is to start driving small trucks and do that for a number of years. Then start driving bigger trucks. As you progress, then someone will let you loose with a road train. There's no quick way.
Most of the trucks (tractors) we use are U.S. makes. The big two are Mack and Kenworth. They have to be made to road train standards (which listing all those details would take all day). The chassis are made stronger with more cross members and the chassis are not allowed to be too long, so you do not have room for big sleeper cabs. We have to double the number of air tanks, plus add more fuel tanks on both sides and lots more.
In Australia, you can drive four hours without stopping then you must stop for half an hour. You cannot drive for more than 12 hours in one day, but most drivers break regulations every day. A driver has a logbook to fill out, but that means nothing. It's called the "book of lies."
These days a lot of trucking companies run two drivers to each truck. While one drives the other one rests, that way they can go straight through.
Continued below:


Available now from Smashwords

There are some differences in terminology. In Australia truck drivers are called "truckies" not truckers. The tractor is called a "prime-mover" not a tractor. (A tractor in Australia is what a farmer uses to dig up his field to grow his crop.)
Most trucks have fuel for at least one thousand miles because, as you leave the big cities on the coast and head into the outback, the price of fuel goes up. There are truck stops every 150 miles and most of these are small compared to American truck stops. They seat ten or so people. The food is home-style cooking: steak and eggs, plus burgers and fries (what we call chips). It's simple food, not conveyer-belt food.
The wages are not too bad for Australian truckies. They earn around 600 a week. The average wage in Australia for other blue-collar jobs is about 375 a week. There are two Australian dollars to one U.S. dollar.
Australia is very large and its seasons are the reverse of the U.S. December is the start of our summer so Father Christmas is pulled by kangaroos not reindeer. In the south, the summer is hot and dry, and the average temperature is about 95 degrees F with a lot of days just over 100. In the winter, the weather is mild and I have never seen snow. The north has just two seasons, the wet and the dry, with a yearly average of 95 degrees. The middle of Australia is always dry and hot, but can be freezing at night during winter.
As to what you see driving in Australia, near the coast there is normal farmland, but in the outback you do not know what you will see next. At night there are lots of kangaroos. They are heavy on most roads and that's why our trucks have big "roo bars" on the front. It is not unusual to hit four or five kangaroos on one trip and they can do more damage than you think.
In the daytime you see a lot of wildlife--birds, big eagles and falcons; emus, which are big flightless birds; snakes; wombats, which are a bit like a fat dog; and dingos.
The good part of doing the job is that there is no boss looking over your shoulder all day and every trip is different. You are so far away that you have to do your own thing. You have to be a jack-of-all-trades. If the truck stops running, you have to try and get it going by yourself. Help is hundreds of miles away.
The bad part about the job is that you have a timetable to keep and you are paid only when you are running. If you breakdown and have to wait for someone to come hundreds of miles to get you going, you do not get paid for the waiting time. But it's a good time to catch up on your sleep.
For more information on trucking in Australia, visit Kingsley Foreman's website: www.inselfdefense.net/outbacktowing

Peter’s Comment

The wages quoted above appear to be a few years out of date. An Australian road train driver in 2012 earns more like $1,500 to $2,000 AUD a week. Also the exchange rate has changed and US and Australian dollars are about on a par now.

JET JOCKEYS SING THIS SONG

El Paso City from 30,000 feet
Sing along with Marty Robbins
Great airborne shots in the video


The Franklin Mountains, El Paso, Texas

Marty Robbins - El Paso City: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8J4L4d-rDU0


Interstate 10, El Paso, Texas
Enjoy

JETSTAR'S NEW PILOT

"Welcome aboard Jetstar Flight 189 from Brisbane non-stop to Sydney, if I can find the place. In the unlikely event that we crash it shouldn't be too stressful due to the fact that it will happen during darkness and we won't see it coming."




