Interesting Megabus Observation

[frj1983]

Megabus no longer drops passengers in front of Chicago Union Station!

For the last 5 days, they have been dropping passengers on Canal Street South of Jackson Street. Since they can't park in front of the CTA Bus Stop on the corner, they are stopping about half way down the block and passengers are now schlepping with their luggage in various directions, including back to CUS.

I'm not sure what happened, but this might be a small victory for Metra and Amtrak, who constantly had to deal with these passengers milling in and around the station...the City of Chicago did mention about a month ago that they were looking at new traffic patterns around CUS and changing pickup/dropoff points for cars, cabs, and buses. I wonder if this is the beginning of that plan?

 

[MrFSS]

Megabus no longer drops passengers in front of Chicago Union Station!
For the last 5 days, they have been dropping passengers on Canal Street South of Jackson Street. Since they can't park in front of the CTA Bus Stop on the corner, they are stopping about half way down the block and passengers are now schlepping with their luggage in various directions, including back to CUS.

I'm not sure what happened, but this might be a small victory for Metra and Amtrak, who constantly had to deal with these passengers milling in and around the station...the City of Chicago did mention about a month ago that they were looking at new traffic patterns around CUS and changing pickup/dropoff points for cars, cabs, and buses. I wonder if this is the beginning of that plan?

Megabus has a new Important Info Message about Chicago:

New pickup and return location for Chicago Union Station as follows.

Departures - On East side of Canal, South of Jackson

Arrivals - On South side of Jackson, East of Canal

 

[Dutchrailnut]

Come on guys not another megabus thread this is Amtrak forum. you want to discuss looser cruisers go to Buschat.com.

 

[wayman]

Come on guys not another megabus thread this is Amtrak forum. you want to discuss looser cruisers go to Buschat.com.

Multimodal transit is the way of the present and the future, and services like Megabus are a direct competitor to Amtrak in some markets and regions. Discussing how they could work together and share resources or how they offer different features which require the other service to adapt to better compete are totally relevant to this forum, in my opinion.

 

[frj1983]

Come on guys not another megabus thread this is Amtrak forum. you want to discuss looser cruisers go to Buschat.com.

Give me a break Dutchrailnut,

I thought the information was a good thing for Amtrak and Metra riders! :blink:

 

[Long Train Runnin']

lol umm buschat.com doesnt exist just a heads up lol

 

[Joel N. Weber II]

If Megabus serves any destinations from Chicago that Amtrak doesn't, this is probably bad news for whomever wants to transfer between Megabus and Amtrak. Even if there are no such destinations today, it's good to keep an open mind about possible future routes.

On the other hand, the previous arrangement wasn't great for travelers making that transfer, because there wouldn't have been Megabus announcements in the station.

Metra and Amtrak are both government subsidized. If the government subsidizes station access for people taking a private bus, doesn't that use fewer tax dollars per passenger than subsidizing both the terminal access and the train? It's not really clear to me that treating Chicago Union Station as Amtrak and Metra's private property is better than treating it as a park or a mall that anyone is welcome to use.

 

[Green Maned Lion]

Chicago Union Station is, I think, Amtrak's private property. Amtrak is not a government agency. It is a private corporation whose voting shares are owned by the US government. There are also some non-voting shares owned by various Freight roads.

As a result, what they own is private, not public. Amtrak is supposed to operate as a for-profit business. Not helping Megabus steal their customers is a justified offshoot of that.

 

[The Metropolitan]

lol umm buschat.com doesnt exist just a heads up lol

Not at that URL, but there is a Buschat out there...

http://www.subchat.com/buschat/buschat.asp

Great place to go if you ever want to watch threads quickly disintegrate into uncivil flaming wars among "interesting" folks who view NYMTA bus system as the center of the universe!

 

[Long Train Runnin']

yea i found that site after googling bus chat deff interesting.... but i dont think u could have a forum this like AU about LD buses i just dont see it lol i mean maybe i am missing something but being on a bus is pretty straight forward no fun unlike trains which are well one of a kind

 

[frj1983]

If Megabus serves any destinations from Chicago that Amtrak doesn't, this is probably bad news for whomever wants to transfer between Megabus and Amtrak. Even if there are no such destinations today, it's good to keep an open mind about possible future routes.
On the other hand, the previous arrangement wasn't great for travelers making that transfer, because there wouldn't have been Megabus announcements in the station.

