Discount Bus Lines Offer Cheap Interstate Travel

Clark Howard Friday, May 2 nd 2014

Forget the plane, forget the train. What about the bus the next time you have to travel?

If you re old enough, you probably remember when America was covered wall-to-wall by Trailways and Greyhound. Both of those companies essentially went through the meat grinder when airline deregulation occurred. In the wake of deregulation, it suddenly made more sense to fly than drive for long routes.

Cheap fares starting as low as $1

Bus companies never seemed to figure out that the real market was on routes that were within a 250-mile radius of a given starting point. Eventually, one British company called Megabus realized that and got into the domestic market. Now there are multiple competitors including Bolt Bus and GreyHound Express .

These companies offer regional hub routes that started in the Northeast, went to the Midwest and now offer some West Coast travel. All of these new bus services offer cheap fares starting at $1 per ride for a limited number of people on each bus, while the other passengers pay real fares that are still quite cheap in the $10-$20 range.

These are not your father s Greyhound buses. They don t stop in every little nook and cranny on a route; they run non-stop between metro areas in typical four-hour runs. (Some routes may be longer.) The buses all offer free onboard wifi. They tend to be clean with comfortable seats. Certain carriers are introducing double-decker buses with more room and supposedly more comfort. This is a truly viable option for cheap travel.

A lot of our country will never have enough population density to warrant high-speed trains. And trains are much more expensive than buses. So if you are looking to get somewhere and your first reaction is, A bus. well, think again. This can be a potential real deal.

My youngest producer Joel and his wife took MegaBus from Atlanta to New Orleans (nearly nine hours roundtrip) and they paid $11 and change each roundtrip. That s roughly $6 one way! MegaBus gets the thumbs up from Joel and his wife for price and timely pickup/dropoff. But be warned that the bathrooms may not be the cleanest, particularly for ladies.

Don t forget to check sites like Wanderu.com and BusTripping.com to comparison shop multiple bus lines and find the cheapest options on ground transportation.