AN INTERNATIONAL DISASTER BODY


New Zealand's bold plan
to rebuild a city
By Kurt Bayer New Zealand Herald
6:00 PM Monday Jul 30, 2012

A scene from Christchurch on February 22, 2011 when 185 people died


A covered sports stadium is the showpiece inclusion in the rebuild blueprint for earthquake-damaged Christchurch city center announced today.
The much-anticipated blueprint includes 12 key sites for major facilities, including a new 2000-capacity convention center at a "postcard location" by the Avon River, a huge aquatic and indoor sports facility, revitalized square with a new central library, and Ngai Tahu cultural center.
Shops, restaurants, bars and cafes are expected to line the picturesque river's edge, as well as the sports stadiums, in a push to make the revitalized city "very much like Melbourne", according to Prime Minister John Key.
The compact center of a rebuilt Garden City, designed to "solve the problem of too much land, not enough demand", will rise from a sweeping space flanked by the twisting Avon and a leafy, bright "college-campus style" frame.
It will take minutes to walk from the new city square, to the 35,000-seat covered stadium, which will have natural, fixed turf. Cycle ways will link historic Hagley Park to downtown.
The blueprint will result in a low-rise city, with a maximum height limit on new buildings of 28 meters, or up to eight storeys, and will be divided into precincts of health, arts and entertainment, retail, as well as the justice and emergency sectors.
Mr Key and Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Minister Gerry Brownlee officially unveiled the highly anticipated blueprint this evening.
"As a former Cantabrian I am delighted to see this plan for new development and to know construction will soon be underway to rebuild my old hometown," Mr Key said.
The Christchurch Central Development Unit (CCDU), set up in April by the Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Authority (Cera) to plan the CBD rebuild, was given 100 days to come up with the blueprint.
The city center was largely destroyed in the magnitude-6.3 earthquake of February 22, 2011, which claimed 185 lives.
Investors and developers say they have been unable to consider any rebuild plans until they knew the location of the new civic facilities. Mr Brownlee said the recovery plan contained a blueprint for a smaller, greener, central city that will set Christchurch apart from any other urban center.
"The plan and its implementation are being watched by the rest of the world, which has also been supportive of Christchurch in its time of need," Mr Brownlee said.
"I anticipate a light, airy, college-campus style feel for the home of numerous innovative Christchurch companies and public sector agencies."
Mr Brownlee refused to say how much it may cost, saying only that the Government had allocated $5.5 billion on the earthquake recovery so far and had already spent $2.45b.
The Government will be working with around 800 city property owners, and will have the powers under the Cera Act 2011 to compulsorily buy land it needs to make way for key facilities.
Further details on a new hospital, advanced technology hub, and a justice precinct are expected to follow in coming months.
Christchurch Mayor Bob Parker said the plan was a "bold vision" while the blueprint received rave reviews from developers and investors at tonight's glitzy launch at the city council headquarters.
Millionaire city property owner Antony Gough said the city had been in "uncharted waters" but now had "a chart to lead the way".
Christchurch Airport boss Jim Boult believed the new central city would be the envy of similar sized cities throughout the world.
There were detractors, however, with about 250 people attempting to disrupt the launch with a vocal protest outside the council building, with chants including, 'Fix our homes before the CBD', and 'Mr Key, hear our plea, we need a road to recovery.'
Wider Earthquake Communities' Action Network (WeCan) spokesman Mike Coleman said today marked further evidence of a "corporate recovery" while residents in the eastern city suburbs were being "left to flounder".
"They open up the champagne bottles for the CBD but there's mere drips of water for the plebs in the suburbs."
Lindsay Carswell of the Christchurch Civic Trust welcomed the "bold vision" but questioned whether it would "actually happen."

Peter’s Comment

A bold, far-sighted plan but Christchurch will never feel like Christchurch ever again to the people who survived and still live there.

There is growing evidence that rescue and recovery from major disasters like Christchurch should be controlled by an international disaster organization. Events like Christchurch are just too big for a single nation to cope with.

