Photos: Omar Souleyman at the Cedar Cultural Center

With fares as low as $1, Megabus delivers _ in style.

Chicago Tribune (Chicago, IL) May 30, 2006 Byline: Phil Marty ON THE ROAD _ Gregory Ford was sitting outside, enjoying the sun and checking out his cell phone during a 30-minute food stop at a TravelAmerica truck stop near Zionsville, 20 minutes north of Indianapolis.

“I thought I was going to be riding with chickens because it was so cheap,” the 20-year-old Chicagoan said.

“It” was the bright blue Megabus that sat idling in the parking lot, waiting for passengers to reboard and head down the road to Cincinnati.

Mega-WHAT?

Megabus. It’s an idea born in the United Kingdom and little more than a month old in the U.S., based on the concept of express, intercity motor coach travel at dirt-cheap rates.

Of course one-man’s dirt cheap is another man’s wallet-sucking nightmare. Not this. I rode a modern, clean, uncrowded bus the 300 miles from Chicago to Cincinnati for $20.

Greyhound, the “It’s such a comfort to take the bus …” people, charged me $50 for the return trip.

If I’d flown, the cheapest round-trip flight I could find the day I booked my Megabus ticket (six days in advance) was indeed wallet-sucking, to the tune of $705, not a good tune. web site megabus promotion code

Even if you drove your own car, got 25 mpg and paid $2.50 a gallon for gas (yeah, right), you’d be out $30 for the one-way trip.

Ford, by the way, booked earlier than me and paid $8 one way and $15 the other for his weekend visit to see friends. And, in his first visit to the Megabus.com Web site, when he wasn’t sure this wasn’t a scam, he could have gone on a promotional fare that was an amazing one buck each way.

Any of those fares would leave Ford plenty of money for some chicken at the truck stop Popeye’s.

But no chickens riding on the bus.

Eleanor Zarnowiecke from LaGrange, Ill., and Stephanie Shirley from Cincinnati_on the opposite ends of the age scale at 87 and 21 _ agreed with Ford that Megabus rocks.

Zarnowiecke liked the price, of course, and the convenience of catching her ride right outside Union Station’s entrance on the east side of Canal Street (where some Metra trains come in from the suburbs). It would, she said, make it easy for this and future visits to her kids and grandkids in Cincinnati and Minneapolis. (With Chicago as the hub, Megabus also goes to and from Cleveland, Columbus, Ohio; Detroit, Indianapolis, Milwaukee and St. Louis.) Like Ford, Shirley also delayed booking early so she could check out if Megabus was legit. That cost her a $9.50 round trip. But she wasn’t complaining, and comparing it to other bus lines, she ventured, “It’s a lot better. It’s a lot nicer. It’s cleaner, and there’s less people, but I’m sure it will pick up.” No complaints? “Not yet.” But wouldn’t flying (you can sometimes snag under $200 fares on the notoriously pricey Chicago-Cincinnati route) be a lot faster than the six-hour Megabus (seven-hour Greyhound) trip?

“It would take longer in Cincinnati,” Shirley said, “because you have to get to the airport early and then you fly and you have to have someone pick you up. At O’Hare it’s kind of far from where my friend lives, so it’s probably a lot easier to take the bus _ and cheaper.” Because Megabus is new and still not well known, we left Chicago with only 17 passengers, so everyone had room to spread out. The bus _ size of seats, cleanliness, yada yada yada _ was pretty much identical to Greyhound.

Our only stops were a 5- to 10-minute rest area break about two hours out of Chicago, that 30-minute food stop at Travel-America and a two-minute stop in Indianapolis to let off a few passengers (no one got on). Oh, and we paused about 60 seconds to let off a guy at the first of the two Cincinnati stops, which are within a few blocks of each other.

We arrived at the final stop in Cincinnati half an hour earlier than scheduled, so our trip was just six hours _ not a whole lot more than if you drove it yourself.

On the trip back, Greyhound stopped first in Indianapolis _ scheduled for a half-hour but stretching into nearly an hour because of some seating problems on the by-then-full bus. (At least one person in Indy with a ticket didn’t get to board.) Then there were stops in Lafayette, Gary, Hammond and 95th Street before unloading at the terminal on Harrison Street.

Our scheduled seven-hour trip came in at just over that figure.

Overall, the Megabus experience was fine, though there was something wrong with the latch on the toilet (the driver announced that as we left Chicago), so it couldn’t be used. But the longest time toilet-to-toilet was about 2 { hours, so not a bladder-breaker.

And, something that’s not really a problem for most folks, but you can book Megabus only online. Greyhound sells tickets online, by phone or at a terminal.

And, speaking of terminals, Megabus doesn’t have `em. In Chicago there’s just a small Megabus sign in that bus-loading area outside Union Station. Same setup in Indianapolis and Cincinnati, though no Union Station.

