Coach USA, the owner of more than 20 local
travel and transportation companies, has introduced a system of
intercity bus transportation in the Midwest that features nonstop
service and fares as low as $1 for early bookers.
The new system,
called Megabus, offers nonstop routes between Chicago and seven
other Midwestern cities: Cincinnati, Cleveland, Milwaukee,
Minneapolis, St. Louis, Indianapolis and Detroit.
The model
streamlines traditional bus services by using Chicago as a hub and
taking only online bookings. Like some bus services operating along
the East Coast that appeal to the student and ethnic markets, it
eliminates the expense of bus terminals by using downtown bus
stops.
It uses high-end,
air-conditioned motorcoaches with on-board lavatories.
The business model
was introduced in England and Scotland three years ago by Coach
USAs parent company, Stagecoach Group of Perth, Scotland, which
claims to hold 16% of the U.K. bus market and 25% of the U.K. rail
market.
Mike Alvich, Coach
USAs vice president of sales and marketing, said the Megabus system
has proven to be profitable in England and Scotland.
Since Megabus
eliminates the many stops that characterize conventional bus
routes, trips take as much time as a car making the same
trip.
Travel Weeklys
online comparison shopping found that Chicago to Minneapolis is a
seven-hour nonstop trip on Megabus. On Greyhound, the shortest trip
is eight-and-a-half hours, with stops in Milwaukee, Tomah and Eau
Claire, Wis., and St. Paul, Minn. A 10-hour version of the
Greyhound trip has three additional stops.
The Megabus fare
for the trip ranges from $1 booked six weeks ahead to $39 booked
the day of departure (Megabus said it could go even a dollar or two
higher). The Greyhound fare is $63.50. While Greyhound offers
discounts and promotions, it offers nothing as low as
$1.
Megabus bookings
can be as early as 45 days in advance. As with airlines that
practice yield management, as the coaches fill, the prices go up.
Upon completing a booking, a customer receives an e-mail
confirmation with a numerical confirmation code that must be
presented to the driver upon boarding.
Megabus.com went
live in March, and the service launched in April. Coach USA said it
has sold more than 30,000 Megabus tickets.
Coach USA surveys
have shown that 45% of passengers were people who formerly made the
trip by car.
That surprised us,
said Alvich. We were expecting to get our customers from other bus
lines or rail lines.
The survey also
found that 24% of the passengers were train users, 17% bus riders
and 13% airline passengers.
Megabus does not
pay commissions to travel agents.
To
contact reporter David Cogswell, send e-mail to [email protected].