Now rolling between Canberra and Sydney: a business class bus

What a great idea!

I don't mind the bus. I've started getting the Murray's bus on Friday evenings for those weekends where I head back to Canberra. Watch a movie and a TV episode or two and you're there.

It's also much easier to get to my house from the city vs the airport.

Alas a 4:30pm departure is far too early and would require me to leave the office at 3:30pm. For me to do a full day in Sydney I catch either a 6pm bus or a 6pm flight.

Coming back to Sydney however - not a chance I'll be on a 5:45am bus. The 7:30am or 8:00am flight is much more palatable.

With the exception of wifi and power (neither of which I'd use), this looks no different to the Murrays services which also have new leather seats and operate much more frequently.

So to summarise: the only way I'd be interested is if the departure times suited my schedule better, and I'd like to see a way where an empty seat could be guaranteed next to you.

I would love a Business Class bus, but this bus doesn't seem to offer much "Business Class" except for the power and wifi. I would be looking for more spacious seats as the main drawcard.

Seems like a great idea. There is so much work I can get done while in trasit now. does anybody know how to book a seat on this service?

The idea is fantastic--but in its current form, the only thing that seems to be different between this Greyhound 'platinum' service and the Murrays competition is wifi and power. Agreed that a roomier seating arrangement would be needed to really set it apart.

Also, they might be being quite optimistic with the timetables... heading into Sydney along the M5 on a weekday in peak hour might make it hard to stick to the schedule.

How I wish there was a high speed rail option between Canberra and Sydney!!

Good idea, they should put on over night sleeper service BNE-SYD / MEL etc

Same as in asia,

Good to see Greyhound stepping up their services... I did a comparison trip early this year when I thought I'd be moving down there, and Murrays blew Greyhound out of the water.

For me, flying is still quicker and easier for me. It's only half an hour of downtime in the air, which can be a nice time to stare out the window and ponder the day...

Whilst this is a good idea, it is sad to see that in Australia, our modern 1st world country, we are using busses to run shuffle services between cities, rather than a fast rail network like Eurostar or TGV.

And 3 hours city-to-city service is comparable to flying. Consider you must check-in one hour before a flight, so you leave home early to get to the airport. Let's say that total's 1 hour and 20 minutes.

Then its a 30-45 minute flight, you get off the plane, go to the cab rank to find a taxi which takes you to the CBD.

Good idea although for a 3 hour ride I would like to get proper seats, so that 50+ seater bus would suddenly become 20 seats at most. Why not have Etihad-like business class seats too?

I like the idea but I'm uncertain about the practicalities.

1. Legroom: not enough, by the sound of it. 31 inches is as you say airline economy and how useful is that for your laptop when someone reclines their  seat, or even without your elbows nudging the person next to you if you both decide to use your laptops at the same time. If you wnat to be a 'business class' bus service then you need something like business class legroom, not talking about long-haul but more like regional business class.

2. Bumpy roads would surely be a pain if you're trying to use your laptop!

3. Yes it's a third the price of a Virgin Australia economy airfare but how much do you value your time? I don't see those 7 hours spend on the road (both ways) as being fully productive unless you're on the phone a fair bit, I'd rather pay the extra money for an airfare and spend more time actually on the ground doing my job.

I travel Sydney-Canberra-Sydney weekly, down Friday back Sunday. I have used both Murrays and Greyhound. I have also commuted regularly CB-SY-CB for day meetings using Virgin and Qantas. All things considered the time difference is little between air and road; except for winter mornings when Canberra gets fogged in and aircraft cannot get in/out, or the mornings Sydney Air Traffic Control put the aircraft into a holding pattern. The costs between air and road differ greatly as pointed out in other posts.

Agreed Australia would benefit greatly from a high speed rail; but alas the Australian electorate has little appetite for it unless it concerns them directly.

Those points aside and to the point of the post. Murrays is more frequent, every hour on the hour from both Canberra and Sydney than Greyhound, but I have found it more crowded and the smell from the urinal sometimes unbearable. Greyhound is less frequent but offers more space (less crowded) and generally cleaner (no urinal smell). The services are priced more or less the same. Both offer leather reclining seats. Both provide professional, safe services that run, with the occasional exception, on time. I like the WiFi Greyhound offers (saves my data) and is fine for emails and basic internet i.e. business use rather than streaming/downloading. I'm yet to use the Greyhound Platinum service and personally ensure my devices are charged before boarding (aircraft or bus), but like the option of having USB/AC power.

Between the two I would choose Greyhound over Murrays on the basis of available room and ancillary benefits for similar costs. Having spent some time in Western Europe I like the coaches employed on their services. The toilet is in the middle of the coach (doesn't move as much as in the rear). The seats are more akin to an airliner with a cup holder and tray table, and would be ideal on a business service. Without advertising a brand these coaches are readily available in Europe for a reasonable price when compared to Australia.