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?