I like the fare structure on this service. I don't mind Intercity busses. Can't wait for your streetcar video.

Racine history: French explorers Robert de LaSalle and Louis Hennepin were the first Europeans to visit the area in 1679. They were met by Potawatomi Indians who had lived there for centuries. Racine was laid off in 1834-35 by Gilbert Knapp. The first designation of this settlement was Port Gilbert, but its founder decided to change this to Racine, French for root, because of the Root River on which he had laid out his town. Wright even grew up in southern Wisconsin, so it does make sense he's done a lot for Racine. Wisconsin established a 200-mile Frank Lloyd Wright Trail that traverses southern Wisconsin from the SC Johnson Administration Building in Racine to the AD German warehouse at his birthplace in Richland Center. My favorite of his works is Fallingwater in Pennsylvania because it's truly a masterpiece. He did it for a couple that loved nature as much he does at Bear Run, and wanted to create something that celebrated their favorite spot in an innovative way and thus, he took advantage of the stream and wanted them to live with the waterfall as an integral part of their lives.

@Thom-TRA

11 ай бұрын

Is this the LaSalle the street in Chicago is named after?

@AverytheCubanAmerican

11 ай бұрын

@@Thom-TRA Yup!

A few years ago I took this bus from Kenosha to Milwaukee. I had gone to Kenosha from Rogers Park via Metra UPN to take pictures of the streetcars. When it was time to head back to Chicago I discovered I would have had a long wait for Metra. So I took Coach USA to Milwaukee and then Amtrak to Chicago Union Station.

Milwaukee Mitchell International was originally established in 1920 as Hamilton Airport by local business owner and aviator Thomas F. Hamilton. Milwaukee County purchased the land in 1926 and renamed the airport Milwaukee County Airport. The first airport terminal there, the Hirschbuehl Farmhouse, opened in July 1927. In March 1941, the airport was renamed General Mitchell Field. In 1945, Mitchell Field was leased to the War Department for use as a prisoner-of-war camp. Over 3,000 prisoners stayed there, and escaped German prisoners were shocked to find a large German American population in the area. It is named after US Army General Billy Mitchell, who was raised in Milwaukee and is often regarded as the father of the United States Air Force. Mitchell served in France during World War I and by the end of the war, commanded all American air combat units in that country. After the war, he was appointed deputy director of the Air Service and began advocating for increased investment in air power, believing that this would prove vital in future wars. He argued particularly for the ability of bombers to sink battleships and organized a series of bombing runs against stationary ships designed to test the idea. He ended up court-martialed because the Army leaders didn't like his criticism.

The comfiest bus that I have been on was with Cantrail Coach Lines from Seattle to Vancouver. The bus model was a Prevost H3-45

Great video 😊

@Thom-TRA

11 ай бұрын

Thank you!

NICE Video thx for the share.😊😊👍👍

@Thom-TRA

11 ай бұрын

You’re welcome!

That's literally just buses in most Transport Fever 2 games 😂 Acting both like a city bus and an Intercity bus

The Coach USA Van Galder bus is a more typical Inter-city bus. It runs Madison (2 stops) - Jainesville - South Beloit - Rockford - Chicago O’Hare Airport - Chicago Downtown Amtrak. I’ve taken that many times. Thanks for sharing another Wisconsin bus line. They are vital to getting around the state.

@Thom-TRA

11 ай бұрын

They do seem well-used

Hey I took Wisconsin Coach Lines to Wausau from the Twin Cities! $6 round trip. Awesome video!

APCC car in Kenosha?? I will not miss the next video!

@Thom-TRA

11 ай бұрын

Just 3 short days and it will be released! It’s one of my better ones if I do say so myself.

Before I knew about the South Shore Line, I used to use the Coach USA bus from O'Hare to Hammond Indiana. It was a good service. And cheap too at only $35 each way. They shut down the service just before the pandemic. Of course the South Shore Line is only $10 from downtown Chicago to East Chicago Indiana. But then again we all know that ... Trains Are Awesome!

