Megabus No Longer Goes West Outta the Burgh (Pittsburgh, Harrisburg: home, restaurant)

[Debbie1125]

Originally Posted by expdxer

It is also unfortunate that all of Megabus' routes from DC to Pittsburgh now stop in Morgantown. That has added over an hour to the trip.

Same with the Philly/Pitt route. They added State College as a stop and the trip takes longer. There used to be a bus that went directly to State College from both cities. I guess that route wasn't a money maker so it was ended.

Adding that stop also means that you really have to get reservations as soon as the dates you want come up. It doesn't take long now for the seats to fill and the prices to go up.

[Hopes]

The Morgantown and State College stops indicate that's the demographic that is using Megabus most.

[pman]

Originally Posted by Debbie1125

Same with the Philly/Pitt route. They added State College as a stop and the trip takes longer. There used to be a bus that went directly to State College from both cities. I guess that route wasn't a money maker so it was ended.

Adding that stop also means that you really have to get reservations as soon as the dates you want come up. It doesn't take long now for the seats to fill and the prices to go up.

huh, so the tradeoff is probable not serving state college versus doing it on a longer haul route. no wonder greyhound sells express trips briskly. do you know when megabus started doing this?

[Debbie1125]

Originally Posted by pman

huh, so the tradeoff is probable not serving state college versus doing it on a longer haul route. no wonder greyhound sells express trips briskly. do you know when megabus started doing this?

It must have started after March 6, 2014 as I had a reservation for that date. They also changed the time for the earliest bus that leaves Philly from 8:30 to 7:30 a.m. Kind of inconvenient for me now because I always like to get there early so I can be among those in front of the line. 8:30 was great...7:30 not so much. I have no cushion in case there's a traffic jam on I-76 or there's a delay on the commuter rail.

Despite my bad experiences with them, I've booked Greyhund Express for my trip to Pittsburgh in June. It's only going to take a little over 5 hours and there's only one stop. Luckily I got a fare of $18.00.

[pman]

greyhounds express runs are well timed to miss traffic but meet demand. id like a new route from lancaster ideally. lancaster allows you to take the faster train but the fares are a lot more reasonable than hburg. i think the steel city flyer would have been better patronized on that route.

[expdxer]

When I go from DC to NYC I take Megabus going up and Greyhound Express going back to D.C., mainly to avoid having to go to 12th Ave. and 34th St. Plus, as grungy as the NYC Port Authority bus terminal may be, it is still indoors. My experience has been that Greyhound always is on time, which I know is not the case when taking Megabus out of NYC. The downside to all this is you better be alert when purchasing these one-way tickets. I purchased a ticket going the wrong way recently and to my surprise, Greyhound refunded me with no hassle.

[Debbie1125]

Originally Posted by pman

greyhounds express runs are well timed to miss traffic but meet demand.

That's another reason I decided to book with Greyhound. They have more busses at convenient departure times in the morning. The 7:30 a.m. Megabus hits the expressway at the worst part of the a.m. rush. After 7:00 more often than not, traffic headed westbound starts backing up at Montgomery/Girard

[that412]

To be honest, Greyhound has made a serious effort to step up its game since it started to get serious competition from Megabus in the long-haul passenger bus game, especially with its "express" service. All things being equal, I still prefer Megabus, but more and more often I'm finding that cheaper tickets and better scheduling options for Greyhound are outweighing the moderate edge in comfort for Megabus.

[TheYO]

Originally Posted by Debbie1125

Same with the Philly/Pitt route. They added State College as a stop and the trip takes longer. There used to be a bus that went directly to State College from both cities. I guess that route wasn't a money maker so it was ended.

Adding that stop also means that you really have to get reservations as soon as the dates you want come up. It doesn't take long now for the seats to fill and the prices to go up.

Megabus from here to Philly now stops at State College AND Harrisburg?!? I didn't realize that. I took Megabus from here to Philly a couple times last summer, and stopping in Harrisburg isn't too bad because it's not a far detour. Stopping at State College too seems to be a bit ridiculous.

I always hate taking Megabus from here to NYC because of that State College stop.

[TheYO]

Originally Posted by that412

To be honest, Greyhound has made a serious effort to step up its game since it started to get serious competition from Megabus in the long-haul passenger bus game, especially with its "express" service. All things being equal, I still prefer Megabus, but more and more often I'm finding that cheaper tickets and better scheduling options for Greyhound are outweighing the moderate edge in comfort for Megabus.

I actually prefer Greyhound to Megabus now. IMO, the Greyhound express buses are actually more comfortable than Megabus. Plus the Greyhound express stops less frequently and is usually cheaper (unless you book Megabus the day new schedules are released).