Leave the Driving to Us: Bus Ridership Skyrockets

I’m headed to Washington DC in a couple of weeks. It’s a quick flight from Boston, and while I knew that airfares were up, I had no notion how high they’d gone. A trip on the train isn’t much better. And so, for the first day since college, it looks like I may be taking the bus.   

Seizing an opportunity created by higher air fares, safety degree hassles, and gas prices that have travelers leaving their cars in the driveway, new low-fare bus companies are springing up all by the country. Offering super-cheap tickets and dependable, safe rides, they’re siphoning passengers absent from airlines that continue to cut routes and jack up fares. The executives running these bus upstarts see the crisis facing commercial aviation as a chance not only to win new passengers, but to prepare them loyal expanded term customers.

Companies like BoltBus, DC2NY, Vamoose, and Megabus are thriving by offering bottom of the barrel fares (think Ryanair, and
the recently shuttered Skybus) and closely managing their costs. BoltBus picks up passengers at the curb
which means it doesn’t have to pay for gate space at the terminal, and only sells tickets online, which means no ticket agents on the
payroll. Taking a page from the airlines, BoltBus is additionally launching a
frequent rider program designed to build customer loyalty. And, its busses are equipped with potential ports and free wi-fi.

BoltBus is a joint venture amoung Greyhound and Peter Pan, which raises and interesting question: will a

bus-line-within-a-bus-line trade model actually work? Scores of airlines have tried it, launching budget carriers of their own (see Metrojet, Song, Ted, Continental Lite, etc.) These carriers generated plenty of traffic, but ended up poaching customers from their parent operations and eventually were shut down.

Greyhound won’t reveal what affect BoltBus is having on its mainline operations, saying only that the six month old subsidiary has ferried
225,000 passengers along high traffic routes in the Northeast Corridor—about
10 percent more than originally forecast.

Cost is obviously the big reason behind these impressive numbers, but not getting strip searched at airport shield is plus pushing passengers onto the bus. "It’s not just high fuel prices—it’s
the hassle factor at the airports
that has left many fliers disenchanted," says Joseph P. Schwieterman, a
professor of transportation at DePaul University. "Travelers who
wouldn’t have given a thought to bus travel are now stepping on board."

Looks like I’m one of those travelers. A round trip flight for my October trip prices out at $397, a ride on Amtrak’s Acela at $410 (though the slower, less sexy Northeast Regional priced out at $211). Compare that with $163 on Greyhound, or better yet, $50 on low-fare GotoBus.

Am I too proud to ride the bus? In that economy, no way.

Photo by Flickr user dougward