subscribe to this page| INTERCITY BUS SERVICE CHANGES FOLLOWING THE BUS REGULATORY REFORM ACT OF 1982 | |
| Accession Number: | 00453096 |
| Record Type: | Component |
| Abstract: | The Bus Regulatory Reform Act of 1982 (BRRA) increased entry and exit flexibility for regular-route intercity bus firms and created a process for preemption of burdensome state regulations, particularly those dealing with exit. Congress directed the Motor Carrier Ratemaking Study Commission to study the impacts of these changes. The results of that study regarding changes in bus service are presented. In the year following implementation of the BRRA, carriers filed to discontinue service to 2,154 points. Most of the points losing service had small populations; 80.7 percent had less than 2,500 persons and had been receiving a very low level of service. Revenue and cost data for a number of the route segments at issue indicated annual carrier losses of $7 million on variable costs and more than $13 million on a fully allocated cost basis. A number of routes did not have any revenue, indicating that few users would be affected by discontinuance. Against these service losses must be balanced the positive effects of increased competition resulting from 225 applications for regular route authority, of which 71 percent were for regular-route intercity service. The competitive pressures for new services and fare reductions between larger cities provide benefits such that the overall effect of increased entry and exit flexibility has been positive even though a small number of bus riders have experienced an absolute loss of service. |
| Supplemental Notes: | This paper appeared in Transportation Research Record N1012, Economic and Regulatory Issues in Intercity Bus and Other Transportation. |
| TRIS Files: | HRIS; UMTRIS |
| Pagination: | p. 38-46 |
| Authors: | Fravel, F D |
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City officials halt Vamoose express bus route to NYC
By Lorne Bell - Friday November 30 2007
Vamoose may never service the Boston area.
Hasidic-owned company told to desist picking up passengers from Boston area
Vamoose, the latest express bus line to offer service between the Boston area and New York City, suffered a significant setback this week when Cambridge officials denied the company permission to pick up passengers on city streets. Although Vamoose had successfully launched an express route from Bennett Street in Cambridge on Nov. 8, the company was ordered to cease all operations on Monday.
"I suspect that we may not ever be able to go into Boston, or at least for the time being," said company spokeswoman Florence Bluzenstein. "We're basically stuck between a rock and a hard place."
Vamoose was founded by Bluzenstein's husband, Sam Bluzenstein, a Hasidic Jew from New York City. The former transportation head of a large yeshiva, Mr. Bluzenstein started Vamoose four years ago to provide travelers between New York City and Washington, D.C., with a more customer service-oriented alternative to traditional bus lines.
What's drives the Chinatown van drivers?
By Loretta Chao
...
As convenient as the service is for riders however, drivers say the work is extremely difficult and unrewarding. Each driver has to buy, insure, and sign their buses up with a company, which then gets a cut of their daily earnings. Zhou, for example, makes seven round trips everyday during the winter and gets to save less than $100.
"I have worked 365 days for four years now," said Zhou, who lives in Flushing with his wife and 3-year-old daughter. "Just think - I've never taken a vacation, not even for one day. I haven't even had time to get sick.
"It's just unbearably hard. I don't know English. When I go out I feel like I'm mute. Everything I learned in school is useless," he said.
And while customers are plentiful, the increasing number of vans has led to bitter and sometimes violent rivalry over the past six years. Police arrested the drivers involved in a string of murders as part of what they called a "bus war" in January 2003, but investigators said minor offenses like tire slashing and window breaking often went unreported. With some drivers working until 11 o'clock at night, they face other dangers as well.
“The Return of the Intercity Bus: The Decline and Recovery of Scheduled Service to
American Cities, 1960 – 2007” assessed the changing status of intercity bus service
throughout the United States during the past half-century. Drawing on data from more
than 5,000 arrivals and departures in a representative sample of American cities, it shows
that U.S. cities lost nearly one-third of their scheduled intercity service between 1960 and
1980 and more than 60 percent of the remaining services between 1980 and 2005.
