Dept. Of Pipe Dreams: $1 Bus Ride To New York?
Meet Megabus. Don’t mind the splashy advertising and British accent. This bus may just get you to NYC for as little as a buck. From KYW:
Seats on megabus.com are going as low as $1.00, according to the company. You can book your spot up to six months in advance. There is a reservation fee of 50 cents. Matt Eggert is the company’s operations manager for the east coast:
“The pricing is done on a matrix system, so every bus ride the tickets will start at a dollar and they’ll increase based on time of booking and availability. So it’s kind of like the airlines. There are dollar seats right now — every trip is guaranteed to have a certain number of dollar seats.”
At the most you’ll pay $14 each way, which doesn’t quite beat the Chinatown bus. But Megabus plans to board at 30th Street Station and 6th & Market, a big convenience for some. And if the conditions on the bus are even remotely better than that of a third-world country, the Chinatown bus might be looking at some serious competition. Wait, what’s that? Oh, hi Greyhound. Didn’t see you over there…
KYW: How Low Can You Go?
March 26th, 2008 at 3:58 pm
Don’t diss Greyhound Philebs, they’ve been in this game for the past month you’ve had your pants down….
Greyhound has already rolled out its Bolt Bus line in Boston, DC, and New York. Same cost cutting (Chinatown style curbside pick up instead of the lines having to pay terminal fees = reduced fairs). Plus the Bolt coaches are for some reason roomier than their traditional coaches, with a bigger bathroom and free wifi.
March 26th, 2008 at 4:01 pm
Looks like Megabus will be carrying wifi too, but you better have a good battery:
http://www.boston.com/travel/blog/2008/03/bus_wars_part_i.html
March 27th, 2008 at 2:25 pm
WOW we will be able to fill those mega condos for NYC commuters.