MegaBus coming to Texas; $1 fares

[s102r18]

Service starts June 19th. All seats $1 (plus $.50 booking fee) through June 25th.

Direct service from Austin is only to Dallas, Houston, and San Antonio, but from one or more of those cities you can also get to Del Rio, Eagle Pass, Galveston, Little Rock, Memphis, New Orleans, Norman, Oklahoma City, San Angelo, San Antonio, and Uvalde.

In Austin the stop is on 21st Street, just East of Guadalupe.

MegaBus

 

[orangecat1]

so, the ultimate beating, trying to save money to not park your car in a Galveston parking lot while on a cruise, could be:

1. Take the megaBus from DFW(Grand Prairie) to Houston, $2, each way for two people.

2. Take the megaBus from Houston to Galveston, about $18 each way for two people.

So far, $40 to avoid parking in a lot, plus no wear and tear on our car.

The only problem then would be 1. getting to Grand Prairie, and 2. getting from the busstop in Galveston to the ship.

The answer to number one is to get a friend, or 17 year old son to drive us to G. P.

For 2., I wonder how far the bus stop is from the port?

Also, how much does it cost to park a car for a week in Galveston?

 

[orangecat1]

looks like it only costs about $50 to park your car in Galveston. According to gasbuddy, it costs about $57 if we take my small car.

It's too much trouble to try to take all of those buses.

 

[s102r18]

The Dallas stop was originally (and at the time of the original post) downtown, at Olive & Elm. It turned out, however, that someone (Greyhound? Southwest Airlines?) alerted the city that there were existing ordinances that required MegaBus to operate from a bus terminal meeting specific requirements. The late switch to a Grand Prairie location effectively rendered Dallas-area MegaBus service useless in most circumstances.

As with other forms of transit, advance purchase requirements significantly affect the cost. Houston to Galveston is $1 per seat on every bus from 07/30 through 08/07, for example. Check the bus fares as soon as you book your cruise.

Don't forget to consider that some folks do go to Galveston for reasons other than taking a cruise, and that some folks do place value on being able to read/relax/surf the web instead of devoting all their attention to driving for five hours from Grand Prairie to Galveston.

 

[orangecat1]

yeah, I agree about the location. I was really excited about the downtown location. I could actually see somebody dropping us off in Plano, we would take DART, etc, etc. It could have actually worked.

An hour trip to G. P.? nah.

 

[l00p]

They ignorantly ran into the same problem in Austin. I think S.A. too. Turns out they may not do very much recon in new cities and don't care about shitting on ordinances and rules. I see the bus roll around town near campus but nobody looking like a student is on it.

 

[s102r18]

I would guess the Austin problem relates to the prohibition against use of public property for private profit. The Austin stop move was fairly insignificant. I don't know anything about the San Antonio situation.

In reply to:

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[l00p]

Hopefully any students wishing to use it are faster on the computer than the people on it already. Many of the buses are pretty full if not all the way full when they rumble by campus but those are the ones that already originated in Dallas (from what I have observed). The drivers are **** and it may explain why I have seen a few training buses lately. That it is run by Coach USA may be another indicator as to why they aremay not have their **** together so far.

 

[s102r18]

The USA arm of MegaBus (a successful UK company that operates in Great Britain and Europe) partners with CoachUSA. I don't know all the details, but different routes have different operators. Last time I checked, all the Austin-Houston routes were designated on the web site as operated by Kerrville Bus Company. Austin to Dallas and Austin to San Antonio were designated as operated by MegaBus. I've read elsewhere, however, that in other locations there are some differences between what is indicated by the icons on the web site and what folks have observed.

In the right circumstances this service is quite successful and enormously popular. There are news articles about cities begging MegaBus to come to their town. Their efforts in California, however were quickly abandoned. Los Angeles to Las Vegas by air is popular to the point of demand in excess of supply on weekends, but MegaBus was unable to siphon off much of that demand. Considering modern hassles of air travel, and the lack of a clear trip time advantage for the airlines, that route should have been enormously successful for MegaBus. No such luck. Modern prejudice against travel by bus was likely a significant factor. That's a serious concern for MegaBus trying to establish a foothold in Texas.

 

[TXSNOS]

So has anyone here actually ridden on a MegaBus?

 

[vball]

When my daughter lived in Phily, she took Megabus many times to NYC. It was a great way to make a day or weekend trip to New York for a great price. The route is very popular. Obviously, the transportation situation in the NE is quite different that Texas. It remains to be seen IMO how well they will do here.

 

[dfw75201]

Who would take a bus from Philly to NY when you get there by train so quickly and cheaply?

 

[vball]

The route between Philly and NYC is very popular because its also quick and cheap. RT for as little as $2. Non-stop; nice buses with wifi. Pretty convenient drop off at Grand Central Station.

 

[l00p]

dfw, the frequencies can be a lot more often and with cheaper ticket prices. I used to ride Peter Pan buses from D.C. to NYC and the other way around depending on when I wanted/needed to head to either city. Sometimes getting a train was not exactly convenient and I wanted to go right then and there. Buses every thirty minutes to every hour worked better. Get an express bus and it's about the same time since the train stops a few times.

 

[s102r18]

Amtrak from Philly to NYC is not "cheap." For the one mid-October week-day I searched, the one way fares range from $36 for standard service, with Acela running $94 to $156. So the minimum is $72 and the max is over $300 on a RT basis.

The less expensive rail route is a commuter bus from Philly to Trenton and a transfer to another train. I don't know all those fares but for the added hassle I think you can get the RT total below $50.

On the same travel date, most fares on MegaBus are $4 to $8 OW, with a few peak demand buses at $15 OW, meaning a RT fare of $8.50 to $30.50 (with the $.50 booking fee). I did a same-day booking in June and paid $14 (plus $0.50) to get on a bus leaving in less than an hour from when I booked.

But back to Texas: MegaBus has already ended service to all Texas cities other than Austin, Dallas, Houston, and San Antonio, and there is no longer service between Austin and Houston. That's a real loss, as I was looking forward to pairing Austin-Houston and Houston-New Orleans for a Big Easy getaway.

 

[l00p]

Their business plan or idea seems really chaotic, haphazzard and ill planned. If they just slowed down a bit maybe it could work. Don't know who is advising them.