The Return of the Intercity Bus: The Decline and Recovery of Scheduled Service to American Cities, 1960 - 2007

Abstract

This study assesses the changing status of intercity bus service throughout the United States between 1960 and 2007. Drawing on data from more than 5,000 arrivals and departures in a representative sample of American cities, it shows that U.S. cities lost nearly one-third of their scheduled intercity service between 1960 and 1980 and more than half of the remaining services between 1980 and early 2006. Although commuter-bus and charter-bus business expanded greatly during this period, most regularly scheduled intercity service disappeared. Many consumers considered the remaining service to be a travel option of last resort. Nevertheless, the study's findings show that the intercity bus sector began to reassert itself in the transportation market later in 2006. By late 2007, the sector was enjoying a significant rebirth and was expanding throughout the country at the fastest rate in more than 40 years. Today, growth by low-cost carriers such as Megabus and the renewed strength of Greyhound and other conventional lines suggests that demand is expanding appreciably. Coincidentally, this resurgence is taking place during the twenty-fifth anniversary year of intercity bus deregulation in the United States

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