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I took a FlixBus from Miami to Naples for $50. Despite small drawbacks, it was a great way to see Florida's Paradise Coast. 

I tried the bus startup using luxury coaches with motion-canceling seats on a trip from NYC to DC and it was one of the most comfortable travel experience I've had

If you were in college over the past 20 years or so, you might have some fond — and not so fond — memories of Megabus. The blue double-decker buses with power outlets that worked most of the time and WiFi that worked rarely have for years been an important, if imperfect, way for budget-conscious travelers to get from point A to point B. The trip wasn't always pretty — you often got plopped in front of an obnoxious phone talker or wound up traumatized by the bathroom — but in general, you got where you needed to go for a good price.But now, Megabus is in trouble. Its parent company, Coach USA, <a target="_blank" href="https://www.coachusa.com/news-and-media/coach-usa-initiates-voluntary-chapter-eleven">filed for bankruptcy</a> in June. Megabus is <a target="_blank" href="https://us.megabus.com/routechanges">handing over</a> its routes between cities in the Northeast to other operators and discontinuing some routes in the South altogether. If you take a look at Megabus' <a target="_blank" href="https://x.com/megabus/with_replies">recent Twitter activity</a>, you'll notice the social-media manager's main job lately seems to be explaining to people that, yes, their trip may have been canceled, but no, the company has not gone out of business.Some of what's happened with Megabus has to do with macro factors outside its control. The pandemic was devastating for the already struggling intercity bus industry. The federal government didn't step in to try to shore up the sector like it did with, say, <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/airlines-coronavirus-bailout-senate-stock-buybacks-2020-3">the airlines</a>. But even before the global catastrophe, there was another particular factor that helped put Megabus on its current downward trajectory: private-equity ownership. Variant Equity Advisors, a Los Angeles-based PE fund, acquired Coach USA in 2019 for $271.4 million and, <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/red-lobster-endless-shrimp-bankruptcy-private-equity-debt-real-estate-2024-5">as private equity is wont to do</a>, loaded the bus operator up with debt the company couldn't service once travel came to a halt."A private-equity firm buying bus carriers right before a global pandemic was not the best timing for them," Andrew Savikas, the CEO of Wanderu, a travel-search platform, said.It sounds kind of strange to describe a dirt-cheap bus operation this way, but the original idea behind Megabus was to make the service sort of hip. Stagecoach Group, a UK-based travel company, first launched Megabus in the UK in 2003 and then brought it to the US in 2006. It was an upgrade from the Chinatown buses, which also eschewed terminals and instead did curbside pickup as they shuttled from city to city but often offered a lower-quality experience. Megabus had what at the time were considered fancy amenities like outlets and online ticketing, and above all, it maintained a low price point. Both Megabus and its rival BoltBus, which Greyhound and Peter Pan launched in 2008, <a target="_blank" href="https://time.com/archive/6904383/beating-4-gas-with-a-1-bus/">would lure people in by advertising $1 tickets</a>. That number was largely a gimmick — only a handful of tickets on each bus were a buck — but in general, prices were pretty low."Megabus was the disruptor in the industry," John Stepovy, the director of partnerships for North America at Busbud, a bus-ticketing platform, said. "They were the first to really get away from bus terminals and really go curbside and really focus on students and online and just kind of being that cool brand." Millennials ate it up. High gas prices pushing up the price of air and car travel <a target="_blank" href="https://business.time.com/2012/11/15/reinventing-the-wheels-megabus-and-boltbus/">made bus travel a convenient, affordable alternative</a>, especially in the wake of the financial market that left many young people on their heels. Megabus' strategy of offering a slightly upgraded experience let it escape the dingy, sketchy reputation buses had. (Seriously, ask your friendly local millennial for a bus story, they probably have a good one.) Along with Greyhound, Megabus became one of the two mega-carriers in the United States.The bus market started to weaken in the mid-2010s. Gas prices <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/gas-prices-hit-6-year-low-2015-12">fell significantly</a> in late 2015 and 2016, making alternative and perhaps more preferable modes of transportation, like flying and driving, cheaper. The German operator FlixBus also launched in the US in 2018, adding another competitor to the field."The magic faded," Joseph Schwieterman, a professor of public service at