The Megabus Effect
businessweek.com
The Megabus Effect
1–10 of 37 posts
Re: The Megabus Effect
#2Short summary: Megabus are one of a few companies operating low-overhead, curbside pickup intercity bus service.
"On most city-to-city trips under 300 miles, the curbside bus offers tickets that cost a tenth of those of Amtrak and far less even than the price of the gas to get there by car."
Passengers book online, tickets are delivered to cell phones, busses are equipped with WiFi and power outlets at each seat.
Article points out the advantages of busses over high-speed rail, which has tended to get more press as being the future of mid-haul intercity travel. Building rail lines requires years of time and bureaucratic approval, and you better hope you were right about the demand for the route. Busses can go wherever needed on existing roads and reconfigure routes easily.
Re: The Megabus Effect
#3I vastly prefer these busses to air travel for routes like New York to Boston. Lots of space, lots of comfort, Internet, power, nobody groping my body (at least not anybody in uniform), don't have to undress or wait in long lines, and probably 10x more eco-friendly.
Re: The Megabus Effect
#4I started taking the megabus from Cleveland to Chicago in 2006 or so. It was kind of ridiculous how much better and cheaper it was than any other way of getting to the places it went.
Re: The Megabus Effect
#5The Bolt Bus from NYC to Boston and back for $30 round trip was one of the best decisions I'd ever made. Clean, quiet, and room enough to get my work done along the way.
Re: The Megabus Effect
#6In the article they mentioned an old greyhound promo of $99 for 99 days of unlimited travel. Anyone know if the us equivalent of eurail passes exists? Or the modern bus equivalent?
Re: The Megabus Effect
#7Short summary: Megabus are one of a few companies operating low-overhead, curbside pickup intercity bus service. "On most city-to-city trips under 300 miles, the curbside bus offers tickets that cost a tenth of those of Amtrak and far less even than the price of the gas to get there by car." Passengers book online, tickets are delivered to cell phones, busses are equipped with WiFi and power outlets at each seat. Art…
Even lengthening existing Amtrak trains can take years of time and bureaucratic approval. The design of the Acela trainsets is such that Amtrak could add four more business class cars, which would double the number of business class seats per trainset, while keeping the current power cars.
Transportation improvements over time tend to make some trips possible in much less time than was previously possible; this is true of the automobile, the Interstate highway system, the jet airplane, and the Golden Gate Bridge. Nobody has demonstrated a 150 MPH bus running on the existing Interstate highway network yet. High speed rail has the potential to increase the distance that can be covered in a 60-90 minute commute.
Re: The Megabus Effect
#8What a coincidence, just got off an over night Megabus one hour ago. However here in the UK they do not seem to have Wi-fi which is a great shame. Also they are normally very cramped here, so much so sometimes people are left to sit on the stairs whilst going down motorways or they call a bloke in a car to drive down the one or two extras ( which happened on my trip today ).
But in the end the price really does make up for it, and also each trip always has some weird goings on which is always fun. For example one trip there was a man who could not speak english at all who proceeded to drink himself stupid, get off at a random service station on the M6, fall asleep on a bench and refuse to come back on the bus. What a horrible morning he must have had.
Re: The Megabus Effect
#9What does "curbside pickup" mean in this context?
And I've often wished for an LA->LV option that wasn't either shady or as expensive as the cost of a Southwest ticket.
Re: The Megabus Effect
#10What does "curbside pickup" mean in this context? And I've often wished for an LA->LV option that wasn't either shady or as expensive as the cost of a Southwest ticket.
Instead of picking up passengers at a bus terminal like Greyhound buses do, these services pick up passengers at designated points in each city without any real infrastructure.