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An amenity-filled ride at a lower price

A growing number of riders are choosing a new type of intercity bus service for trips too long to drive and too short to fly.

The Orlando Sentinel

ORLANDO, Fla. - Winter Park, Fla., resident Paul Adamson left his car behind recently when he traveled to Gainesville, Fla., to surprise his fiancee. Opting out of the two-hour drive, Adamson instead hopped onto a Megabus motor coach from a makeshift bus stop by the side of West Jefferson Street in downtown Orlando. The one-way ticket cost him $12.

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Travelers in downtown Orlando prepare to board the Megabus coach last month. Megabus, a discount service that first appeared in the Northeast five years ago, recently opened a Southeast hub in Atlanta.

Laura Newberry/Orlando Sentinel/MCT

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Adamson is among a growing number of people, many of them young adults, choosing a new type of intercity bus service over planes, trains and automobiles. These "curbside" motor-coach operators offer better service, with fewer stops and more comfortable seats than conventional buses, plus modern conveniences such as Wi-Fi and power outlets for laptops and smartphones.

Most passengers using these new express services are traveling 200 to 300 miles, distances "too close to fly and too far to drive," said Peter Pantuso, president of the American Bus Association, an industry trade group.

Megabus, a discount operator that first appeared in the Northeastern U.S. five years ago, opened a Southeastern hub in Atlanta several months ago that links the Georgia capital with southern locales. And Greyhound Lines Inc., the nation's biggest intercity-bus company, last month expanded its network for Greyhound Express - a "premium" service that costs a little more than Greyhound's regular bus runs.

Intercity bus service was the only long-distance mode of transportation to grow at a notable rate last year, according to a study commissioned by DePaul University in Chicago. And that growth was due largely to a boom in curbside service.

The federal government doesn't count motor-coach passengers, but the DePaul study noted that intercity-bus departures rose 7.1 percent last year compared with 2010 - including a 32 percent jump in "curbside" departures. The number of airline passengers grew 1.8 percent in 2011, while ridership on Amtrak, the nation's passenger-rail service, rose 5.2 percent, the study found.

"I can't say we are recession-proof, but we've been in pretty good shape compared to other travel industries," Pantuso said of motor-coach operators.

Curbside bus operators typically pick up their passengers at publicly accessible areas - designated street intersections or parking lots, for example -and have few, if any, stops between major destinations. Because most of these companies don't maintain fixed terminals, they can easily add or drop routes.

Megabus director of operations Bryony Chamberlain said that about 15,000 people have boarded the company's motor coaches in Orlando since service began there in mid-November. According to the Chicago-based company, more than half of its customers are between18 and 34 years old, and about 65 percent are women.

Greyhound media-relations manager Timothy Stokes said the company has seen a sharp increase in passengers and departures since Greyhound Express' debut in December 2010.

Pantuso said more women and younger travelers are drawn to these new services in part because they have shed the image of intercity coaches and bus travel generally as unclean and unsafe.

"A lot of these companies are providing curbside service instead of an old, rundown terminal in the middle of town," Pantuso said.

Both Megabus and Greyhound Express compete with airlines and Amtrak by providing the same services at lower prices, Pantuso said. "People are self-entertained as they're traveling," Pantuso said of the Wi-Fi and USB outlets for use with laptops, tablets, phones and music players. "The environment is a big game-changer." A one-way trip to Gainesville on Greyhound Express costs anywhere from $32 to $42, compared to $33 to $37 for Greyhound's regular service and $12 for Megabus.