The no-terminal thing is one way they keep down their costs.

And, you know, that brings up the No. 1 question from anyone who hears about Megabus: How can they sell seats that cheap?

Well, besides the terminal thing, there’s minimal staffing needed_the driver and a woman at the Chicago stop who checked the confirmation info passengers had printed out. Megabus is part of Coach USA _ which runs scheduled services as well as charters, sightseeing and tours _ so the coaches, maintenance workers, etc. were already in place.

Dale Moser, president and chief operating officer of Coach USA, says the idea of cheap bus service “isn’t a new concept. It’s been implemented into the bus industry from discount airlines like Southwest … It’s based on volume” once it becomes more well known.

Because Coach USA is based here, Chicago was the natural hub, and cities with a population of about half a million or more were selected from about a 350-mile radius.

“We’re not a Greyhound concept,” trying to serve the entire country, Moser said. “This is mostly leisure travel,” focusing on express service and a guaranteed seat.

Moser expects much of Megabus’ business to be round trips (though buying a round trip isn’t necessarily a better deal than one way) and come from people in the eight outlying cities who choose Chicago as a destination to sample its sports, culture, restaurants and nightlife. go to web site megabus promotion code

Sitting in my bargain seat, high above the traffic on the Dan Ryan, letting someone else do the driving, got me to thinking. It really can be a comfort to take the bus and … Whoops, that’s that other company.

___ IF YOU GO:

MEGABUS Tickets on Megabus are generally cheaper the further in advance they’re bought. Depending on when you happen to visit the Web site, www.megabus.com/us, you may be able to book as far as 45 days out. Other times it may be only 30 days or so.

A recent check for Chicago/Cincinnati 45 days in advance turned up the one-way $1 promotional fare, of which there are a limited number for every route. If I bought the ticket for the next day, it would have been $25, still cheap. Fares for other cities vary, too, depending on number of days in advance, and day and time of travel.

And, if you buy a round trip, the cost each way may differ.

Keep in mind that though all routes are serviced every day, there may be only one bus a day going where you want, like my 7 a.m. Thursday trip to Cincinnati.

Megabus’ Web site is easy to find your way around, and the actual booking experience is painless. In addition to the ticket fee, you’ll pay a minuscule 50-cent booking fee.

If you click on Schedules, you’ll be able to get maps showing where you’ll get on and off the bus, and even a list of a few nearby attractions.

And, by the way, if you’d like to bus-it on the cheap in the United Kingdom, check out www.megabus.com/uk for budget rides in England, Scotland and Wales. They also have promotional fares as low as 1 pound, about $1.85.

MEGABUS ROUTE Megabus has service to/from Chicago for these cities:

Cincinnati Cleveland Columbus, Ohio Detroit Indianapolis Milwaukee Minneapolis St. Louis ___ GREYHOUND Buying in advance on Greyhound won’t necessarily save you any money, but buying a round trip or traveling with a companion may. My one-way Cincinnati/Chicago fare was $50, plus a $4 fee. Be aware, too, that buying a ticket on Greyhound doesn’t guarantee you a seat.

Greyhound, of course, serves the whole country, not the niche Megabus has targeted. As a result, you’re likely to make more stops, meaning a longer trip.

A longtime Greyhound customer on my bus told me he thought this would be his last bus trip because of the time involved. His trip from Eau Claire, Wis., to London, Ky., took him 24 hours and included a section that went from Indianapolis, south to Louisville, then back north to Cincinnati, then down to London, which is southeast of Louisville.

But then if you’re interested in Megabus destinations, you’re probably not going to be taking any very convoluted trips anyway.

And, since Greyhound’s been around forever and has name recognition, you can expect a lot more fellow passengers. My 55-passenger Greyhound (one fewer than Megabus) was about half full from Cincinnati to Indianapolis, then full the remainder of the way.

Now speaking of those fellow passengers _ tell your friends you’re taking the bus out of town and you’re apt to get a snorting laugh and a grimace. Like it or not, there are stereotypes about the class of folks who’ll ride a bus cross-country. And, on the surface, a cursory look at much of the group on our Greyhound might indeed make that case. (The Megabus crowd, though, was more the melange you’ll find on city buses and the elevated train, which, by the way, are some of the places that Megabus advertises.) But, I’m here to tell you this was one of the friendliest, most gregarious groups you’re likely to find. As the guy sitting behind me offered, “I never get on the bus to be bored.” Greyhound can be booked by phone (800-231-2222), online (www.greyhound.com) or at a terminal.

___ Phil Marty: pamarty@tribune.com ___ Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Information Services.

_____ PHOTOS (from KRT Photo Service, 202-383-6099).