DePaul University, said. "Suddenly, there's three national carriers. It might've been one too many. So Megabus gradually cut back."Stagecoach announced in late 2018 that it would sell its struggling US division to Variant in a deal that closed in spring 2019. We all know what happened the next year: The pandemic ground travel, including on buses, to a stop. In its bankruptcy filings, Coach USA said bus ridership in 2020 fell by 90%, and by 2023, had only recovered to 45% of its pre-pandemic level. That made it hard for the company to pay on its private-equity-induced debt, most of which it still owes. According to <a target="_blank" href="https://bankruptcy-proxy-api.dowjones.ai/cases/Delaware_Bankruptcy_Court/1--24-bk-11258/Coach_USA_Inc/docs/15.pdf">court filings</a>, Coach USA had $197.8 million in debt when it filed for bankruptcy, including $146.6 million on the loan that funded the Variant deal and $37.7 million on a pandemic-era relief loan. The Megabus brand isn't going away entirely. Coach USA is selling off some of its lines, IP, and retail operations to a holding company. Megabus is handing some of its routes to companies such as Peter Pan and Fullington Trailways while also shuttering some routes altogether. You can still book bus travel on <a target="_blank" href="http://Megabus.com">Megabus.com</a>, but if you look closely, you'll see many of the buses that show up are operated by a different company.While Megabus was ahead of the curve with the power outlets and the online booking and the WiFi, everybody else has caught up. And one of the company's more distinctive features — those double-decker buses — hasn't really worked in the US. Passengers don't seem to love them because the storage space they offer is limited, and some people are uncomfortable not being able to see the driver. They can be extra expensive to operate and so big that, operationally, they don't always make sense."The Megabus double-deckers are mostly a thing of the past," Schwieterman said.Coach USA declined to comment for this story. Megabus and Variant did not respond to requests for comment.The intercity bus industry is not in complete disarray, but things are not going great there. It's still digging out of a pandemic-sized hole, and <a target="_blank" href="https://las.depaul.edu/centers-and-institutes/chaddick-institute-for-metropolitan-development/research-and-publications/Documents/2023%20Outlook%20for%20the%20Intercity%20Bus%20Industry.pdf">ridership is only about 80% to 85%</a> of where it was before. It has benefited from some of the pent-up demand for travel that built up in 2020 and 2021, but not to the extent other industries have as many Americans have opted to travel further afield."You saw revenge travel, and maybe people were flying to places when they hadn't had a chance to go anywhere during the pandemic," Scott Michael, the CEO of the United Motorcoach Association, an industry trade group, said. "It's hard to take a bus to Asia unless you're already there."Outside leisure travelers, remote work also means people who might have taken intercity buses or coaches to commute aren't doing so as frequently.Megabus may be the highest-profile COVID casualty, but it's not the only one. Michael said there were about 3,000 licensed bus and motorcoach companies before the pandemic. Now, that number is around 1,500."Half of the industry is gone, and it's a lot of the smaller companies that were impacted. The larger ones tend to have made it through, with some exceptions obviously," Michael said.BoltBus is gone now, too. Its parent company, Greyhound, shut down its operations in 2021. Greyhound itself was bought for $76 million that same year by FlixMobility (of FlixBus fame). Kai Boysan, the CEO of Flix North America, said BoltBus was shut down because of the pandemic and as part of a broader strategic shift."Bolt Bus was initially launched to target a specific market segment with a low-cost, no-frills service. However, as we assessed the long-term strategy for Greyhound, it became clear that our resources would be better used by focusing on the Greyhound brand," he said.Beyond changing consumer preferences, the industry is also dealing with problems on the operational side, such as rising costs for parts and a shortage of both drivers and mechanics. Bus industry insiders also note that they're often <a target="_blank" href="https://www.governing.com/now/intercity-bus-service-gets-no-respect-from-government">treated as an afterthought</a> by policymakers even though they carry tens of millions of people each year. During the pandemic, intercity buses didn't get a lot of support from the federal government, unlike airlines and <a target="_blank" href="https://railroads.dot.gov/newsroom/press-releases/us-transportation-secretary-pete-buttigieg-announces-169-billion-amtrak-0">trains</a>."You had a lot of companies, a lot of relatively small, independent, family-owned businesses who were waiting in line with everybody else for the kind of assistance that they could get to get through COVID," Savikas, from