Forget trains, planes and automobiles

In 2010, Megabus launched its third and fourth hubs, in Philadelphia and Washington. It currently does $100 million in business annually, operating 135 buses each day to 50 U.S. cities. While other companies downsized over the past two years, Megabus hired 270 additional workers and invested $36 million in the business. Each month this year it will add five to six new double-deckers to its fleet.



For bus travel as a whole, the number of daily departures increased by 6 percent in 2010, twice the growth experienced by air travel and 12 times that of Amtrak.

The future of travel is the bus?

http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/11_16/b4224062391848.htm

They’ve got some sweet Double Decker’s, too…

I’d love to travel the country in the front seat of the top deck.

A few friends of mine have taken it to Chicago from Minneapolis for under $10 one way each time. Pretty amazing. Of course, once they got a flat tire, and another time the bus got pulled over for speeding trying to make up time. But, seems like a very popular mode of transportation. I wouldn’t trade it for high-speed rail though.

megabus is a college students best friend for getting home. I was actually thinking of taking a mega bus from Chicago to Detroit for Easter because flights are expensive and megabus is so cheap. Im not sure I could do anything over 5 or 6 hours on a bus though.

Being 6’-5" tall, mass transit and I are rarely on the same page as far as personal comfort is concerned. I think 3 hours is probably my limit by bus, and that’s pushing it. Air travel is almost as bad unless I get exit row.

Have you ever, ever, taken a bus trip further than across town?

I have… Indianapolis to Los Angeles… 53 hours transit time … one transfer, and 32 stops …

I mean, if ya gotta get there…

I’ve always wanted to design a bus for some reason… or a street car.

Have you seen the Bolt Bus? Pretty nice. Owned by Greyhound I think… also came across this bus which I think is a new Greyhound.




Bolt is also mentionned in that article.

On a side note, I checked a Greyhound bus price for Montreal-NYC. 11 hours and $260 for two round trip. Pretty ridiculous. I need to find out if there is a curbside bus service that does Montreal to NYC.

I thought of this thread again after reading this article during lunch:

America’s fastest and most reliable line, the north-eastern corridor’s Acela, averages a sluggish 70 miles per hour between Washington and Boston. The French TGV from Paris to Lyon, by contrast, runs at an average speed of 140mph. America’s trains aren’t just slow; they are late. Where European passenger service is punctual around 90% of the time, American short-haul service achieves just a 77% punctuality rating. Long-distance trains are even less reliable.

mo-i: You have nothing to complain about when it comes to trains my friend!