Many countries sent teams to Christchurch within hours of the main event on February 22, 2011 and that help was certainly appreciated. But New Zealanders were in control with little or no experience of major disasters and the lack of a properly coordinated international response has left Christchurch and New Zealand with a legacy of errors, delays and frustrations that the country will have to live with for a very long time.

All of the above can be said without pointing an accusing finger at any particular official, politician or organization. In fact the leadership of Christchurch Mayor Bob Parker, just to mention one, was and continues to be outstanding. 

A MOVING EXPERIENCE

Overloaded!




The driver in the top picture was in training for
driving the truck in the bottom picture.






JETSTAR AUSTRALIA



Has Jetstar’s star fallen?

A Jetstar Airbus A-330
Posted on Facebook by Daniel Hazard after flying Brisbane to Sydney, in Australia

I was on the tarmac queuing to board flight DJ189 last night from BNE to SYD @8:30. It was particularly cold and we would have been waiting outside for about 8 minutes before we were able to board via the front stairs. I noticed an elderly lady in a wheelchair waiting at the bottom of the stairs, in the cold, where there were also strong aviation fumes. I notified the head steward when I reached the cabin, as I felt it was inappropriate that someone of that age should be left outside in the cold while the rest of us able-bodied passengers boarded ahead of her. My comment was treated with derision and I was informed that the head steward's responsibilities "did not include anything outside the plane". He did not even attempt to address my concerns and I noticed that the lady was the very last passenger to board the plane. I find it hard to believe that Jetstar could not have assisted this woman to board earlier, or in fact, at all during the boarding process. Other passengers certainly took notice and it made my trip very uncomfortable due to the obvious disrespect bestowed on the elderly woman. I am happy to speak to someone about this further. It was an absolute disgrace.

Peter’s Comment

Jetstar is a budget subsidiary of Qantas Airways and has been beset by passenger complaints since its launch a few years ago. They operate Airbus aircraft with comparatively inexperienced crews. There is even a website devoted to Jetstar complaints: http://www.dontflyjetstar.com/

However, I flew Jetstar a couple of times without finding fault other than crammed seating. They were the cheapest at the time so I suppose you only get what you pay for.


With a good book you can
block out the poor service

PO Box 110, Ngatea 3541, New Zealand


There is another way in which cheapest is not always best and that is in the choice of aircraft. In some aviation circles there is a saying: Boeings are designed by experts and can be flown by idiots. Airbuses are designed by idiots and must be flown by experts.  Because most pilots and crew, like passengers, value their hides most will want to fly in Boeings thereby leaving the Airbuses to the least experienced crews.

Wednesday, August 1, 2012

INDIA AND CLIMATE CHANGE


By BRYAN WALSH | @bryanrwalsh | July 31, 2012 Science-Time.com
How Climate Change and the Monsoons Affect India’s Blackouts
India's blackouts have left nearly 700 million people without power. The unstable monsoons are adding to demand for electricity—and climate change could disrupt the summer rains even further.
Waiting for the monsoon in India

Blame it on the rain—at least partially. Northern India has been plagued by prolonged blackouts over the past few days that have left some 600 million people without regular power. The electrical grid has never covered the entire country—around 300 million of India’s 1.2 billion citizens lack access to regular electricity—and isolated blackouts are common even in urban areas that normally get juice. But the collapse of the grid this week is something else, spreading to 22 of the country’s 28 states, with much of the capital of New Delhi plunged into darkness, hundreds of trains left dead in their tracks and car stalled thanks to the failure of traffic lights.
Though India’s regular experience with blackouts make it that much more able to deal with a prolonged power loss like this one—hospitals, offices and even homes have backup diesel generators and make frequent use of them—the disaster will make it that much harder to buy into the idea that the second-most populous country in the world is ready to compete with China on the global stage. Said Chandrajit Banerjee, director general of the Confederation of Indian Industry, in a statement:
The electricity supply in India

As one of the emerging economies of the world, which is home to almost a sixth of the world population, it is imperative that our basic infrastructure requirements are in keeping with India’s aspirations. The developments of yesterday and today have created a huge dent in the country’s reputation that is most unfortunate.
What’s behind the blackout? It’s not clear yet, though India’s rickety power grid is hardly invulnerable to stress. And that stress may be increasing, as growing industry and personal use in an increasingly rich India—think air conditioners to cool the subcontinent—outpace India’s ability to actually generate electricity.
And that’s where the monsoon could become a major problem. The great summer storms—which provide three-quarters of India’s annual rainfall—came late to the country this year, leaving much of northern India gripped in a killer drought and unrelenting heat. While the slow monsoons are unlikely to have directly caused the blackouts—the rains finally began to fall recently, enough to reduce temperatures—parched farmers in agricultural areas are turning to electric pumps in large numbers to bring groundwater to the surface for irrigation. If the monsoons continue to be erratic and slow in a global warming future, the demand for electricity to compensate for the heat and the drought will only increase.
Continued below . . . .


Available from Amazon or Smashwords


But what will climate change do to the monsoons? Like many regional impacts, that’s difficult for scientists to predict, especially since weather data on the monsoons in South Asia is still lacking, as the Economist pointed out in an article last week:
Too little is known about summer weather systems on the subcontinent. India is short of observation stations, weather planes, satellites, climate scientists and modelers. The government and foreign donors are scrambling to make amends. But even with better data, monsoons are ill-understood once they leave the sea or low-lying land. At altitude, notably, for instance, approaching the Himalayas, it is far trickier to grasp just how factors such as wind direction, air pressure, latent heating and moisture levels interact to deliver monsoon rains.
We do know that India, like the rest of the planet, has gotten hotter over the past six decades as man-made greenhouse gases have warmed the atmosphere. All other things being equal, that should lead to more precipitation—a hotter atmosphere means more evaporation and can hold more water. For the monsoons, the fact that the land is heating up faster than the oceans should actually draw in more moisture, which in turn should mean stronger monsoons. But that hasn’t happened yet.
Peter’s Comment
India is not only the world’s second most populous country, but it is also growing at a rate that will put it’s population ahead of China’s within the next few years.
India has long suffered from a lack of adequate infrastructure and that problem will worsen as the population explodes and as increasing personal wealth makes greater demands on the infrastructure.
But now we are lead to believe that India’s problems could be due to climate change, even though it is admitted that there is little local data to back that up.
In simple terms, monsoons are created by a combination of heat and moisture and are generally confined to tropical regions. Therefore if the world is getting warmer, as we are so often told, then the monsoons should start earlier rather than later.
But I believe we are often told anything that will support the theory of climate change. Of particular note is the alarmist way that everything about climate change is bad. But wait a minute. Surely some places are going to be better off with a warmer climate. Why don’t we hear about those places?
Perhaps a majority of places will be better off with a warmer climate. Doesn’t a substantial part of the world population take a break during winter in a warmer locale?
Perhaps the greatest tragedy of the Indian situation is that some people would have them believe that it is beyond their control to make their country a better place to live and do business.

LEAVE THE CAR, TAKE THE BUS


Bus Travel Making a Big Comeback
July 29, 2012 7:12 am by Ed Perkins Today in Travel
  
Riding the bus is no longer the last travel resort for students and budget travelers. Several big bus operators are competing for a share of the mainstream travel market with improved buses and faster schedules.
The bus "renaissance" in the United States was kicked off in 2006 by Megabus, a unit of Coach USA and a subsidiary of the Stagecoach Group, a big British rail-and-bus operator. It follows principles evolved in the United Kingdom since 1980:

·         Buses are modern (many are double-deckers) with onboard restrooms, Wi-Fi, and power outlets.
·         Typical route patterns radiate from a major city to cities within a radius of approximately 400 miles or less. Longer routes generally operate at least twice daily (one daytime, one overnight) with higher frequencies on busy routes.
·         Stops are limited; trips typically stop at no more than three intermediate cities between terminals.
·         Schedules are fast: Megabus competes head-to-head with Amtrak on many of its routes, and it usually either meets or beats the rail schedule.
·         Fares are capacity controlled, generally starting out with at least one seat for $1, with the price for the remaining seats increasing as more and more seats are sold.

