Megabus 10 year later..... (airlines, best, Amtrak, price)
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What is everyones opinion on the intercity bus service company after 10 years in your city? Have you ever used Megabus? Has the service become better or worse since it started in your city? How has your local Greyhound stop adjusted to the competition of Megabus?? Curious on thoughts about the service since cominng to North America.
I love it. Much cheaper than Greyhound in my experience (by leaps and bounds). And it has a very extensive network. One of the main downsides is that I have found it impossible to book a cross country ticket (or even, say, a ticket from NYC to New Orleans) via Megabus. Instead, I'd have to book several tickets, which runs its own risk if your bus is running late to the connecting city. Still, I haven't used Greyhound in almost 10 years. But if not Megabus, I'd use another discount bus service, such as Bolt, etc.
Honestly, though, Greyhound still does solid enough business, even at their marked up prices. I think this is because of convenience (real or merely perceived) in terms of being able to book one ticket from point a to point b (wherever you're going) and the fact that you don't need a printer, internet, or phone to make your purchase/ticket process work (that's another downside of Megabus, and something that I can see turning off older customers). But I have seen Greyhound discount their ticket prices for some routes to respond to the competition; even in those cases, though, Greyhound's prices are still generally significantly higher than Megabus, etc., in my experience.
What is everyones opinion on the intercity bus service company after 10 years in your city? Have you ever used Megabus? Has the service become better or worse since it started in your city? How has your local Greyhound stop adjusted to the competition of Megabus?? Curious on thoughts about the service since cominng to North America.
I was on one of the first MegaBus trips out of Chicago. I booked TWO round trip tickets Chicago - Cincinnati for $2.50. It was an adventure! No one knew where to wait for the bus (right outside the Union Station) or what to expect. The driver had to load the luggage AND take the tickets. The bus driver got lost in Cincinnati and we had to give him directions. In addition, on the way back to Chicago, we had to give directions to Union Station. On the way back to Chicago, the driver stopped for gas BUT has no gas card. Needless to say, the first months were interesting.
The service has gotten a lot better. They had assistants load the bus and people all know what to expect. Their rates are still the best in the business.
Greyhound operates in its own parallel universe. In many cases, there is not a lot of routes that they both compete on. A lot of the people that MegaBus is attracting is NOT the Greyhound crowd. Rather, in Chicago, they are attracting people who USED to take Southwest Airlines before they increased their rates. They also take a lot of business from Amtrak which is COMPLETELY UNRELIABLE out of Chicago.
Due to grave concerns with their safety record, I will never ride Megabus.
I would however, take BOLT if the need arose.
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