Magellan is scheduled to begin Friday with a chartered bus operating between New York City and Boston. The vehicle has 30 seats; as of Thursday morning, the Friday morning trip from New York was about half booked, while the evening departure from Boston had about seven seats remaining, Boston.com reported.
Passengers pay $125 each way for a seat in a single-seat row or $109 for a seat in a shared row. The fare includes Wi-Fi, an electrical outlet, two bottles of water, a vitamin C drink packet, and a protein bar, according to Boston.com.
The launch required more than reserving a vehicle: Daniel Greenberg had to arrange pickup and drop-off points, coordinate the bus’s arrival, and secure two drivers. Boston.com reported that he used a bonus from his full-time consulting job to pay for the charter.
Greenberg told Boston.com that his dissatisfaction with the available ways to travel between the cities—and his girlfriend living in New York—prompted the idea. He does not expect the first trips to cover all of his costs, the outlet reported.
The route’s costs and constraints
The fares for Magellan’s first trips sit within a broad range for existing options: one-way bus tickets to New York typically cost from $70 to nearly $200, while Amtrak fares can reach $300, according to Boston.com, citing Greyhound for the bus comparison.
Other travel disruptions have affected the region, though the reported problems involve different routes and circumstances. The New York Times reported that construction around New York City’s Port Authority Bus Terminal and its Lincoln Tunnel ramps has added as much as an hour to some trips into the city that usually take less than 45 minutes. More than 250,000 New Jersey commuters are affected, and one 19-mile NJ Transit ride took nearly two hours, the newspaper reported.
Air travel has also faced delays. On a recent Monday, more than 480 flights were delayed and more than 70 canceled at Logan Airport, while ground stops were issued at Newark Liberty, JFK, and LaGuardia. Some New York-area flights were diverted to Boston, and the average Logan delay reached 105 minutes, according to CBS News Boston, citing FlightAware and the Federal Aviation Administration.
The bus industry’s recovery is another factor in the market. A DePaul University report put intercity bus ridership at about 85% to 90% of pre-pandemic levels and projected a full recovery by 2026. It identified the Northeast Corridor as the weakest region, with traffic at least about 25% below pre-pandemic levels, and said a full rebound would require addressing driver and equipment shortages, Metro Magazine reported.
Greenberg plans to keep chartering buses and testing other ways to make the trip, according to Boston.com. Options he is considering include a suburban stop where passengers could transfer to a train, or splitting into four-person Uber rides for the final leg.