Wanderu, said. Fred Ferguson, the president and CEO of the American Bus Association, told me that funding the intercity bus industry does get from the federal government — namely, to help them service less populous areas — isn't keeping up with rising costs. He added that some localities are also pushing back against bus terminals because "there's this perception that if you have a bus terminal, you're somehow going to attract people who you don't want in your towns." It's <a target="_blank" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NIMBY">NIMBYism</a>, but for the bus stop."What happens is it's the end consumer, and more times than not the end consumer who can't afford a plane ticket, who's getting left behind," Ferguson said. "Megabus and all that, it's just a microcosm for all these bigger problems that we're seeing."It's not just the public sector that's exacerbating the terminals issue; it's the private sector, too. In 2022, Greyhound's former parent company, FirstGroup, sold 33 of its bus stations to Twenty Lake Holdings, a commercial real-estate investor. It's a subsidiary of Alden Global Capital, a hedge fund <a target="_blank" href="https://www.npr.org/2021/10/18/1046952430/the-consequences-of-when-a-hedge-fund-buys-newspapers">notorious for buying up and gutting local newspapers</a>. Twenty Lake can make more money using the real estate for something else, so many of those terminals have already closed, moved, or are expected to do so soon, including in Philadelphia, Dallas, and Chicago. Wanderu estimates that the closures will affect 65% of bus travelers in and out of Philadelphia, 50% in Dallas and Chicago, and virtually everyone in and out of Cleveland."They've been willing to talk to the bus lines," Schwieterman said. "They're not just saying, 'You're out of here, new chapter.' They're reportedly just saying, 'We paid lots of money for these terminals and we have to be financially rewarded for our investments.'"Twenty Lake didn't respond to a request for comment.In short, the intercity bus business is facing some headwinds — and the involvement of private equity and hedge funds is not helping.If you're jonesing to hop on a bus to Boston or New York for the weekend, you have options. There's still Peter Pan, Greyhound, and Flix, plus a fair number of smaller regional and local carriers that will get you where you're going. But your options will most likely be more limited than before. They might also be more expensive, just like everything. I recently bought bus tickets to Atlantic City for the weekend, and I was initially convinced I'd made some sort of mistake, given the cost.According to data from Wanderu, the average price of one-way bus trips across the US for the summer travel period from Memorial Day through Labor Day increased from $45 in 2020 to $68.73 in 2023, though prices dipped slightly in 2024 to $64.01. Wanderu noted that train prices remain higher, going from $68.16 in 2020 to $99.95 this year.People in the bus industry I spoke to were relatively hopeful about its future. They noted that business for charter operations, like bringing a high-school football team to a game or getting workers to a corporate retreat, was starting to pick up. Most expected ridership to bounce back over the next couple of years. Boysan, from FlixBus, said its ridership had increased by 36% from 2022 to 2023, and they're seeing consumers gravitate toward "budget options" given inflation."Travelers are more price-sensitive and looking for ways to save money without sacrificing convenience or comfort," he said. "This trend is especially pronounced among solo travelers, middle-class travelers, and those from lower-income brackets."But even getting back to pre-pandemic levels isn't a total fix, given the steady ridership decline that predated the shutdowns. No one seemed to have a great answer on how to reverse the industry's long-term problems, but many companies are experimenting with some options. Savikas, from Wanderu, said some carriers are implementing <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/inflation-dynamic-pricing-surge-cost-fatigue-2024-7">airline-like dynamic pricing</a>, where ticket prices change around supply-and-demand dynamics."The goal is to make it more economically sustainable all around," he said. He emphasized that bus travel can be environmentally sustainable, too, compared to everyone driving their own cars or flying. "Buses actually are a pretty green way to get around."Still, bug travel may never be what it once was. "There are questions, probably, if there will be full recovery in certain sectors, in certain regions," Stepovy said.The heyday of hungover 20-somethings dragging themselves onto a Megabus after a slightly too fun weekend is in the rearview mirror. But there's some sort of iteration of it ahead, too, just not on a blue double-decker.<a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/author/emily-stewart">Emily Stewart</a> is a senior correspondent at Business Insider, writing about business and the economy.

