No-frills bus line does Midwest on the cheap

INDIANAPOLIS -- Fellow travelers, they arrived in ones and twos: a student, an architect, a social worker, a married couple. There was nothing to greet them at this spot on a downtown sidewalk: no majestic terminal, no blue-suited conductors, not even a ticket counter.

Yet, these travelers showed up when the schedule said they should - lured by a new online-based company promising bus fares as low as $1 to cities throughout the Midwest.

?You can?t really beat the fares,? said 25-year-old Trisha Logan, preparing to return to Chicago after spending a weekend with her parents in Indianapolis. Logan paid $2.50 for her roundtrip ticket.

Meet Megabus, a line headquartered in the United Kingdom that is hoping to shake up the industry by applying a discount-airline approach to intercity bus travel. Megabus is seeking to draw a new generation of motorcoach passengers in this era of high gas prices - and it?s already attracting thousands of riders.

Dale Moser, president and chief operating officer of Coach USA, the domestic subsidiary of Scotland-based Stagecoach Group PLC, said the Midwest suits Megabus? strategy particularly well because the region is dotted with major cities, each spaced several hours apart.

From Chicago, the company runs express daily service to Indianapolis and eight other Midwest cities. Indianapolis passengers can book seats to Chicago, Cincinnati or Columbus, Ohio.

Fares run as high as about $27.50 for a one-way ticket from Indianapolis to Chicago and as low as $1 if you book enough in advance. Fares on traditional bus carriers like Greyhound Lines are higher - usually around $30 to $35 one-way from Indy to Chicago - and the routes sometimes include intermediate stops.

?It?s cheaper than Greyhound - anybody,? said Erin Polley, a 25-year-old social worker from Chicago who booked at the last minute and paid $22 for a weekend trip to see her parents. ?If the ride is nice, then I?ll probably do it again.?

Cheap fares aside, the operation does have its quirks and drawbacks.

Passengers say buses have, so far, rarely arrived exactly on time.

And demand on some routes has been low, according to reports.

And then there are the bus ?stations,? which are hardly stations at all. Polley had to circle the block several times to find the Indianapolis pick-up point, located near the intersection of Delaware and Washington streets. The spot, which doubles as a city bus stop, is unmarked save for a dinner-tray-sized Megabus sign.

?I hope this all works,? passenger Jason Matthews, 27, said as he sat on a railing with a book in his lap and his backpack nearby.

Stagecoach Group - which has 28,000 employees worldwide and runs some 2,800 commuter, charter and school buses in the United States - pioneered its low-cost Megabus strategy throughout the United Kingdom.

To achieve its low fares, Megabus cuts expenses by employing online booking and using sidewalk stops. And because tickets are sold on the Web, passengers board with nothing more than a reservation number checked by the driver.

In addition, it only offers direct service between major cities versus time-consuming routes that make many stops. The goal of Megabus is to use its ultra-low costs and fares to attract as many passengers as possible.

?You fill 55-passenger buses at lower fares,? Moser said. ?Compared with higher fares, higher volume always wins out.?

Since it launched service on April 10, Megabus has carried some 25,000 to 30,000 U.S. passengers, with most of its buses running about half-full, Moser said.

Industry officials hope Megabus will inject vigor into an aging transportation mode synonymous with cross-country trips, dusty towns and decades past.

?Anything innovative will grow the market,? said Peter J. Pantuso, president and chief executive officer of the American Bus Association, a Washington, D.C.-based trade group. ?As gas prices soar over $3 a gallon, people are looking for alternatives.?

For more information, visit www.megabus.com/us or call: 877-GO2-MEGA.

By THEODORE KIM The Indianapolis Star