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Boston Globe - March 11
LinkRediscovering the bus
Frustrated drivers, fliers boost low-price carriers
By Ross Kerber and Ashley L. Traupman, Globe Staff And Globe Correspondent | March 11, 2008
Riding the bus: cool again.
Greyhound Lines Inc. plans to start offering its low-cost BoltBus service between Boston and New York City starting next month, a spokesman said yesterday, the latest move by a major carrier seeking to capitalize on the popularity of cheap bus travel.
With fares starting at $1, wireless internet access, and curbside drop-offs in New York, BoltBus is Greyhound's latest salvo in its long-running rivalry with operators such as Fung Wah Bus Transportation Inc. BoltBus plans to keep fares low in a large part by selling tickets mainly online, which cuts operating costs. (Just 10 percent of Greyhound tickets are sold on the Web.)
BoltBus aims to attract young people, business travelers, and tourists who are flocking back to motorcoaches and boosting traffic across the industry after years of decline. Reasons include rising gas costs and frustration with driving in traffic jams and standing in airport security lines.
Total US daily bus departures and arrivals rose 13 percent last year, DePaul University professor Joseph P. Schwieterman found in a recent study of a representative sample of a dozen US cities including Providence, Chicago, and Portland, Ore. He estimates the study represents about 30 percent of total bus traffic. He found 477 trips among those cities at the end of 2007, up from 422 trips at the start of 2006. By comparison, the same cities accounted for 1,862 trips in 1960.
"The turnaround is extraordinary," Schwieterman said yesterday. "It's a whole new ridership class willing to consider the bus." He pointed to the Megabus.com service, owned by Britain's Stagecoach Group and operating mainly from Chicago. Its service has risen to 30 routes from the 7 it began with in 2006. And like BoltBus, MegaBus sells most tickets online and also boasts on-board internet access and some $1 fares.
In Chicago, Megabus chief operating officer Dale Moser said bus travel has been a big hit as the demographics have changed. Once, it was for those who couldn't afford airfare. But now, "We're getting affluent travelers who are leaving their $45,000 SUV at home," he said.
In Boston, Michael Brennan, property manager for the private company that operates the South Station bus terminal, said total passenger traffic has risen about 2,000 people a day in recent years to 12,000 on average, driven by lower fares and the ease of use compared to flying. Business travelers and students alike take advantage of the low fares.
Coaches owned by Greyhound, which was purchased last fall by the British transportation firm FirstGroup PLC, and Peter Pan Bus Lines of Springfield, account for the majority of South Station's traffic. (Peter Pan owns an undisclosed stake in BoltBus as well, executives said.) Greyhound spokesman Dustin Clark said Boston passenger arrivals and departures rose to 1,021,594 last year from 918,590 in 2006, after falling from 1,038,961 in 2005.
Another big presence is Fung Wah, which pioneered routes to New York's Chinatown, and rival Lucky River Transportation Inc., which operates Lucky Star coaches. A new entrant, Vamoose Bus Service, said it had to cancel its Cambridge-to-New York service in November - two weeks after it launched - when officials revoked their permits. But Vamoose officials are studying the market.
Fung Wah in particular has transformed the Boston market since its launch a decade ago by a Chinese immigrant, Pei Lin Liang, who started shuttling passengers by van between the Chinatowns in New York and Boston. Now, its fleet of buses charges a $15 one-way fare. Though its record has been marred by several high-profile accidents, Fung Wah's prices have forced Greyhound and others to dramatically lower their own.
Buses aren't alone in seeing traffic spikes to New York. Amtrak reports it carried 613,000 people between its three Boston-area stops last year and New York's Penn Station, up from 460,800 in 2006. At the same time, air travel seems to be under pressure: Farecompare.com shows 624,679 passengers flying from Boston's Logan airport to New York's LaGuardia airport for the first 11 months of 2007, the latest data available. That's about 10,000 fewer people than in the same period in 2006. Rick Seaney, the firm's chief executive, said the difference likely reflects fewer seats on the route and rising costs pressuring people to take the train or bus.
Certainly, travelers say price is a big factor. Chris Pickering, 43, an insurance underwriter from New York City, got off an arriving Greyhound bus on his way to meet his brother for snowshoeing. "In my case, I don't drive, and the bus is cheap," said Pickering, who paid $60 for a round-trip ticket.
Anna Krol, 27, a conference director from Brooklyn, said she prefers buses to Amtrak for the price. Amtrak prices start around $118 round-trip. "I don't think the train is particularly faster," she said. She usually takes a Fung Wah coach. "It's just easy because you don't have to book in advance. You don't really have to plan. They usually come every hour or half hour."
Boston is an unusual bus market in requiring most operators to board and drop off passengers at South Station rather than on city streets like those in Chinatown, where Fung Wah got its start. Boston officials have cited congestion, but in other cities so-called "curbside" pickups have become the norm.
Greyhound's Clark said buses from South Station will likely stop at one of two New York locations BoltBus already has said it will start using for buses running to Washington, D.C.: 33rd Street and 7th Avenue and Canal Street and 6th Avenue. BoltBus fares on its New York-Washington route now run as high as $25 one-way.
Most fares for the Boston route haven't been set yet but will likely be in line with BoltBus fares from New York to Washington. Clark said the company hasn't determined how many $1 fares will be available on each bus between Boston and New York or how far in advance customers must book their seats to get the cheapest fares. They may be scarce and come with caveats such as a 50 cent booking fee.
Robert Schwarz, executive vice president of Peter Pan, said the buses at first will likely appeal to college students. But the buses are aimed at other demographics as well, he said.
"With gas costs and the prices on Web fares today, it makes no economic sense for people to drive their auto from Boston to New York," he said.
Ross Kerber can be reached at kerber@globe.com.