Millennials loved Megabus. So why did it go mega-bust?

<ul class="summary-list"><li>A series of cancellations left Greyhound bus passengers stranded at a gas station in Boise, Idaho.</li><li><a href="https://www.ktvb.com/article/news/local/local-dozens-waiting-days-for-greyhound-bus-in-boise/277-8fe16a3f-d959-44d5-b3a4-57fb1595071b">Per KTVB, who first reported the story,</a> dozens of people were left at the truck stop.</li></ul>A string of Greyhound bus cancellations left dozens of travelers stranded at a truck stop in Boise, Idaho, <a href="https://www.ktvb.com/article/news/local/local-dozens-waiting-days-for-greyhound-bus-in-boise/277-8fe16a3f-d959-44d5-b3a4-57fb1595071b" target="_blank" rel="noopener">local news outlet KTVB first reported</a>. According to the initial report on Sunday, more than 30 passengers were left at a Flying J gas station in Boise for at least three days until <a href="https://www.ktvb.com/video/news/local/some-greyhound-bus-riders-have-been-stuck-in-boise-for-days/277-55f2efb4-b36f-4c83-9741-c7a616d631d4">a bus arrived Monday morning</a>. While KTVB reported that Greyhound did offer passengers a hotel for Sunday night, some people opted to sleep on the ground outside the gas station over the weekend. A representative for Greyhound told Insider via email the cancellations were due to a mechanical issue on a FlixBus. FlixBus, a transportation company, <a href="https://www.flixbus.com/greyhound" target="_blank" rel="noopener">acquired Greyhound in 2021</a>. Passengers had already been waiting for days when a bus arrived on Sunday morning around 7 a.m. — but that bus didn't pick anyone up, KTVB reported. Instead, it remained parked. By Sunday at 2 p.m., the bus was still parked at the gas station, but no driver was on-site. Another bus didn't come to pick up the passengers until Monday, per the outlet."This is an actual, working bus," passenger Alan Bailey told KTVB on Sunday. "It's not broken down now, because it just parked a few hours ago. But it's just sitting there.""This is a bloody nightmare," Bailey continued.One passenger, Kevin Jackson, told KTVB he was on the Sunday morning bus when it arrived in Boise. After finding other passengers still waiting, Jackson emailed Greyhound's customer service but said he didn't get any help.The email Jackson received reportedly said to follow up "24 hours after your final arrival time," per KTVB.Passengers told KTVB that the gas station employees brought them food and allowed them to wait inside. Nonetheless, they said, they didn't have a place to stay."The majority of what we have out here is elderly," passenger Rocky Suits told the outlet. "A few people that don't need to be out here by yourself at night."

Greyhound bus cancellations left dozens of passengers stranded for days at an Idaho gas station, causing some to sleep outside: report