CoachUSA is most importantly a charter bus company. Just like any charter bus company, they can bid on any contracts to keep their drivers busy...anything from transit work, military contracts, airport line runs, Amtrak Thruway Bus. In terms of the restrooms. Most charter bus companies especially Coach have gone with sinkless restrooms particularly its less of a maintenance headache so they just put hand sanitizer dispensors or individual wet wipes

@Thom-TRA

11 ай бұрын

Coach USA itself is a holding company, but you’re right, the companies Coach USA owns are charter bus companies.

Now that you are in the DC area, some of the Omniride buses do something similar to this bus. Particularly, the (currently free!) Metro Express bus services for lower Prince William and Manassas run local stops with a coach-style bus in Prince William before getting on the express lanes and going intercity mode to Springfield/Tysons Corner respectively. It's an option for getting at least partway down the Fredericksburg VRE line off-peak until Long Bridge 2

@sammymarrco2

10 ай бұрын

Aye I’ve used that bus before nice to get from Manassas to Tyson’s metro

I’ve been on this bus going the opposite direction once which i’d like to do again. I did it a couple summers ago when I went on a short road trip with my mom from Wheaton, IL when we lived there. We stayed for a night in downtown Kenosha and then I went to Milwaukee by myself on the bus and then I ended up taking an MCTS bus to a mall out west in a town called Wauwatosa where I met up with her until we had to start driving back home.

Have you thought of investing in a neck pillow as you travel so much on trains and buses so much ✌️❤️🇬🇧

Funtimes joining the dots for cheap! It occurs to me you probably have some wet wipes on standby for these toilet reviews, just in case there's soap but no water. Also, this route reminds me of the way Stagecoach (original Coach USA parent company) started in the UK, by doing interurban routes that occasionally stopped seemingly in the middle of nowhere, in order to avoid taxes that would apply if they didn't stop within a certain number of miles \m/

I remember writing that going the other way many many years ago.

BUSES ARE COOL.👍👍

@Thom-TRA

11 ай бұрын

Agree. Trains are awesome, buses are cool.

I actually rode one of these on my recent trip to Milwaukee. It was one of the Waukesha County Express routes but it used the same kind of bus and was run by Wisconsin Coach Lines/Coach USA.

I watched not long ago a video of a trip that takes nearly four hours end to end, but is on a regular city bus-style bus. That's pretty much the inverse of this

@Thom-TRA

11 ай бұрын

Where was that?

@AndreiTupolev

11 ай бұрын

@@Thom-TRA Scotland, from Carlisle to Edinburgh it's on Let's Take a Trip's channel,

CoachUSA operates contracted bus routes in NJ as well, using their subsidiaries: Community Coach, ONE Bus, and Suburban Trails.

It would be nice if Wisconsin Coach could meet all the UP North line inbound and outbound trains to and from Chicago but, besides that it's nice to have Metra in Kenosha

@Thom-TRA

11 ай бұрын

Yeah that would be helpful. We waited 3 hours.

1:35 The chime and the voice of the announcements are the same as what Denver has on its Light Rail.

Megabus in Britain sell online some trips that actually take place on local express buses often way above the price you'd pay the driver. Eg the X5 Oxford to Milton Keynes is the current standard £2 whereas Megabus charges £8.20. Taking advantage of people who don't know who runs the service.

I didn't even realize Kenosha has a streetcar lol.

I enjoyed that video👍👍

Great video

@Thom-TRA

11 ай бұрын

Thank you!

@paulcastillo1310

11 ай бұрын

@@Thom-TRA you are welcome

Great video! I really enjoy your public transport trips along the USA. And sorry for one more my old-fashion comparisons with interurban... but this bus route really looks like hybrid between city and intercity transport like Chicago North Shore and Milwaukee Railroad was over 70 years ago. So, the same "mixture" of different city and intercity patterns in one bus route take place in many cities, including my native city and it also uses to cover the lack of railroad connection.

