Traveling This Holiday Season?
Sit Back and Relax on the Megabus

Going to Chicago for your sister’s wedding shower and hate the idea of paying $30/night? How about when it’s January and there’s a snow advisory? Or did you loan your car to Aunt Sophie in Toledo, and you need to get there for Christmas? You can get to Chicago or Toledo for as low as $1 by riding a Megabus. But you have to watch the computer screen and be connected to http://www.megabus.com. Megabus tickets are only available on the internet, and prices increase as the date of departure looms.

Ever notice all those people standing behind Tower City outside the Ritz on weekday mornings and wondered why the Ritz doesn’t provide a better place for their guests to wait for a cab to the airport? That’s where Megabus picks up customers to take them to Toledo or Chicago. One happy woman told me she and her mother rode Megabus to Union Station in downtown Chicago, a 6-1/2 hour ride, for $1 each. The people in front of them paid $7. The highest the tickets for that date, bought a day or so before the travel date, were $45. Each megabus trip provides tickets for $1 and other customers pay competitive fares.

I asked if it was like riding an RTA bus or a Greyhound, and she pulled out pictures of a bus that looked like the luxury coaches used for tour groups. Interior pictures showed curtains around the windows pulled back with swags. There was a bathroom, like a Greyhound, and it bore little resemblance to an RTA bus. Megabuses are sometimes brightly painted with a bus driver in a yellow shirt and cap and the words, “from $1” emblazoned over him. Some are just blue and say “low-cost express bus service to and from Chicago” and also indicates other destinations like Cincinnati, Detroit, Indianapolis, Milwaukee, Minneapolis, and St. Louis.

On March 22, 2006, Coast USA unveiled megabus.com, its intercity express bus company. From Cleveland, the buses travel to Toledo’s Southwych Shopping Center and on to Chicago’s Union Square. Coach USA owns and operates more than 20 local companies in North America, including motor coach tours, charters, and sightseeing tours. In August 2007, Megabus expanded its service on West Coast and uses Los Angeles as a hub to Las Vegas, Oakland, Phoenix, San Diego, San Francisco and San Jose.

Since I have friends in Chicago and want to take my entire family for the weekend, I logged on to Megabus.com to see just exactly how it works. The home screen shows United Kingdom and United States flags with the words “The mega value website for travel is now available in the United States as well as in the UK!” I selected the US flag, then a page announced “low cost, daily, express bus service in the US” and took me right to Logon and Search and Buy. The website only allows reservations six-seven weeks out, so on November 18, I was only able to book through January 6. The buses leave Tower City only a few times a day and price differences reflect convenience, with the cheapest tickets being the 11:59 p.m. departure time. I found seats as low as $61.00 to Chicago for all five of us to travel, leaving December 13 at 11:59 p.m. and arriving home again at 4:00 for a cost of $75.

Unfortunately, the time I would really like to leave is 9:30AM, and that one-way ride will cost $125. A return ride on a Friday afternoon in December could cost us $275.00 for five people—but that’s the holidays and the prices will probably descend to the $45 maximum per person again after the new year.

An RTA driver first told me about Megabus, when we were passing one downtown--he said we can go to Detroit for a weekend. Unfortunately, that trip must be made via Chicago, unfortunately, because we can only get to Toledo or Chicago from Cleveland, and from Toledo, only to Chicago. But from Chicago... we can go to Milwaukee, taking the 5:30 bus from Chicago and arriving in Milwaukee at 7:25 for an additional $25.00 over the cost of a Cleveland to Chicago ride earlier in the day, making the total cost of getting my entire family to Milwaukee only $110. No driving, no fuss, just catch a bus outside of Tower City.

Want to go to Milwaukee for the weekend? Or Minneapolis? It’s not as fast as flying, but Megabus gets you there without the hassle of driving your own car.

From Cool Cleveland contributor Claudia J. Taller ctallerwritesATwowway.com
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