Riding Megabus used to mean getting what you paid for. Now its customers are getting a little more.
The bus service known for competitive prices (rates as low as $1 for a trip from Detroit to Chicago) has invested $10 million in 17 new double-decker buses for its Midwest operations, five of which are used on the Detroit to Chicago route.
The new double-decker buses, while not hybrids or low-emission buses, do carry significantly more people, increasing ridership to 79. The older, single-deck buses it opened with early last year only carried 56.
While some riders might miss that distinct old bus rattle and smell, the new double-deckers offer the consolation of luxury. They are wheelchair-accessible and come with bathrooms, air conditioning, two doors and built-in television screens.
The Chicago to Detroit route has stops in downtown Detroit, Wayne State and Ann Arbor. The ridership levels of that route have grown incrementally, about 10 to 15 percent quarterly, since Megabus' local inception last year.
"Detroit has always been one of our key routes," says Dale Moser, president and chief operating office for Stagecoach Group. "It's only gotten better since we added a stop in Ann Arbor."
More than 500,000 passengers have taken Megabus in the U.S. since the network's launch in April 2006. Megabus serves 20 major cities in the U.S. on the West Coast and Midwest, which has a Chicago hub. On a national level, 45 percent of Megabus' passengers previously travelled by car while 24 percent took trains and 13 percent are former airline passengers.
Source: Dale Moser, president and chief operating office for Stagecoach Group
Writer: Jon Zemke
THIS STORY FIRST APPEARED IN METROMODE
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