Currently, the main Megabus "hub" cities are Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas, New York, Toronto, and Washington, D.C. Most trips radiate from these hubs, but a few connect one hub to another.
Greyhound has also moved into this market, with a combination of upgrading, rebranding, and subsidiaries:
·         Bolt Bus, a subsidiary, operates linear routes along the busy eastern corridor from Boston to Washington, D.C., plus a new line between Portland and Vancouver.
·         Greyhound has "rebranded" some of its basic intercity product as Greyhound Express. Unlike Megabus, Greyhound Express promotes longer trips, often with connections, and operates from a combination of regional hubs in the East, Midwest, and South with a linear California route between Los Angeles and Sacramento or San Francisco.
·         Neon, another affiliate, runs a system between New York and Toronto that appears similar to Megabus.
·         As with Megabus, Greyhound's upgraded buses are equipped with onboard lavatories, Wi-Fi, power plugs, and reserved seats. Although Bolt advertises "extra legroom," it doesn't specify the seat spacing. One bulletin board, however, showed a post from a reader who measured Greyhound Express at 33- to 34-inch pitch and 18-inch width, which is actually a bit better than most economy air.

Most of the smaller bus companies that operate in the East are going for low fares. And although many offer Wi-Fi, their products seem to be low-end. One company, however, operates a truly upscale product: LimoLinerruns from Boston to New York with buses that feature wide one-by-two seating and extra legroom, along with the standard Wi-Fi. Fares, however, are quite a bit higher than on the mass-market lines, even higher than some off-peak Amtrak fares.
How do these new buses compare with flying and Amtrak? I've seen several reports, by both travel pros and individual travelers, and the consensus runs something like this:

Relax on the bus with a good book
PO Box 110, Ngatea 3541, New Zealand

Compared with Amtrak, the new upscale buses are usually cheaper, they're often as fast or faster, and they run on many routes Amtrak doesn't operate and run more often on most routes where Amtrak does. But Amtrak is much more comfortable.
Compared with flying, on the relatively short-haul routes where they operate most frequently, buses are usually much cheaper than flying and close to competitive in elapsed time when you include the hassles of getting to/from airports and security lines. Bus seating seems to be about the same as economy air, with the advantage of no middle seats. On longer trips, however, buses are a real test of endurance.
My take on the new buses is that if you're looking for minimum cost, you should give them serious consideration for a trip of less than 400 miles. But Amtrak's a lot more fun.
Peter’s Comment
Bus travel has long been due for a renaissance in many parts of the world. Buses have a flexibility that rail travel lacks and the flexibility is logistical as well as economic.
Bus operators wanting to expand their services have one huge advantage over rail operators; the roads already go everywhere, but rail operators wanting to open new routes are faced with massive costs for land and infrastructure. An operator of a new rail route can only recoup the outlay with high fares and high volume patronage, a combination that will often be self-defeating except perhaps in mega cities.
But the real opportunity for bus operators of the future will also be in the suburbs of major cities. Once again the roads go everywhere but it will become increasingly difficult, frustrating  and more costly for cars to go everywhere as buses take a larger share of the roads with exclusive lanes and exclusive roads once used by cars.
Modern buses are nothing like the unreliable, uncomfortable rattle-traps of the past. They are also efficient, adaptable to route changes, can run profitably with fewer passengers than rail services and are less likely to suffer delays.

BEYOND THE SEAS

This is my latest historical novel  Beyond the Seas When twelve-year-old orphan Nathaniel Asker is shipped from the back alleys of London to...