January 28, 2005
The Rough and Tumble World of Cut-Rate Bus Lines
The Wall Street Journal examined today the heated competition between Chinese-owned bus companies and Greyhound buses between major U.S. cities. The stiff competition with newcomers has put Greyhound in a tight spot and forced them to cut prices between D.C., New York, and Boston. In Boston the companies have even won a spot in that city's South Station bus terminal, although their buses aren't yet listed on the television screens.
The article neglects to mention that between New York City and Washington there are at least two other independent operators offering discount buses aside from the Chinatown Bus Companies (we mentioned them in a post back in August)- The Washington New York Delux and the Vamoose Bus.
According to the Journal, the business of buses can get quite heated:
... in 2000, as recounted in a New York conspiracy indictment, competition among Chinese bus lines turned nasty. Several people who worked for Farwell Tours, an operator on the Washington run, are accused of brutalizing a rival, D.C. Express. Two people are awaiting trial; the others are at large. Wrecking its buses and threatening ticket agents, they tried to get D.C. Express to either raise its rock-bottom prices or get out of the business, the Manhattan district attorney alleges.In May 2002, after D.C. Express sold out to another line, a Farwell bus backed into the new owner, crushing his pelvis. The indictment names the driver as Di Jian Chen. Mr. Chen won't be going on trial: He was shot dead on a Chinatown street in May 2003. His murder remains unsolved.
As a response to the competition the article says Greyhound pushed the federal government to check the company's compliance to federal regulations, but perhaps to their chagrin the feds told the Journal "Every time we confronted one of these carriers, they did what was necessary to become authorized." DCist loves the price war, which makes the weekend jaunt to visit friends even more affordable. Have you taken the Chinatown bus?
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yup - on my first trip the bus broke down and we ended up hitch-hiking from the jersey turnpike to harlem.
and on the way back i nearly got thrown off the bus for losing the ripped sheet of paper with a number written in pencil on the back ... apparently that was some kind of seat assignment. then our bus left two people behind at a rest stop.
and did you ever notice how they make all the white people sit in the back of the bus?
but regardless, i love the chinatown bus -- it's a great way to stick it to amtrak price gouging...and you're assured to always get a good story out of the journey.
Vamoose Bus is SO much better than the Chinatown bus that it's not even worth comparing the two.
yeah, but which has less pee smell?
i took one to nyc on spring break last year. it was fine heading up. but coming home, the original bus was inspected and they wouldnt let us ride, so we ended up following this lady down two blocks through chinatown where another bus was waiting for us. really shady but ended up being fine.
colleen, personally, in my 4 years of using the dc-ny and ny-boston lines, i never saw any chinese bus company ever "make all the white people" sit in the back of the bus. logically, it would be economic suicide for them to antagonize non-chinese customers considering the amount of competition.
but a year ago, i choose to stop riding the ny-dc line because they oversold seats and i once saw the driver remove the emergency exit signs. vamoose and wash deluxe are better, imho, but what gives with the terrible movies??? snow day? kindergarten cop??
My family is in Philly, and Amtrak's last price raise has made me vow not to spend 58 dollars to travel from here to there. Do any of these bus lines service Philly, or is there a non-Amtrak way of getting there?
chris, check out this chinatown bus page. some lines service philly.
Although I've never used the bus myself, the story that always comes to mind is from a friend of mine who had just started taking Chinese at college and desicded to ride bus about a year and a half ago with his girlfriend. He was sitting in his seat waiting for the trip to begin when a frog fell onto his seat from overhead (escaped from a suitcase above him). Unfortunately, comments along the lines of "Can someone please reclaim their frog?" were a little beyond his present language ability. ^_^
The bus from philly is 12 bucks to nyc. all i know.