Metra and Amtrak are both government subsidized. If the government subsidizes station access for people taking a private bus, doesn't that use fewer tax dollars per passenger than subsidizing both the terminal access and the train? It's not really clear to me that treating Chicago Union Station as Amtrak and Metra's private property is better than treating it as a park or a mall that anyone is welcome to use.

Joel,

The real problem was the fact that these additional buses were creating an amazing traffic jam on canal street....it takes them an average of about 20 minutes to drop off passengers and get them their luggage and when 2 buses arrived at the same time...CHAOS! Along with local corporation buses (like 600 west), the CTA buses, the taxi cabs, and automobiles dropping people off...it had created what I and many others thought was a dangerous situation. I believe the City of Chicago put pressure on them and they moved to a more open space. Besides CUS is owned by the Union Station Company...a subsidiary of Amtrak...so one would think that Megabus might have asked permission to drop off and pick up there...according to an Amtrak source I know, they never did...they just started doing it...so I say it serves them right! h34r:

 

[WhoozOn1st]

Megabus withdrew service from California recently. Just never caught on, despite way cheap fares to places like Vegas and San Francisco. Runs departed from L.A. Union Station. A Megabus mouthpiece was mystified. "We spent thousands of dollars on advertising." Well, there you go. Thousands of dollars is less than peanuts for advertising in a megamarket like California, with the predictable result that most people remained unaware of Megabus. I understand the outfit is quite successful in the midwest.

 

[sechs]

Just thousands? I don't think that's even peanuts in the LA market.

Megabus should have gunned for one of the Amtrak thruway contracts. That's steady money.

 

[RailFanLNK]

If I wasn't so gung-ho on rail travel, I could have taken the 4 of us from NYC-WAS for $8.50! TOTAL! Now I know they aren't making money with fares like that, and to take the Carolinian was $248 for all of us, but that at least had me thinking but not acting on the fare. When I priced the trip, my trip was getting quite messed up with the flooding. At one point it looked like we were going to have to fly from OMA-CHI for $1400 RT. So I was beginning to look at places where we could carve down our budget for the trip. If there's anyone out there thats going to take a family of 4 to NYC or DC, we have the exact cost of the trip written down. Brenda kept records to the penny. We did this so we could load up my AGR card and we would split the cost at the end.

 

[George Harris]

Runs departed from L.A. Union Station.

On the San Francisco end, I had seen them pulled up in front of the Caltrain (ex SP) Station on the 4th Street side, essentially blocking the front entrance to the station. Amtrak buses board on the Townsend Street side of the station which is both handier for transfer to/from Caltrain and less in the way of people coming to the station by other means.

 

[guest]

If Megabus serves any destinations from Chicago that Amtrak doesn't, this is probably bad news for whomever wants to transfer between Megabus and Amtrak. Even if there are no such destinations today, it's good to keep an open mind about possible future routes.

One destination served by Megabus out of Chicago that's inaccessable through Amtrak is Columbus, Ohio. It's the second largest city in the US without Amtrak train or bus service.

I don't know how Megabus survives. The first x tickets are supposed to be $1, and the buckets after that are $8, $15 and $30. When I rode Chicago to Columbus in June, the 50 seat bus was half full. They might have been able to pay the driver and the fuel bill from what all of us paid.

 

[sechs]

On the San Francisco end, I had seen them pulled up in front of the Caltrain (ex SP) Station on the 4th Street side

And that was my first clue that Megabus was running to San Francisco.

 

[George Harris]

On the San Francisco end, I had seen them pulled up in front of the Caltrain (ex SP) Station on the 4th Street side

And that was my first clue that Megabus was running to San Francisco.

Likewise

 

[Guest_TransAtlantic_*]

Just thousands? I don't think that's even peanuts in the LA market.
Megabus should have gunned for one of the Amtrak thruway contracts. That's steady money.

actually, Megabus is a subsidiary of Coach America...who provides some of Amtrak's Thruway bus service!

 

[wayman]

Just thousands? I don't think that's even peanuts in the LA market.
Megabus should have gunned for one of the Amtrak thruway contracts. That's steady money.

actually, Megabus is a subsidiary of Coach America...who provides some of Amtrak's Thruway bus service!

