Buffalo to New York, $1
A discount-fare bus company is heading this way. Megabus.com will be providing service to Toronto and New York City beginning in late May. The new bus service is part of the company’s expansion into seven northeastern cities. But don’t look for the distinctive buses at the downtown bus station. Buses will depart from the Buffalo Niagara International Airport.
Service to Toronto and New York City is non-stop with two trips to both cities daily. Routes terminate at Penn Station in New York and the Royal York Hotel in Toronto. Megabus is adding service to Atlantic City, Baltimore, Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Toronto and Washington, DC beginning May 30.
Megabus offers at least one seat for $1 per bus, and more on trips departing on certain days and at certain times. Prices for the remaining seats get more expensive as the departure date gets closer and the bus fills. All seats will be free the first week. Tickets are purchased online.
Megabus is a subsidiary of Coach USA. The company started in Chicago in 2006, where it serves 17 cities in the Midwest, and one in Los Angeles that has routes to six California cities and Las Vegas. Buses offer free wireless Internet service and overhead video screens.
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DumpsterKid
WOW this is truly amazing, i will use this all the time!
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dixiechick
A high speed rail system would be great too!
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dixiechick
Like from Buffalo to Toronto and back.
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MikeS
DumpsterKid:
Don't get too excited. It's one seat at $1. What do the other 59 seats cost?
I'd rather invest in rail. I try to use the train as much as possible to NYC. Might as well patronize what you belive in.
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al-alo
here here dixiechick. i would only change two words: "great too" to "better"
but multilayered transportation options are the best way to make the entire system flexible and able to respond to changes in demand or if one part of system is compromised.
im also interested in what the nonpromotional fares will be. is there a tier structure where there are X amount of seats at one price are available, or is there a flat rate? is there seasonal changes in price @ holidays and other peak periods? is there a gas surcharge?
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nightrider
Pipe dream here-A bullet train departing from the Terminal to Toronto & New York with minimal stops in between. Why the hell is the train system so underused in the US. In Europe it's an amazing experience, especially rolling in Venice.
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ArkoWillie
The Toronto to-Buffalo link could be a real plus for local stores given how economical it is these days for our Canadian friends to buy stuff here. There would need to be some sort of connection (shuttle buses?) between the airport and local shopping venues. Walden Galleria, for instance, is not very far from the airport . . .
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al-alo
oooo, ooooo, nightrider, i know - i know!
our system is sloooooow, disinvested, outdated, using old tech, old equipment and even older right of ways, and then lets not forget frequently late. well outside of a few corridors anyway.
NYS is lucky that the old infastructure is as good as it is. and hopefully we will be able to capitalize on it. if only we could stop the crazy pipe dreams and focus on what we have, and how we can practally and cost effectively re-develop it.
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ArkoWillie
The Toronto to-Buffalo link could be a real plus for local stores given how economical it is these days for our Canadian friends to buy stuff here. There would need to be some sort of connection (shuttle buses?) between the airport and local shopping venues. Walden Galleria, for instance, is not very far from the airport . . .
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sbrof
I think if the speeds were comparable (higher) people would choose trains over planes any day. At least for those trips under 5 hours via train. No check in hassles, no worries about pucking, cramped conditions, recirculated air, no room to stand.
One of the best times I have ever had was taking the bullet train from Paris To London. Nothing quite like flying across the landscape with a full train car of panoramic windows, while enjoying a beer. simply splendid and such a smooth ride!
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nightrider
al-alo I know all of that the question is why? A million answers I'm sure, but the most likely culprit would be the Teamsters who've managed to monopolize the transportation industry? Who knows. It's crazy though, every time I price out a rail trip it's always twice as much as air fare and four times as long.
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jetsetter
I agree that this will be a great service! If successful, I hope they will add more frequencies as a 4:45am departure to Toronto is a bit early for me (but talk about maximizing your day!). For those of you (including myself) who would like to see rail instead of busses, I would think rail service would only be considered if bus service such as this proved to be successful. I know that in the case for light rail expansion, generally rail follows BRT (bus rapid transit) lines that have decent ridership. Bus service is probably a good test to see if rail is viable.
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egyarnetsky
Just yesterday I spoke with a woman who used MegaBus to go from Indianapolis to Chicago wtih her grandson roundtrip for $5.
She said the jist was first 10 tickets were $1, the next 10 were $8, next set $16 or $32. She said $32 was the most expensive ticket. She said the earlier a person orders the cheaper it'd be. She said it was a joy to use.
I suspect we could test the pricing structure by checking availability at the website on older routes that are not having sales.
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NBJOHN
Mega bus seems like something I would look into - Boston is really interesting
Off the Post -Hasn't Sam Hoyt been pushing for better train travel throughout his career? Without success - not a shock
Brian Higgins should be looking into some funding - He is on the fed trans committee
Nancy Naples is something with Amtrack....She is probably running them into the groud like Erie County
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mbhxam
Okay, I can't resist...wait I will...as tempted as I am to comment on San Hoyt's record (or lack thereof) I won't...ahhhhhh, that feels better!
Oh, and I just booked a bus ride to NYC in July...$10 to, $1 fro!
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al-alo
cant blame the teamsters for this one: the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers is part of their union.
its federal policy. its massive disinvenstment. its sharing of rails with freight railroads. and all of those have their own set of causes.
and nancy naples is on amtraks board. havent heard anything out of here. i did recently hear that schumer is pitching connecting syracuse to binghampton to scranton to nyc (or north jersey). not that its the craziest idea, but how 'bout us in the exisiting multi-city corridor?
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carl
in most of South and Central America you can travel by bus super cheap, i have traveled thousands of miles this way all over the place and never payed more than 5 bucks for a ticket. It is great to see similar service coming to buffalo!
lets only hope people do not bring their live stock, and ride on the roof.
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flyguy
The fantastic infrastructure ideas and concept of high speeed rail would cartainly be a welcome addition to the United States. Actually improving our cities and Counties infrastructure and local governments with cash to actually do things positive and progressive would be a wonderful world to live in. However in this day in age our Federal Governemt has abandonned a domestic agenda, sent billions and more overseas, stripped out domestic programs and passed the responsibilities down to States who passed it down to localities and all are now struggling for survival and our own backyards are falling apart and infrastructure continues to age. How nice is it that the federal government mandates localities construct new buildings to house Federal employees, etc but does little to help fund such projects. Nothing will happen with a screwed up federal agenda not working for its own people and communities. In the meantime while we fall into disrepair cities like Dubai build virtually overnight. My god look at the difference between Niagara Falls, NY and USA. Wheres the federal interest in revitalizing our cities here? Instead we bomb out cities overseas and rebuild them again. Nice
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flyguy
Uh duh sorry the differences between Niagara Falls CA and US. Sometimes just get frustrated and dont think.
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GDC
Wait, so, I can go from NYC to Buffalo for a $1? and vise versa?
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buffalostan
I like Walmart. They say "Hello" to me and make me feel like they know me.
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carl
now if there was only a train from the airport-downtown...then this would be something.
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