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The Intercity Bus E-News team is gearing up for the release of On the Bus: 2024 Outlook for the Intercity Bus Industry in the United States in only a few days. Several months in the works and soon available free via email and on our website, we expect On the Bus to attract much attention for its concise reviews of major initiatives and bold projections. We are pleased to offer this "sneak preview".
Watch your inbox for the release, invite your colleagues to join our listserv, and register for our free February 22 webinar, detailed below. Safe travels!
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Joseph Schwieterman, Ph.D. | Intercity Bus E-News Editor
Professor & Director, Chaddick Institute at DePaul University
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Bus Lines Make Major Moves
in New England and New York State
Market Initiative along Major Corridors
More than any other U.S. region, nearly all the most heavily traveled routes in New England and Upstate New York are highly competitive. Although the players differ by subregion, the price and schedule competition are fierce. The visibility of megabus.com rose with last year’s addition of Trailways of New York (whose brands include Adirondack Trailways) and Peter Pan to this popular booking platform. Soon after, Megabus discontinued its routes to Boston and Upstate New York. This move was in keeping with the megabus.com policy of making its partners (in this case, Peter Pan) exclusive providers on the routes they serve.
|  | Boston – New York, until a few years ago, was a bewildering mix of lines. The corridor now has only five main players if you count Greyhound and FlixBus (which have the same owner) as one. Greyhound-FlixBus, on peak days, together, typically have 34 downtown-to-downtown departures each way, roughly two-thirds of which being Flixbus, while Peter Pan, which runs almost hourly, has a dozen. These brands also serve other points in the Boston region not included in the above counts. FlixBus shoulders a heavier traffic burden than Greyhound, partly due to having a prime loading spot outside Penn Station in New York. | |
After expanding last year, the third player, OurBus (a booking platform), offers 4 - 5 trips on peak days, leaving from a point near the Prudential Building. It, too, has other direct services from the Boston area and expands significantly during the busiest periods. The fourth, Go Buses, typically has two trips daily, primarily originating in Cambridge, MA. Finally, niche player Coach Run (a booking platform) has one or two trips on most days and is notable for having stops in both Midtown and Lower Manhattan.
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Upstate New York is only slightly less competitive, despite Megabus withdrawing early last year, apparently due to its desire to allow Adirondack, another partner, to be the exclusive provider on megabus.com. Between New York, Binghamton, and Ithaca, four lines, Adirondack, Coach USA’s ShortLine, FlixBus-Greyhound, and OurBus, compete head-to-head. Three of these—all except ShortLine—also connect New York to Rochester and Buffalo, but bargain hunters will also find that Wanda Coach offers several daily trips to these cities from the Chinatown neighborhood.
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Notable Moves on Routes Less Traveled | |
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New Hampshire-based C&J Bus Lines continues to reinvent itself for the post-pandemic market. C&J has moved to a reservation-only model without a booking fee. To support the switch, it undertook a schedule expansion on its Seacoast, NH - Boston Logan and downtown Boston routes and is now running airport service half-hourly for parts of the day. C&J also reopened its Dover, NH, station, which had been shuddered since 2020. Like its Portsmouth terminal, Dover has an attractive waiting room and free parking, which is a rarity for bus travel. Bucking the national trend, C&J opened a terminal in Seabrook, which has almost 800 parking spaces, a spacious passenger waiting area, and four covered bus slips, in 2021.
C&J, Concord Coach, and Dartmouth Coach have carved different market niches throughout the region. Concord and Dartmouth have a business class service to New York from Portland, ME, and Lebanon/Hanover, NH, respectively, whereas C&J has a premium service from Portsmouth and Dover to Manhattan. Each line offers at least one trip per day, with both C&J and Dartmouth having additional trips toward weekends. C&J has up to three trips on the busiest days, giving it considerably more service than before the pandemic. In addition, C&J is exploring a possible expansion to its New York service.
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Ridership on Vermont Translines, which operates with state support, was 25% higher last year than in 2022. Since restructuring its network in 2021, the provider has focused on twice-daily Albany, NY – Rutland, VT – Burlington, VT service designed to connect with Amtrak and other bus services at Albany. Translines fills gaps in train schedules, allows travelers to reach Burlington and New York several hours earlier than train-only options, and has different intermediate stops. Due to added bus/rail synergy, traffic has grown despite Amtrak extending the Ethan Allen Express, a train originating in New York, from Rutland to Burlington in 2022. More than a third of Translines customers make train connections. Bus-only trips can now also be booked on amtrak.com.
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The municipal government has purchased the Albany Greyhound Station for redevelopment into a large parking deck. This structure will have a ground-floor intermodal facility that will apparently be available to intercity bus lines. Critics have panned the current 1970s-era station for its bunker-like appearance. Several years ago, Adirondack and Peter Pan moved from that station to a similarly modest facility nearby. Whether all intercity bus services will eventually be consolidated into the new intermodal facility remains to be seen. Rail connections require a local bus or taxi ride over the Hudson River, although some carriers make stops at Amtrak’s Rensselaer Station.
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Will intercity bus traffic rise or fall over the next year? How will the closing of traditional Greyhound stations affect the industry?
We provide answers and insights in our 2024 Outlook, which is organized by geographic region for easy browsing and will be available at this link.
Register now for our free webinar from 2- 2:45 p.m. CT on Thursday, February 22 by clicking here. To reach the study team, reply to this email
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