Holiday puts low-cost buses into overtime

The holiday travel season is at full throttle a day before Thanksgiving, and in strained economic times, the bus companies that sell low-fare tickets to New York are taking on much of the load.

Nationwide, travel will jump 54 percent over the holiday as more than 38 million people leave town - nearly a million from the Washington area alone, according to a report from AAA.

But with recession-struck travelers searching for bargains, airlines are reporting a 5.5 percent decline in passengers compared to last year, AAA reported. That leaves it to the bus companies to pick up the slack, and most report they are scrambling for extra vehicles to handle the crush.

Megabus is making a no-traveler-left-behind promise to “accommodate anybody and everybody,” said President Dale Moser, who indicated the company would book extra buses between Washington and New York “on demand.”

“I won’t hit a sold-out number,” Mr. Moser said, promising to “flex-it-up to meet the needs of the traveling public.”

For the last four years, Phil Cohen, a senior at George Washington University, has been traveling to New York by bus about once every three weeks to visit his girlfriend. He went to New York last Thursday, returned to Washington on Saturday and is now back in New York for Thanksgiving.

The economy is forcing the veteran bus rider to search for bargain prices during strategic off-peak hours.

“I really will look through every single company to find the cheapest one,” he said.

Washingtonians, who will travel more than people in other parts of the country during Thanksgiving, will spend an average of $796 altogether in the course of that travel, AAA reported. That price tag includes transportation, living expenses, food, shopping and entertainment.

To curb some of the costs, many Washingtonians are turning to intercity buses, which remain one of the least expensive travel options. During Thanksgiving week, a round-trip ticket between Washington and New York costs about $40. A similar Amtrak ticket stacks up to around $200, while the airline equivalent purchased at Expedia.com climbs to between $400 and $550, plus miscellaneous fees.

Many companies are following Megabus lead and beefing up their fleets to meet the demand.

Washington Deluxe plans to add about 20 more buses for Thanksgiving, while Chinatown Bus could implement as many as 12 extra buses. BoltBus also plans to allocate more of its 77 vehicles to its New York-Washington route during the holiday season.

Additionally, Amtrak plans to add more trains as needed to its Acela Express and Northeast Regional Service lines. Wednesday, which will be its busiest day of the year, the train company expects to carry about 125,000 passengers, which is 70 percent more than on a regular Wednesday, spokeswoman Karina Romero said.

Despite plans to run at full capacity, seats are already filling up quickly at intercity buses.

BoltBus is sold out of tickets for Wednesday and only has a few left for Sunday, spokeswoman Bonnie Bastian said.And Chinatown Bus, which includes Eastern Travel Bus, HolaBus and Apex Bus, also expects an overload of passengers during the holiday season, President David Wang said.

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