New York to Boston for $1?

Yesterday, the Times took a look at a few new entrants into the East Coast dis­count bus travel business:

New York to Boston for $1?

“For trav­el­ers who want to get from New York to Boston for less than it would cost for a cup of coffee at Star­bucks, two emerg­ing bus lines may have the answer.”

We’re fre­quent riders on the dis­count Chi­na­town bus lines, despite their ten­dency toward break­downs and shenani­gans. And, a while back I was excited about Vamoose Bus, which was sup­posed to begin NYC–Boston ser­vice with free wi-​fi and a guar­an­teed seat. This seems to have fallen through, as there is now no men­tion of Boston on the their web site.

But it’s inter­est­ing to note the emer­gence of Bolt­Bus and MegaBus – because both are owned by tra­di­tional bussing com­pa­nies, not scrappy Chi­na­town star­tups. Grey­hound owns Bolt­bus, and Megabus is run by Coach USA, parent of Gray Line sight­see­ing bus line.

Both are taking a “South­west Air­lines” approach by offer­ing cheaper fares to those who book early, but last-​minute book­ings will cost about as much as Grey­hound. $1 fares are nice, but I’m most inter­ested in the free wi-​fi, power out­lets, and enter­tain­ment options. Those fea­tures are worth paying a little extra.