Bus growth outpacing air and rail

Which was the fastest growing mode of intercity transportation in the US last year: (a) air; (b) rail; or (c) bus.
 

Buses beat everything else, thanks largely to the expansion of “curbside operators,” according to researchers at DePaul University in Chicago.
 

“Intercity bus operations overall expanded by 6 percent in 2010, while curbside operators — which don’t run out of established terminals but pick up and drop off passengers at curbside — grew by 23.9 percent,” says the study by the Chaddick Institute for Metropolitan Development at DePaul.
 

"There was almost a perfect alignment of the stars," said Joseph Schwieterman, director of the report. "There was a new bus model that offers super cheap fares, technological changes that made people willing to take a mode of transportation slower than air travel, and the high fuel prices."
 

A major attraction of the curbside operators is access to Wi-Fi service, he said.
 

Last year was the third year in a row that bus service was the fasting-growing mode of intercity travel.
 

That reverses a trend unfolding since the mid-1970s, when the traditional intercity bus network was rapidly shrinking, a victim of the opening of interstate highways, growing automobile ownership and the decline of downtown business districts, according to the DePaul study.
 

"There’s been a complete reversal in the trend of intercity bus travel since 2007," said Dale Moser, president of Coach USA/megabus.com. "We have changed the cultural view of what bus travel used to be. And there’s obviously a pent-up demand and need for intercity bus travel."
 

By David Wilkening