VENTURES; Chinatown to Boston On a $15 Van Ride
It started with van service between Sunset Park, Brooklyn, and Chinatown. Now it has branched out to Boston: a van ride from Chinatown can cost as little as $15.
The entrepreneur behind it is Pei Lin Liang, an immigrant from China, who worked as a delivery man for a noodle shop before he opened Fung Wah Transport Vans in 1996.
To get to work in Chinatown from his home in Brooklyn, he used to be a passenger on an unlicensed transportation service. The experience helped Mr. Liang realize that there was a market for van service from Sunset Park to Chinatown.
Mr. Liang set up Fung Wah, at first with a trial period, for the many people who made that daily trip. He thought he could do a better job handling the business. Mr. Liang, who was a professional musician before he immigrated in 1988, also needed a way to support his family.
Mr. Liang says the people who use the van service -- between 139 Canal Street, near the Bowery, and 4207 Eighth Avenue, near 42nd Street in Brooklyn -- are almost all Chinese. They use the service, which costs $1.75 and runs consistently throughout the day, starting as early as 7 a.m. and running as late as 11:30 p.m.
In 1998, Mr. Liang expanded the van service to include trips from 139 Canal to 68 Beach Street in Boston's Chinatown, right in front of the Crown Royal Bakery, which Mr. Liang's brother-in-law owns.
Originally, Mr. Liang created the second route because many Chinese families had children studying in Boston. That service now has six departures from New York and six from Boston, every day. One-way trips are $25 and round trips $45. (The 4 p.m. and 7 p.m. trips from New York, and the 8 a.m. trip from Boston, though, are $15.) For comparison, a search on the Greyhound Web site found that a one-way adult fare from New York to Boston was $40, not including sales tax.
Mr. Liang estimates that the clientele on the New York-Boston route is 80 percent Chinese-Americans and includes many foreigners and students. They usually find out about Fung Wah through friends, but Fung Wah also advertises in two Chinese-language newspapers.
Mike Clarfeld, 23, a New York resident who recently rode a Fung Wah van round trip between New York and Boston with his friend Ed Domingo, recommends the Chinatown-Chinatown service and said he would use it again.
''You want to know my favorite part?'' Mr. Clarfeld asked. At 4 p.m., he said, the departure time the two men had opted for on a recent Friday, Mr. Domingo called Mr. Clarfeld's cell phone to say that he was stuck in traffic five blocks north of the Fung Wah Chinatown location.
''So,'' Mr. Clarfeld said, ''the woman who ran Fung Wah said: 'Where's your friend? We'll pick him up along the way.' ''
The only advice Mr. Clarfeld had was: ''Bring a book light if you want to read on the bus because it is dark in there.'''Chinatown buses' make no-frills inroads in Las Vegas
By Rosemary McClure, Times Staff Writer
May 17, 2007
They were an underground hit almost from the start.
The cut-rate transportation services called "Chinatown buses" originated about a decade ago in the Northeast. At first, they were an inexpensive way for Chinese restaurant workers to commute to jobs in nearby cities. Fares as low as $10 between New York and Boston were common.
Soon Chinese students began to hop aboard, and other students followed suit. Then savvy budget travelers noticed, and suddenly Greyhound was facing a new form of competition: low-overhead bus companies that thrived on a no-frills, shoestring approach to service.
Instead of picking up passengers at terminals, Chinatown buses picked them up - and deposited them - along curbsides; instead of maintaining ticket offices, they sold space online; instead of offering numerous routes, they offered only the most popular.
The bus lines, most of which are owned by Chinese immigrants, are common in the Northeast, but similar low-cost services also can be found in the West.
The online booking service GotoBus.com launched five years ago by Cambridge, Mass., businessman Jimmy Chen, handles reservations and helped put the low-cost bus trend on the road.
GotoBus.com now accounts for 1,000 scheduled departures a day throughout the country. Besides the low-cost players it now takes reservations for major sightseeing companies, such as Gray Line.
...
