Bolt bus does the same thing for Vancouver - Seattle - Portland....$1 tix increasing for peak times and as date approaches. And in the North East too. It's owned by Greyhound.
These buses are great for people traveling between DC and New York...mainly because driving/parking in New York is a nightmare, and the tolls alone from that round trip are over $30. Also, most people I visit in New York are easily accessible via the subway system once you arrive. Not to mention a lot of people who live in these cities don't even own a car in the first place for a variety of reasons But Houston? Pretty much everyone already owns a car in Texas out of necessity. I imagine most people who visit Houston are probably actually visiting family or friends who live in the suburbs, which require someone to drive all the way into downtown to pick you up, or maybe having to figure out how to catch another commuter bus. Just don't see why many people would want to use this. I guess to save money on gas? (especially if you get the cheap fare) I don't know...who here would want to use this instead of driving? Maybe I'm just missing where the demand for this would come from.
$10 for round trip from Houston to Austin. That could save a guy some money. specially if i get a hotel in downtown. that sounds like a good road trip. however now a days i cant even take a 2 hour plane ride without being bored.
Some friends and I are actually taking this bus down to New Orleand at the end of the month for a day of gambling. Hopefully it's not crowded.
http://www.khou.com/news/texas-news/Mega-Bus-service-runs-into-trouble-in-Austin-159600295.html Mega Bus service runs into trouble in Austin Posted on June 19, 2012 at 1:26 PM HOUSTON – A new bus service offering cheap travel between cities in Texas is running into some problems. Austin officials have told Mega Bus to cease and desist. The company was planning to pick people up at a particular street corner in Austin, but the city said that’s illegal, and that Mega Bus needs an off-street terminal. Mega Bus officials said they did start service in other Texas cities Tuesday, but there are reportedly permit issues in Houston and in Dallas, too.
i saw megabus on 24th and guadalupe. wasnt picking anybody up but was on the street at the traffic light. that was 2 days ago
Took it to New Orleans this weekend. It doesn't stop anywhere so you get there fast. Took off around 7:45 and got there around 1:30. On the way to New Orleans it was about half full, return trip to Houston was pretty much a full house. I was got my fares for free, would go again. Wifi was excellent on the way to NO, on the way back it was a little slower.
For the trip to New Orleans it was a few families, scattered couples/groups of people in the 25-27 range as myself. On the way back from New Orleans it was pretty much exclusively families.
Looks like Houston-Austin service is no more... http://www.kvue.com/news/consumer/Megabus-route-to-Houston-cancelled-163643366.html There offer cheap fares, but there are some sacrifices, namely, their customer service. I needed to go from Austin to Houston so I tried out MegaBus for this weekend, buying a ticket. I looked at the site again after buying my ticket for a return trip a few days later, only to see that an Houston-Austin route doesn't even exist on their website anymore. I basically had to do research myself to find out that the route was cancelled. There was no correspondence or anything from MegaBus informing me of this. If I had not gone looking, I would have waited at the bus stop for who knows how long with the bus never showing up. I had to call the number on their site, speak to someone for a few minutes, be put on hold for a couple of minutes, when he told me to call another number. I called that number, was on hold for 20 minutes, and the lady hung up on me immediately. So I called again, stayed on hold for a little bit, and finally got confirmation that there would be no bus service. When I asked for a refund, the lady didn't want to give me back the 50 cents in booking fee I paid. Seriously? It's just 50 cents I don't care but the bus was cancelled and no one told me, and they are skimping over 50 cents.
So I took megabus 6 times in the last couple of months. Houston-San Antonio 3 times, San Antonio-Houston once, San Antonio-Austin, Austin-Houston. Every time the bus was on time. It showed up at least 15 minutes early of departure. What I noticed is that during traffic times they would send an empty bus from the warehouse instead of waiting on a bus from another city. The fares have gone up since last year, the cheapest ticket I got was $2 one way, ranging up to $13, but $2 was 2 months in advance and $13 was a couple of days before. The majority of the people tend to be students and young people in general, or just people looking for a bargain. There has been a stop to Katy added for Austin and San Antonio buses, which is annoying because it adds 30 minutes to the ride, but makes sense to try to fill up the buses. All in all a great experience, you have to be stubborn or a moron to think about driving between routes that Megabus services.