@Thom-TRA

11 ай бұрын

The interurbans are a great comparison!

@fredbeamish5795

11 ай бұрын

Actually, the Milwaukee-Kenosha Bus is a more-or-less direct descendant of The Milwaukee Electric Railway & Light Co. ('TM') -Milwaukee-Racine-Kenosha Interurban line, which fell into a bus company's ownership in the 1940's and was predictably converted by the end of 1947, just over 15 years before competitor North Shore Line's unfortunate demise. Except for a couple of 'locals' a day, once North Shore trains entered private right-of-way on the south side of Milwaukee they only made made one stop at Racine before reaching Kenosha.

@SHKarlson

3 ай бұрын

The stop pattern, and some of the routing, surely echoes the old Milwaukee-Racine-Kenosha interurban. There are traces of that along Highway 32 to this day if you know where to look!

Coach USA (and Megabus) used to be owned by Stagecoach, the same Stagecoach that runs a lot of UK buses (no longer UK Megabus, though they still part-own that company).

The Coach USA mascot DEFINITELY needs to be a high school gym coach.

I took this bus from Kenosha Metra to Milwaukee. I was really annoyed when I booked a ticket online, putting in Kenosha Metra to Milwaukee. They charged me $15 or so and I got a QR code. Then the bus driver arrives and says he can’t accept that??! He said that was only for the Kenosha rest stop. I had to pay the $4.50 in cash again! Never did get a refund. I’m still really annoyed by their website and it needs to be fixed.

@Thom-TRA

11 ай бұрын

It is really stupid. I found out the hard way too. But he should have accepted the QR. he’s wrong for that.

Omg lindsey's jacket drips HARD

It's like a New Jersey Transit. That is what you meant to say.

@Thom-TRA

11 ай бұрын

Nope that's not what I meant to say. Only I know what I mean to say.

That’s an interesting bis for sure. If they’ve covered up the sink, how do people wash their hands after going to the bathroom. Wait I don’t think I want to know 😂

@Thom-TRA

10 ай бұрын

Wash-while-you-pee I guess

Not enough legroom, but it is a short trip?!

@Thom-TRA

11 ай бұрын

About an hour and a half

Hey Thom. Is there a special program to use for the map you use, especially for drawing the lines of the route? I want a map of seattle but im new to this

@Thom-TRA

11 ай бұрын

I use a program called Inkscape. It’s very easy to use.

Coach busses have the comfy seats and are much cleaner than other some other bus lines.

2:47

6:58

Thank you for this great video ! I don’t usually enjoy long distance bus rides, but your Coach USA experience sounded good. Thinking of the history of railroads running between Chicago and Milwaukee, the most sadly missed connection must surely be the Chicago North Shore and Milwaukee company who ran those amazing Electroliners, one of which is preserved and running at the Illinois State Railroad Museum in Union. That is a must visit ! I am looking forward to your Metra ride down to Chicago, and wonder if you noticed the present line used by freight trains that runs north of Kenosha ? Many thanks to you both !

@Thom-TRA

11 ай бұрын

What I would give to still have the North Shore line running today. We didn't see any freight trains on the line but that's not to say there aren't any.

@nbajammer2

11 ай бұрын

Those tracks are used by freight occasionally, but most trains would be on the tracks Amtrak uses to the west

I found a few Amtrak Thruway motorcoach services that are the same way, where it’s a rip off to buy the bus fare in advance

@Thom-TRA

11 ай бұрын

I wonder why they do that

@officialmcdeath

11 ай бұрын

@@Thom-TRA Tourist Tax \m/

🙃Weird that paying in cash "on the spot" saves you 75%. That is the total opposite of how (for example) Heathrow Express works in London where paying day-of is like 10x the price of an online ticket made months in advance.

