Aug. 16 Blast (copy 01)

We joked about the end of the world last week. Now it's for real.

August 16, 2012

Updates from the coolest bus fleet in Detroit

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News from The Detroit Bus Company

Busboys and busgirls of Detroit:

All right, everybody. We’ve got a good, practical-minded newsletter today as we look ahead to a busy weekend. The Woodward Dream Cruise, weekend Tigers games, and a massive Kenny Chesney/Tim McGraw concert at Ford Field on Saturday means we’re going to be journeying deep into the slog, à la Martin Sheen in “Apocalypse Now.”

These events mostly affect the Suburbanite Express. Here’s some key information to keep in mind before heading out to get on the bus:

  • Tigers -- If you're planning to use our bus to get down to the 7PM games, you'd be wise to let us know today or Friday, as early as possible. This is quickly becoming the thing to do, usually drawing a big influx of passengers at Gusoline Alley, right at 6PM. If you have a party of more than a few people, give us a heads-up by emailing [email protected] so we can get our heads right.

  • Dream Cruise -- You’d think as a transportation company we’d be all excited about this and stuff. But we’re not. We are launching a campaign to end it and all its automotive Motown cheer, just so our bus can get through smoothly. We’re those kind of people, what can we say? Back in reality, we love and support the event, naturally, though the cars are a little too polished and not rusty for at least one of us. We plan to tough it out on Woodward in Ferndale as usual to get to our stop at Imperial. We’ll be taking side streets and utilizing the blessed escape hatch known as Hilton Road to get to Gusoline Alley and back out in non-frustrating fashion. The one change to take special note of is that the stop on both Friday and Saturday will be moved to the corner of Vester and that alley behind Imperial. (See map below.) There’s no way a bunch of honked-upclassic car drivers are gonna tolerate us parking our big arse on Woodward for a minute at a time. And for the love of Harley Earl, do check our Facebook page frequently to look for updates and adjustments in case our plan proves hopelessly naive. And don't forget our on-bus phone: (313) 444-BUS1 (2871). We respond to texts, as well as calls!

  • Chesney/McGraw -- We’ve had a fair number of inquiries about this. Our buses are too booked-up this weekend to extend our hours earlier for the 4:30 concert start time. But our Suburbanite loop will be doing business as usual until 2AM for those looking to drink whisky, whoop it up, and get safely back to the burbs. (Ah, now that photo above makes sense.)

​This might be a good time to make a little note: We get inquiries asking if we’re doing special hours for certain events all the time. Generally, we can’t put a bus on the road and hope people will use it for a given event. But, when it’s a matter of extending our Friday or Saturdays a touch, that doesn’t mean we can’t do things for people when given enough time and a commitment from a particular group.

What does that mean? If you call us and say, “Hey, motherscratchers, if we have 20+ people who pay in advance, do you think then you could trouble your precious selves to put your bus on the road an hour or two earlier?”

And we’d say, “Let us think about it,” smoke our cigars, drink our Scotch, quote Bill Brasky, and then follow-up with a resounding, “Probably.”  In all seriousness, though, we'd do everything we can to make it happen.  At this point in the newsletter, we usually let you know of some things happening during the upcoming weekend. But that seems awfully redundant at this point.  Meanwhile, if anyone knows what “honked-up” means, that makes one of us. Some things just come out of us and we can’t explain why.

Happy riding, driving, game watching, and boot stomping, ya’ll!  -- Andy and Gary 

Said map: