for Intercity Buses in Northeast as Amtrak Competition Grows
“ Intercity buses and trains are fiercely competing for price-sensitive travelers in the Northeast, significantly changing the competitive landscape,” according to Brian Antolin, an intercity bus expert at New Yorkbased CoTo Travel. FlixBus, Peter Pan, and other bus lines have ramped up their service, including new middle-of-the-night options. Meanwhile, heavily publicized rollouts of new motorcoaches improving the quality of the ride. At the same time, Amtrak is more aggressively discounting to win over customers who previously could not afford the train.“ With fewer traditional business travelers out there, Amtrak is aiming to attract leisure and personal-trip travelers with big paychecks or expense accounts— including longtime bus riders,” Antolin adds.
Last summer’ s Coach USA bankruptcy shook up the region’ s ground travel market. Megabus, whose double-deckers had been mainstays in the area since 2008, dropped its service. This reportedly resulted in Megabus Northeast LLC laying off 101 workers and disposing of its double-decker fleet.
Competitors almost immediately filled the void, creating a less fragmented bus network that is, in many ways, a stronger competitor to Amtrak. Peter Pan arranged with Coach USA to tap into the Megabus customer database and boost its schedule frequency. After reportedly hiring 75 new drivers and purchasing dozens of new buses, it increased its New York – Washington, DC( NY – DC) service to around 23 trips in each direction on busy days, up from eight in early 2024, based on our schedule review. Peter Pan, sold on the familiar megabus. com booking site, now has more service than Greyhound( 14) and trails only FlixBus( 29) in peak-day service. Our review indicates that FlixBus added seven trips, a more than 25 percent yearover-year increase. These“ big three”— FlixBus, Greyhound( owned by Flix’ s parent), and Peter Pan— are also the largest players on other major Northeast routes, including New York to Baltimore, MD; Boston, MA; and Philadelphia, PA. OurBus( the booking platform), another familiar brand, took advantage of Megabus’ s exit from the New York Hudson Yards area by consolidating several services in the city at a curbside stop in this location, across from Javits Convention Center. Niche-focused options, including BestBus, Tripper, Vamoose, and Washington Deluxe( now affiliated with Tripper Bus), link Midtown Manhattan to slightly served neighborhoods and outlying parts of metro Washington. Amid the recent flurry of schedule expansion, the NY – DC route grew to 76 daily departures in each direction, not including suburban-oriented runs, our review found. Greyhound and Peter Pan customers took delivery of many coaches offering smoother rides and added amenities to support the buildup.“ Customers almost immediately notice when they step onto a new coach,” says Mark Szyperski, CEO of On the Mark, a bus-travel consultancy.“ Many are not expecting it when going by bus,” he adds. Although the number of NY – DC daily seats offered is down slightly due to the loss of Megabus( whose double-deckers were configured to 81 seats), schedule options are up. Many consumers prefer standard buses to double-deckers due
18 | BUSRIDE. COM | APRIL / MAY 2025