Riders can choose transportation alone, paying fares as low as $25 between Los Angeles and Las Vegas or $45 between Los Angeles and San Francisco. Or they can choose vacations that include accommodations, such as a two-day trip from Los Angeles to Ensenada, Mexico, for $95; or a three-day trip from L.A. to San Francisco and Yosemite for $120.
Prices and tour components fluctuate - the $99 Las Vegas-Grand Canyon itinerary described in the accompanying story, for instance, is now available from various companies for prices ranging from $114 to $127, but a different Vegas tour is available for $99 that includes two nights in Sin City.
D.C. to New York for $10. Seriously. - Thrifty Travelers Discover a Gem in Chinatown Bus Lines
Washington Post - December 1, 2002
Author: Michael Barbaro, Washington Post Staff Writer
At 2:23 a.m., American University freshman Gene Fielden settles into a chair in the dank basement bus depot at 513 H St NW. He thinks he has found a way to kill time when the pow-pow-pow of a television movie erupts from a small set in the corner. Then the dialogue starts -- in Chinese.
"Easy listening, huh?" he yells, pointing to the speaker above his head.
Greyhound this is not.
But for Fielden, and for many others who have found their way to Washington-New York Express Tours' bus stop in Chinatown, or to its competitor Dragon Expressway & Travel Inc. a block away, this late-night trip isn't about tidy terminals, frequent departures or reclining seats. It's about price. To be exact, $10 for a one-way ticket from Washington to New York. Round trip? $15.
Largely under the radar, a new transportation link has taken hold between cities up and down the East Coast: Chinatown-to-Chinatown buses, which originally targeted immigrant Chinese restaurant workers. Dragon and Washington-New York Express Tours, joined by a handful of other tiny lines, are now waging an elbows-out battle for dominance in the niche market. At least four motor-coach companies run routes to New York's Chinatown -- from the District as well as from Boston, Philadelphia, Richmond and Baltimore -- in a competition that, in Manhattan at least, has even broken into violence over parking spaces and potential passengers.
Fatal Stabbing Linked to Chinatown Bus Business
By MICHAEL WILSON
A fight over a Chinatown discount bus route ended in a stabbing death on Thursday night, the police said.
The victim, identified by the police as Zhen Ji Li, 31, of East Broadway, was stabbed nine times shortly after 9 p.m. at Pike and Henry Streets and was pronounced dead at the scene. The police arrested Lei Chen, 25, of Indianapolis, charging him with second-degree murder and criminal possession of a weapon.
According to an investigator, an off-duty agent for the Immigration and Naturalization Service saw the two men struggling and held Mr. Chen at gunpoint until the police arrived. The agent was not identified.
The two men involved in the episode knew each other and worked together for one of the Chinatown bus companies, the police said.
''It appears to be a dispute over money, how much was going to be remunerated, I guess, for the purchase of a bus route, a bus company,'' Police Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly said yesterday.
The highly competitive bus companies, which carry passengers from New York's Chinatown to Chinatowns in Philadelphia, Washington, Boston and other cities, have been linked to recurring violence here. It was unclear yesterday whether the fight was connected to previous conflicts in the neighborhood.
By WILLIAM K. RASHBAUM
Published: May 11, 2003
The operator of a Chinatown bus company competing with others in a bitter battle for riders was shot and killed on Friday night on a street near his home, and detectives yesterday were investigating whether the slaying was related to the unusual feud, police officials said.
The gunman, whom the police described as an Asian man in his 20's wearing a waist-length black jacket and a white baseball cap, was apparently waiting for the victim, De Jian Chen, 27, outside Mr. Chen's home on Henry Street, the police said. About 9:15 p.m., as Mr. Chen climbed out of a friend's white Lexus at Forsythe and Henry Streets, the gunman opened fire with a .45-caliber pistol, the police said.
But he missed his mark, and Mr. Chen ran down Henry Street and around the corner onto Market Street, the police said. The gunman followed, catching up with Mr. Chen in front of 32 Market Street and firing again, this time hitting him three times in the back and once in the arm. Mr. Chen collapsed and was pronounced dead about 30 minutes later at New York University Downtown Hospital, the police said.