@Thom-TRA

11 ай бұрын

It is very weird. Even worse, I found out the hard way

I assume that the streetcar in the beginning was gas powered or battery powered as I didn't see any power lines above the streetcar.. enjoy your videos Tim in Toronto

@Thom-TRA

11 ай бұрын

Nope, it’s electric

Odd comment about the bathroom--so a 'weird' bathroom on a weird bus! :) Certainly a weird fare structure--$18 if bought online but only $4 in cash to the driver? And 3hrs in Kenosha--aside from riding the PCC's, what does one do to pass the time until Metra comes along?

@Thom-TRA

10 ай бұрын

Not much unfortunately. You can visit a few museums, or watch the video I made from Kenosha!

90min Milwaukee-Kenosha 65km, $4 in comfy seats. DEAL! Now...find a low-floor model bus?

This looks like a really useful service. $4.50 is a great price also!

@Thom-TRA

11 ай бұрын

It is a great price! Especially because the locations it serves are much better than the Amtrak.

I almost took this trip last time I was in Chicago (Amtrak to Milwaukee, Coach USA to Kenosha, and Metra to Chicago) but decided to drop Kenosha to save time. I didn't know about the $4.50 fare trick though, so I would've paid the more expensive online booking fee for it. What's the point of this strange ticketing system? I took a somewhat similar service in Michigan (the D2A2) which actually gave you a discount for booking online, which makes more sense to me.

wisconsin needs to dich buses for trains

@Thom-TRA

11 ай бұрын

Agreed

Great video! I had no idea this concept was even a thing. I think something like this would be very beneficial in southwestern Ohio between Cincinnati, Hamilton, Middletown, and Dayton.

@akivaplutno

11 ай бұрын

Probably every Urban area can use a service like this

This is pretty common in Europe and is usually marketed as a regional long-distance bus. It’s also kinda how GO Transit’s buses operate. A generally express service with local stops in certain locations along the route.

@Thom-TRA

11 ай бұрын

I’m from Europe and I’m curious what places you’re talking about, because I don’t really recognize it

@DanTheCaptain

11 ай бұрын

@@Thom-TRA Maybe I’m confusing it with another type of service but I looks like a normal regional bus service to me. In a couple countries they have regional buses that are operated with a combination of city buses and high floor coach buses. The often provide intercity services with local stops in individual settlements but go for long distances in between.

Very interesting and informative. I like train videos of Wisconsin. I also watch Roamin' around with Roman! his train videography is very good. Keep up the good work.

Do you need ID to take a trip?

@Thom-TRA

9 ай бұрын

No

Hold up, wait, buying a ticket online costs $18, but buying it on the bus is only $4.50?! It's usually the other way round. That's a dorky pricing structure right there

@Thom-TRA

11 ай бұрын

I have no idea why they did it that way, but it’s a huge difference.

@ganadu

11 ай бұрын

Definitely backwards of their usual structure!

Thom, were you chewing gum on camera? ON CAMERA? I’m shocked and I’m appalled. Shocked and appalled. I’ll be watching future videos v-e-r-y closely. 😊

For a second I thought it was going to be a Van Galder (Coach USA) bus between Chicago and Madison. And I was half wondering, “did we possibly ride the same bus recently, without me recognizing you?”

@Thom-TRA

11 ай бұрын

I really wish there was a train to Madison!

@tylerkochman1007

11 ай бұрын

@@Thom-TRA would have been one too if not for Scott Walker forcing them to cancel its construction. They had even already begun manufacturing Talgo tilting trainsets for the service by the time it was cancelled

Really enjoy when you and Lindsey take trips together!!! This weird bus was so awesome!!!

As a umd student, i don't see our bus system getting the praise it deserves from students serving off campus trips pretty well

@Thom-TRA

11 ай бұрын

Ive been on the UMC shuttle and they’ll get a video soon!