How funny! I didn't know Coach America was connected to Amtrak Thruway.

But I did know that Megabus was essentially a loss-leader for Coach America. Megabus itself doesn't have to turn a profit--Coach America can afford to take the loss, on the hope that it will pay off big in the long run after Megabus (run super-cheap) drives its competition (Chinatown, primarily) out of business (at which point they can raise the fares on Megabus). All the competing Chinatown bus lines in the east went through a similar price-war several years ago ($5 PHL-NYC), and the couple that emerged victorious raised their prices 100% ($12-15 PHL-NYC) or more after that. Now Megabus is trying to drive Chinatown out of business, and five years from now someone will come along and try to drive Megabus out of business....

Of course, savvy consumers can take advantage of the loss leaders for a short-term benefit, but it might hurt them in the long run. Markets like this are so interesting to watch but hard to predict.

 

[WhoozOn1st]

But I did know that Megabus was essentially a loss-leader for Coach America.

Apparently they couldn't take the losses in California, where Megabus is megagone.

EDIT: Megabus has not ruled out re-entering the market in an unspecified future.

 

[wayman]

But I did know that Megabus was essentially a loss-leader for Coach America.

Apparently they couldn't take the losses in California, where Megabus is megagone.

EDIT: Megabus has not ruled out re-entering the market in an unspecified future.

Could be that for the short term, they're throwing the California operating funds into the NEC division, where they're soon to start a new double-decker service with special tire-pressure-hydraulics to lower the buses for the NYC tunnels. Hasten the end of the NEC competition first, then spread out service again? Who knows....

Once upon a time, all the heritage railroads played these sorts of games with their passenger trains, no?

 

[frj1983]

But I did know that Megabus was essentially a loss-leader for Coach America.

Apparently they couldn't take the losses in California, where Megabus is megagone.

EDIT: Megabus has not ruled out re-entering the market in an unspecified future.

Could be that for the short term, they're throwing the California operating funds into the NEC division, where they're soon to start a new double-decker service with special tire-pressure-hydraulics to lower the buses for the NYC tunnels. Hasten the end of the NEC competition first, then spread out service again? Who knows....

Once upon a time, all the heritage railroads played these sorts of games with their passenger trains, no?

Wow,

You mean some railroads used special hydraulics to raise and lower their cars??? :huh:

Just kidding! :lol:

I couldn't resist Wayman!!!

 

[wayman]

But I did know that Megabus was essentially a loss-leader for Coach America.

Apparently they couldn't take the losses in California, where Megabus is megagone.

EDIT: Megabus has not ruled out re-entering the market in an unspecified future.

Could be that for the short term, they're throwing the California operating funds into the NEC division, where they're soon to start a new double-decker service with special tire-pressure-hydraulics to lower the buses for the NYC tunnels. Hasten the end of the NEC competition first, then spread out service again? Who knows....

Once upon a time, all the heritage railroads played these sorts of games with their passenger trains, no?

Wow,

You mean some railroads used special hydraulics to raise and lower their cars??? :huh:

Just kidding! :lol:

I couldn't resist Wayman!!!

Well, the Spanish have those special trains which change the wheelbase (axle length) when the track gauge changes at the French/Spanish border. That's pretty amazing!

 

[Joel N. Weber II]

The real problem was the fact that these additional buses were creating an amazing traffic jam on canal street....it takes them an average of about 20 minutes to drop off passengers and get them their luggage and when 2 buses arrived at the same time...CHAOS! Along with local corporation buses (like 600 west), the CTA buses, the taxi cabs, and automobiles dropping people off...it had created what I and many others thought was a dangerous situation. I believe the City of Chicago put pressure on them and they moved to a more open space. Besides CUS is owned by the Union Station Company...a subsidiary of Amtrak...so one would think that Megabus might have asked permission to drop off and pick up there...according to an Amtrak source I know, they never did...they just started doing it...so I say it serves them right! h34r:

That might well be the real problem, but I also remember seeing signs in Chicago Union Station when I was there in May that seemed to be saying that passengers of bus companies that hadn't been paying to use the station weren't supposed to come inside the station.