The police and a business associate of the victim, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, provided different accounts of his relationship to the bus company. The police said Mr. Chen worked for the company, Dragon Coach U.S.A., at 87 East Broadway, and had an ownership interest in another bus company. The associate said Mr. Chen was an owner of Dragon Coach U.S.A. and ran buses from New York City to Philadelphia, Washington and Richmond, Va., and played a lesser role in a company that ran buses to Atlanta.
Over the last year, several Chinatown bus lines that offer low fares to Philadelphia, Washington, Boston and other destinations have competed so fiercely for riders that fistfights have broken out between rival employees, and neighbors have complained of ganglike violence.
Last year, the police and prosecutors investigated certain companies and people associated with them, according to a law enforcement official, but no charges were filed. Last May, Mr. Chen was arrested and charged with first-degree assault; he was accused by the police of deliberately driving his bus into a man affiliated with a rival company. That case is pending.
Discount Bus Companies Tangle Over Territory
By THOMAS J. LUECK
The number of competitors to Greyhound Lines with inexpensive fares has soared in recent years, expanding well beyond the no-frills buses based in Chinatown in Manhattan and setting off fierce battles for riders. In fact, in the booming world of discount travel, there is apparently no room for two Hasidic-owned companies on the same route.
A dispute between the two bus companies that are vying for riders from New York to Washington, Vamoose and Washington Deluxe, has landed in court. As a result, some customers have been confused in recent days by Vamoose's Web site, which first said the company was temporarily out of business, then said it was running again, but with fewer stops.
The Vamoose-Washington Deluxe dispute, in which Washington Deluxe says that Vamoose trespassed on its route, is a small scuffle in a more tumultuous struggle that has transformed travel in the Northeast. Involved are more than 30 discount lines that pick up people curbside.
The lines, whose fares are much lower than the cost of air or train tickets and have led to discounts by Greyhound, the nation's largest carrier, have won over thousands of devoted customers. But the industry's short history also includes accidents, regular breakdowns, lawsuits and even violence.
The discount bus lines began springing up in Chinatown in the late 1990's with a handful of operators picking up passengers on haphazard schedules. The new lines had an advantage over more established bus companies because they did not pay for space or employees at the Port Authority Bus Terminal or other bus stations.
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Welcome to Tony Coach Travel Bus Tony Coach provides affordable and reliable transportation between New York and Washington DC. eTickets are emailed to you in real-time when your payment is collected. Please present a valid ID of the customer name and a printout of order confirmation (eTickets) at boarding.
- New York - 87 Chrystie Street, New York, NY 10002
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Low-cost service between Philadelphia, New York
Perhaps there's no such thing as a free lunch, but a new Philadelphia-to-New York bus service may come close May 30 when it begins offering free or even $1 seats for a few lucky riders.Megabus.com, a two-year-old division of Coach USA, of Chicago, intends to unveil plans today for a new service like ones it already operates in Chicago, Los Angeles and abroad. It could compete with existing low-cost bus lines in Philadelphia's Chinatown, and it capitalizes on Web-based booking systems and fuel-efficient vehicles to push down costs even in the face of ever-rising diesel prices.
Megabus says it will offer eight round-trips a day, with Philadelphia stops on John F. Kennedy Boulevard near 30th Street Station and at Fifth and Market Streets, near the Independence Visitor Center. The only New York stop is at Penn Station, at Eighth Avenue between 32d and 33d Streets.
All seats on Megabuses will be free the first week. Thereafter, they will cost from $1 to $14 each way, said Dale Moser, president of Coach USA L.L.C., a national operator of charter and scheduled bus services, based in Paramus, N.J.
...
Megabus.com will begin similar express service May 30 between New York and six other cities: Atlantic City, Baltimore, Boston, Buffalo, Toronto and Washington. The company will operate like a hub-and-spoke airline, with all routes nonstop to and from New York. There are no plans to add other routes from Philadelphia, Moser said.