<ul class="summary-list"><li>Krys Moson found himself stuck in Italy when air traffic control issues caused chaos in UK air space.</li><li>He was told by Ryanair he could either wait until Friday for a flight home, or take a 36-hour coach.</li></ul>As a technical glitch in the UK's air traffic control operator system continues to cause travel chaos, some people have been turning to TikTok to document their long, delayed journeys home.One of those travelers is Krys Moson, who was expecting to be on a 2-hour flight from Rimini in Italy back to London on Monday, but was told his flight had been canceled before he even got to the airport.Moson was told by his airline, Ryanair, that he could either wait until Friday for another flight, or take a series of coaches back to the UK. As he had to be home to get back to work, he chose the latter.Britain's National Air Traffic Service (NATS) <a href="https://www.insider.com/air-traffic-control-problems-delays-travel-chaos-holiday-weekend-uk-2023-8">told Insider on Monday</a> it had "applied traffic flow restrictions to maintain safety" after experiencing a "technical issue" which affected its flight-planning system.The result was canceled and delayed flights, over-crowded airports, and uncertainty for many who had taken trips abroad over the UK's long weekend.Moson boarded a coach from Italy to Frankfurt, Germany at around 10 p.m. Monday night. After that he said he would get on another coach to Amsterdam, which would take around 6 hours, where he would get on yet another which would take him to a ferry port, most likely in France, or the channel tunnel, to get back to the UK.He told Insider he wasn't sure exactly what his plans would be until he got to Amsterdam, and keeping an eye on all the updates was "stressful.""I am getting a 24-hour bus to Amsterdam and then another bus to get me to England," he said in a TikTok posted on Monday. "I'll spend about one and a half days on buses, nice sweaty coaches, just to get back to England because of all these air traffic control issues."He said he was "not doing it the easy way" but it was "all part of the fun." Moson told Insider he chose the coach option, which would take around 36 hours overall, because it was the most affordable, and the most feasible way of him getting home."I'm still a bit skeptical when this all the air traffic stuff's going to clear up," he said. "So I figured if I was doing it by land, at least that's not going to affect my journey."Moson wasn't immune to travel problems, though. His initial coach was delayed by 1.5 hours, then he was hit with further delays at the Austrian border. He said he might struggle to make his connecting bus in Frankfurt as a result."Fingers crossed it's all good," he said. "Right now we're seriously behind."He added that the family that had been sitting opposite him had vacated the coach, so he had a table to himself. "So grateful for that."When Moson spoke with Insider, he was still on the way to Frankfurt, and was experiencing loud announcements coming through the tannoy right above his head at each stop. "But it's all in Italian, so I don't understand," he said.

A man took a 36-hour bus ride across Europe instead of a 2-hour flight after the UK's air-traffic nightmare ruined his trip home

