Why More Travelers Are Taking the Bus
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What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
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Why are more Americans choosing buses over planes for short trips?
Here's your money briefing for Friday, July 21st. I'm J.R. Whelan for The Wall Street Journal. Forget planes, trains or automobiles. To get where they need to go, more people are hopping on a bus.
Taking the bus can sometimes take the same amount of time door to door as taking a plane because you don't have to deal often with going to the airport and going through security and waiting on lines and at the gate and then leaving the airport. It's just much more of a direct experience point to point.
We'll talk to WSJ's Ethan Steinberg after the break.
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How much has ridership on intercity buses grown recently?
Cyber criminals are constantly attacking. They want your data. They want your identity. They want your innovation.
Which bus companies are seeing the biggest increases in passengers?
ReliaQuest fortifies your business with agentic defense, AI that detects, contains, and eliminates cyber threats in minutes. It helps your security team move faster at the work that matters most to protect the business now and delivers insights to help them predict what's next. ReliaQuest, agentic defense for the enterprise. Learn more at ReliaQuest.com. That's R-E-L-I-A-Q-U-E-S-T.com.
For many people whose first choice of travel typically is getting on a plane, they're turning to a mode of transportation they might never have considered before, taking a bus. WSJ's Ethan Steinberg joins me with more. So Ethan, how popular has bus travel become?
Well, broadly speaking, ridership on intercity buses and motor coaches is trending upward this year. And in some corners of the industry, it's booming compared to last year. So Greyhound and the discount bus service Flixbus, which together they are jointly owned by this company called Flix North America. ridership on their lines were up 63% year-over-year this July 4th weekend. Greyhound is the largest intercity bus carrier in the United States, so any number like that holds a lot of weight. But it isn't just Greyhound that's seeing significant increases year-over-year. I spoke to bus executives all over, from the Concord coach lines, which is a regional carrier in New England, to the luxury bus service Von Lane, which is in Texas, and to another one in Florida.
And they all say that their numbers are trending upward and approaching, if not exceeding, what they were seeing in 2019. Now, overall, the industry is still recovering from the pandemic, so it's not entirely there yet. And now, of course, travel everywhere is up, so this isn't unique to buses. But where we're really seeing the difference here with buses is on those holiday weekends when airports tend to get crowded and demand tends to mount.
What is the rise of luxury motor-coach services and how do they differ?
When Greyhound and Flixbus were up 63 percent July 4th weekend year over year, TSA data shows that air travel was up just 11 percent. So it's still significant, but there is a huge difference there. And so that's kind of where we see this bus rebound really coming into play.
So in terms of the substantial growth in bus travel and the popularity of bus travel, we're talking more than just the greyhound and megabuses that we see in the highway.
But we're also talking about kind of a burgeoning sector of the bus industry, which is the luxury or high-end bus, or what the CEOs of those companies would like to have you call it. the luxury motor coach. They're trying to get away from the term bus because they see their options as kind of similar to a first class experience on a flight. On those buses, they have attendants come around and feed you snacks and meals like if you were on a plane.
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
0:00–0:33
2
Why are more Americans choosing buses over planes for short trips?
0:33–1:17
3
How much has ridership on intercity buses grown recently?
1:17–1:22
4
Which bus companies are seeing the biggest increases in passengers?
1:22–3:16
5
What is the rise of luxury motor-coach services and how do they differ?
3:16–4:42
6
Why are travelers switching from airlines to buses after the pandemic?
4:42–6:20
7
How does door-to-door travel time on buses compare with flying?
6:20–7:15
8
How do bus ticket prices, including luxury services, stack up against airfare?
7:15–9:11
Speakers
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