One of the justifications offered for U.S. taxpayers to subsidize Amtrak is the idea that lower-income people (students, immigrants, the retired, etc.) need an affordable alternative to using the airlines for inter-city travel. That's always rung hollow with me, since we've had nationwide Greyhound bus service since long before Amtrak. But Greyhound has been losing money for a number of years, and its annual passenger count has been declining since 2000—in part due to the growth of low-cost airlines.
But this decade has also witnessed a proliferation of new inter-city bus companies. So far, none is of national scope, but their niche markets are growing. And they seem to be following in the footsteps of low-cost air carriers, by thinking outside the box to cut costs dramatically.
...
In the northeast, several companies offer bus service between Chinatowns in various cities. The largest of these seems to be Chinatown Bus (Chinatown-bus.com), connecting Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, and Washington. Fares vary, with "typical" one-way fares ranging from $12 New York-Philadelphia to $20 New York-DC. Another bus company, Vamoose, offers express service between Manhattan and two DC suburbs—Bethesda, MD and Arlington, VA for $25.
Private companies are even moving into urban markets. Spanish Transportation Corporation of Paterson, NJ now runs 130 commuter buses into Manhattan each day, on three different routes. The company has grown from a van service with 14 vans in 1993 to a sizeable enterprise today. The buses are branded Express Service. And Las Vegas now boasts a new door-to-door service among hotels and casinos on the Strip—at just $2.50 per ride. Called Arrow, it is offered by Vegas.com, a travel and booking company. Also offered is a $10 daily pass offering unlimited use of Arrow and the private Las Vegas monorail. Arrow competes with the regional transportation authority's double-decker Deuce buses.
The economics are hard to fathom, Pei Lin Liang, the owner of Fung Wah Bus Transportation, admits. At a time when a cab ride from Midtown to Chinatown might cost close to $10, how can a four-hour, 215-mile journey to Boston aboard Fung Wah or any of its competitors cost the same?
Mr. Liang, 41, a gaunt chain-smoker who regularly staggers through 15-hour work days, offers his explanation through a translator. It is ''business by suicide,'' he says.
Budget travelers up and down the Northeast know Fung Wah as the original ''Chinatown bus.'' The company was the first to start running vans and buses between Boston and New York at bargain rates, becoming something of a cult phenomenon. Today, it is just one of many players in the hypercompetitive Chinatown bus industry. With companies locked in a price war, rates have plummeted on Fung Wah's route, reaching a new low last spring at $10 for a one-way trip to Boston. Yes, $10.
Fung Wah driver cited for speeding in rollover
By David Abel and Kristen Green, Globe Staff and Globe Correspondent | September 6, 2006
AUBURN -- Thirty-four people were injured yesterday after a speeding Boston-bound Fung Wah bus rolled over on an Interstate 290 offramp, State Police said.
Fung Wah Bus is Chinatown's first Bus company to provide low cost transportation between New York Chinatown and Boston Chinatown. Fung Wah Bus is located at the heart of New York Chinatown between Bowery Street and Canal Street.
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What is SafeStat?
They offers daily bus service between New York(156 E. Broadway) and Philadelphia.
New York(156 E Broadway) <--> Philladelphia
One way $12.00, Round Trip $24.00
Duration:about 2 hours
New York:156 East Broadway
Philadephia:Frankford Transportation Ctr. or 2801 Cottman Ave.
List of low-cost bus lines, and other transportation options to-and-from NYC.
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THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
8:25 AM EDT, March 11, 2008
Travelers between Boston and New York will soon have another low-cost option.
Greyhound Lines is partnering with Springfield-based Peter Pan Bus Lines to launch the "Boltbus." The coaches will offer wireless internet, plenty of leg room and one-way fares as low as $1.
The Boltbus will compete with other low-cost carriers such as Fung Wah. Bus companies say dissatisfaction with air travel delays and traffic congestion have an increasing number of travelers turning to old-fashioned bus service as an alternative.
Greyhound plans to keep Boltbus fares low by selling most of its tickets online. Company spokesman Dustin Clark says fares will be set at market value but he expects there to be at least some $1 fares for each trip.
The Boston-New York service is scheduled to begin in April.