
The Megabus Effect - dangoldin
http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/11_16/b4224062391848.htm
======
ams6110
Short 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.

~~~
jnw2
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.

~~~
anamax
> High speed rail has the potential to increase the distance that can be
> covered in a 60-90 minute commute.

Yes, but at what cost?

And then there's that pesky "and how many people will benefit?" problem.

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corin_
Megabus also have a presence in the UK, although their coaches (buses) usually
leave from the same places as any other company's, often a coach station, and
picking up at normal bus/coach stops.

What they also do, though, is partner with other non-discount companies, so if
you get a ticket from Megabus (and their biggest selling point is that you can
get fares from as low as £1), there's a reasonable chance that you won't
actually be on a Megabus vehicle, they will have just sold off another
company's seat that would otherwise have gone un-sold.

(Megabus is actually owned by Stagecoach, a UK company with some presence in
the States, and the fact that Stagecoach is one of the biggest travel
operators in the UK obviously helps them, as Stagecoach will often by the
company Megabus customers travel with when there weren't enough tickets sold
to justify a Megabus vehicle.)

~~~
keeptrying
Private bus operators in India use the same model. It's very interesting.

Even furniture stores in India will sell you a competitors piece of furniture
if he doesn't have anything you like in return for a commission.

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nigggle
What 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.

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epistasis
I 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.

~~~
eftpotrm
_probably 10x more eco-friendly_

I don't claim to have done the numbers myself, but during the volcanic
shutdown last year, More Or Less' (<http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006qshd>)
presenter was stranded on the far side of Europe and calculated the emissions
cost of travelling back overland by various means as he did. The answer - it
was roughly level; the problem wasn't so much the plane as the long-distance
travel.

~~~
epistasis
I'd love to see the numbers on this, I agree that it's usually long-distance
travel that's the problem.

A typical single passenger automobile trip has about equivalent CO2 emissions,
per-passenger, as a typical jet trip. (At least whenever I've run the
numbers.)

But since the bus ride is less than the cost of gas for an automobile, I would
think that the bus must be per-passenger somewhat more efficient. It's hard to
get much of a discount on commodities like fuel.

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roller
I took a round trip on the Chicago to Des Moines route last summer, it wasn't
a good experience. The wifi was spotty, apparently provided by the same 3G
cell service that wasn't working on my phone. Not that it mattered, I didn't
have enough room to have a laptop open in front of me. A shorter person may
have had a better time. I now feel lucky every time I'm on an airplane in the
spacious standard economy seats. I would have gladly payed a bit extra for
"Economy Plus" on the megabus.

~~~
bturner
I've had a similar experience. WiFi doesn't work, no room to use laptop
anyway. Also, something be aware of, if you book a trip with a connection and
your bus misses the connection, they will not take responsibility. You will be
stuck where you are unless you book a new ticket. Customer service is
extremely difficult to contact as well, I was in this situation and the "Sales
Representative" only offered to sell me a new ticket. I couldn't even talk to
anyone from customer service.

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AlexMuir
Stagecoach, the parent company of Megabus, began growing shortly after UK bus
services were deregulated and privatized (mid 90s). Their tactic was to take
the busiest (and most profitable) routes in a city and saturate them with
buses, charging lower fares. The 192 route in Manchester suddenly went to
literally a bus every two minutes, and Stagecoach buses were half the price of
everything else.

They made losses but took nearly every passenger on the route. They then
bought the company which previously ran the route and fares rapidly escalated.
Manchester now has extortionate bus fares and Stagecoach run virtually all
routes.

I imagine that their business model is almost identical with Megabus: sink the
competition by undercutting their profitable routes, buy them out/bankrupt
them and then reap your rewards.

sidenote: I used to vaguely know the chap who almost founded Stagecoach with
his wife. They divorced and she took what was a small local bus company and
built it up with her new partner. He started a new company called Highwayman
(robs the stagecoach). It remained a small (< 8 buses) operator in scotland
until he died a couple of years ago.

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frankdenbow
Funny to see this as I was just researching Bolt and Megabus for a quick trip
to Pittsburgh this weekend. I was really wishing there was a way to do
comparison shopping with bus, train, and airline travel. Its something I would
like to work on, but it seems as though the data is locked off for the time
being. Would anyone else get anything out of a site like this?

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ghurlman
The 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.

~~~
desigooner
FWIW, in the multiple times I've taken these buses between Boston <-> NYC, the
wi-fi on Bolt Bus seems a lot more reliable than Megabus.

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JCB_K
I still don't understand their business model though. On the UK website, I've
_never_ seen prices over £5. Multiply that by often not completely filled up
buses, say 50 people, and you've got 250 pounds for a 100-mile trip.

~~~
icegreentea
Did you actually attempt to buy a ticket though? On the Canadian site, the
front page advertises the 'cheapest' rate, which you can only get if you buy
the first couple tickets on any given ride. After that, the prices escalate
(they don't hide that from you though... it just not on their front page).

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bitsoffreedom
It's a shame that here in Germany, the railway has a state-guaranteed monopoly
on long-distance ground travel (this is a law that goes back to the Nazi era!)

So, there are hardly any long-distance bus routes within Germany, only to
Berlin (which was an exception from the person transport law that was made in
the Cold War era), and to neighboring countries.

~~~
chokma
There is still hope - the government is about to abolish the state-guaranteed
monopoly.

[http://www.welt.de/wirtschaft/article12492654/Bahn-
verliert-...](http://www.welt.de/wirtschaft/article12492654/Bahn-verliert-ihr-
Monopol-bei-den-Fernbussen.html) [German]

Of course, public transport is a complex issue - the government as the current
owner of the railway system is still trying to protect some routes, so we have
to wait and see how the licensing for long-distance routes is working out.

And the Deutsche Bahn (German Railways) is also the biggest provider of bus
travel, so it will be quite hard for new companies to get into the market.

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seanwoods
This article reinforces the cost arguments that libertarian types have made
for years against expanded subway/rail. Not even counting the regulatory
hurdles buses are easier to get "moving."

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boredguy8
What 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.

~~~
natrius
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.

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jberryman
I 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.

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brianbreslin
In 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?

~~~
desigooner
IIRC correctly, Greyhound has/had passes for a certain duration that allowed
you to travel any place, any number of times within that time period.

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johnwatson11218
The thing I like about riding the bus and trains versus plains is how low tech
they are. When I fly it seems like 1000 people had to work together to ensure
my safety, with buses it seems like 10 or 20.