<ul class="summary-list"><li>Katrina Harrison hoped to fly with her family to Antalya in Turkey, according to PA Media. </li><li>A technical glitch in the UK's air traffic control system left them stranded overnight at an airport.</li></ul>A family traveling with one-year-old twins said they were only given a KitKat, chips, and a bottle of water while spending the night at a "freezing" airport after their flight was canceled.Katrina Harrison had been hoping to fly with her family to Antalya in Turkey over the weekend but was instead stranded at Leeds Bradford Airport in the UK after a technical <a href="https://www.insider.com/air-traffic-control-problems-delays-travel-chaos-holiday-weekend-uk-2023-8">glitch disrupted Britain's air traffic control system.</a>"All the shops sold out of food and drink last night," she told PA Media, in a story further reported by <a href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/08/29/air-traffic-control-latest-news-live-uk-flight-chaos-nats/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Telegraph.</a>"We weren't given a blanket, we've been absolutely freezing.""We were given a bottle of water, a KitKat and a packet of crisps but no proper food. Apparently some people have got vouchers but we haven't been given any."UK airlines <a href="https://www.caa.co.uk/passengers/resolving-travel-problems/delays-and-cancellations/cancellations/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">are obliged to feed and accommodate people</a> in cases of serious delays, but in practice the help can be hard to come by.Harrison said there were no hotels available, and that she was unable to get her vehicle car out of the car park, according to the report."We haven't slept, we tried to sleep on the floor but couldn't," she added. "Luckily the children could sleep in the pram."She said the holiday had cost the family more than $15,000, yet they had been "treated like muck.""We're hoping to get on a flight tonight but if it doesn't happen tonight we'll have to go home. We can't keep sitting here with the babies," she said, according to PA Media.Hundreds of flights to and from the UK faced delays Monday after the country's air traffic control operator suffered a technical glitch.Britain's National Air Traffic Service (NATS) told Insider it had "applied traffic flow restrictions to maintain safety" after a "technical issue" affected its flight-planning system.The issue broke the system's ability to automatically process flight plans, meaning that they had to be processed manually "which cannot be done at the same volume, hence the requirement for traffic flow restrictions," it said.The result was canceled and delayed flights, chaos at airports, and uncertainty for many who had taken trips abroad over the UK's long weekend.Hundreds of people turned to TikTok to document their arduous journeys home, including Krys Moson. He was expecting to be on a 2-hour flight from Rimini in Italy back to London on Monday, but was told his flight had been canceled before he even got to the airport.Moson was told by his airline, Ryanair, that he could either wait until Friday for another flight, or take a series of coaches back to the UK, totaling 36 hours. As he had to be home to get back to work, he chose the latter."I'm still a bit skeptical when this all the air traffic stuff's going to clear up," <a href="https://www.insider.com/man-takes-36-hour-bus-ride-home-air-traffic-chaos-2023-8">he told Insider</a>. "So I figured if I was doing it by land, at least that's not going to affect my journey." Another passenger, Emily Kataraina told Insider on Tuesday that she was stuck in Nice, France, after a long weekend trip. She said she was at a hotel near the airport thanks to a canceled flight. Many others hadn't been so lucky, she said, with one woman she met saying she had been stuck on a stationary airplane for four hours.Kataraina and her family made it to the gate, she said, but was told the flight to London was delayed by 8 hours. Then it was canceled altogether."It was all just a bit of a disorganized mess," she said. Another traveler, who just goes by his first name Jake on social media, told Insider his flight back to London from Tenerife, Spain, where he had visited for his brother's bachelor party, was delayed from 11:30 a.m. to 10 p.m. while already on the plane.A short while later, they were told it had been moved up to 7:30 p.m., but nobody was allowed off the plane.But at 3 p.m., they were then told the plane needed a new captain as the current one had already worked 10 hours and was entitled to a nine-hour break.Jake said he and the fellow passengers were on the stationary plane for five hours in total. He posted a TikTok, showing that the flight attendants had opened the doors "as it was hot.""I just didn't say anything and sat in the sun as it was something nice to do," he said.Jake said the flight attendants were "amazing" on the delayed flight, and the subsequent flight he was rebooked on, but communication from the airline, Ryanair, was "poor.""On the flight back this morning Ryanair hadn't organized any food onto the plane," he said. "There was barely water." NATS said in an update Monday afternoon that it had "identified and remedied" the problem and was working closely with airlines and airports to manage the affected flights. It apologized for the disruption and said that passengers should check the status of their flight with their airline, it added.It is still unclear what caused the technical glitch, however, the UK government has ruled out a cyber attack.Transport Secretary Mark Harper said it will take "some days to get completely everybody to where they should be" after thousands of people were left stranded by the technical glitch."The last time there was something this significant was about a decade ago," Mr Harper told BBC Radio 4's Today programme on Tuesday morning.Leeds Bradford Airport did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment.

You Searched For "flixbus" and got 6 results

I took a FlixBus from Miami to Naples for $50. Despite small drawbacks, it was a great way to see Florida's Paradise Coast.

India Amos

I tried the bus startup using luxury coaches with motion-canceling seats on a trip from NYC to DC and it was one of the most comfortable travel experience I've had

Brittany Chang

Millennials loved Megabus. So why did it go mega-bust?

Emily Stewart

Greyhound bus cancellations left dozens of passengers stranded for days at an Idaho gas station, causing some to sleep outside: report

Jordan Parker Erb

A man took a 36-hour bus ride across Europe instead of a 2-hour flight after the UK's air-traffic nightmare ruined his trip home

Lindsay Dodgson

Family with baby twins say they slept in the airport and got only a KitKat and chips to eat after a technical problem nuked UK air travel

Ellie Zolfagharifard,Lindsay …

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