The market for long-distance bus travel in the U.S. is undergoing a surprising renaissance, especially on popular corridor routes where buses can effectively compete with air and virtually non-existent rail services.
Europe’s popular discount Flixbus services, which added West Coast U.S. routes last year and some in Texas, is now joining the race in the East Coast corridor market, where the success of small ‘Chinatown’ buses spurred a revival that includes Greyhound’s Bolt and Megabus, a British-owned company.
Flixbus is launching an 11-times-a-day run between New York and Richmond, with stops along the way in Baltimore and Washington DC. For now, they’re offering tickets for any segment for $4.99 plus a $2 service charge. Real rates will appear later.
Flixbus doesn’t actually run any buses; it partners with local operators who use Flixbus as a supplier, marketer and route maker that standardizes buses, appearance and more. In the U.S., it has twenty such partners. Flixbus maintains the image of up-to-date clean buses with Wi-Fi and other amenities to distinguish it from old images of cheap bus travel.
