Get On the Bus, Gus

Intercity busses are making a comeback. For example, from Boston and other cities, you can get to New York cheaply—or you can travel in business style.

If productivity isn't your first priority and you are not "large boned," you're in for a pleasant financial surprise. BoltBus runs between New York and Boston, Philadelphia and Washington, D.C., and sells each one-way ticket for between $10 and $30. Prices are graduated; the first ticket on each Bolt bus is $1, then most seats are $10-$20, and up to $35 for the last seat sold. Tickets on MegaBus, Greyhound and others may be more.

A growing number of these low-priced intercity busses, including BoltBus, MegaBus, and NeOn, are offering WiFi. This is definitely cool. You share a mobile broadband connection, so don't count on good quality streaming video, but the connectivity is fine for e-mail and web browsing. Some busses also have AC power outlets at some or all seats.

I've taken the Boston/New York BoltBus a few times. The good news: they leave on time, they run smoothly, the WiFi Internet service works and most (but not all) seat pairs have AC outlets. The downside: the bus has no seat trays, and there isn't enough room to open up a regular notebook fully without twisting my body sideways. That makes it hard to get work done. If you're skinny enough, and/or packing a netbook or other small/low-height-display computer, you may be able to be very productive.

The low-price bus lines have no live customer service. With busses, there may or may not be a rest stop. Plus the busses I've been on have all arrived half an hour late. BoltBus doesn't offer refunds or changes; Greyhound lets you reschedule.

Some people, like Ernest Lilley, technology manager at designB Studios, are finding Bolt-class busses more than adequate for getting work done while getting there.

"On the East coast, if it's less than 200 miles of travel, bus services like Greyhound's Bolt beat the train or the plane for me," states Lilley. "The busses are clean and roomy—they actually took out seats to give [more] legroom. They're also cheap and have both WiFi and AC outlets so you can work. BoltBus picks you up and drops you off in the heart of the city, so you don't add travel time to the airport."

On the Bolt, which Lilley regularly takes between Washington, D.C. and New York City, "The driver lets everyone know that cell phone conversation [volume] should be kept down. And as far as I can see, everyone respects others' spaces."

But for bus productivity and comfort, you can't beat the business-class LimoLiner bus, says Farpoint's Craig Mathias. "It's absolutely the best way, bar none, to go between Boston and New York. It's a full-sized bus with 28 seats, so there's lots of room. They have food, movies, an attendant, bathrooms, AC outlets, wired and wireless Internet access—not the fastest in the world, but it works. And the busses travel major highways, so you've got cell phone coverage most of the time."

The LimoLiner's Boston departure point is just across the street from the food court in the Hynes Auditorium. The New York bus is just across from the 53rd Street Gourmet Deli, which has a salad bar—and you're also only two blocks from the Carnegie Deli.

If you're thinking about working on the LimoLiner, Mathias notes, "There are six seats in the back with fixed tables; you want to get one of those, for a nice stable service. You do bounce around a little, of course—anything that moves may be hard to type on."

"Every seat is huge, with lots of work space and AC power for your laptop," echoes Andover, Mass.-based telecommunications engineer Andrew G. Malis. "Even though they provide WiFi (based on a 3G card in their own router), I use my own Verizon EVDO rev A adaptor, so I don't have to share bandwidth with the other riders."

I just tried the LimoLiner myself, to New York and back, and I share Mathias' and Malis' sentiments. There's more room than any other travel option, except maybe the first class car on the Amtrak Acela. Connectivity is free, and it worked along most of the route. Boarding was quick; the busses left on time. The company is looking at expanding to other city pairs, and there may be other companies offering similar service.

The one-way fare on the LimoLiner is $89; you may find discounts. On the non-rush-hour trip back from New York I just took, it was four hours and five minutes from boarding to getting off. You can pre-select your seat. (If it's just you, I recommend the single-seat aisle, unless your trip timing means you'll have the sun in your eyes or on your laptop screen.)

So you have choices worth checking out, and you can apply the same metrics to your own geography. My own conclusions so far: Cut-rate busses like BoltBus are the cheapest, but they are harder to work on. A business-class train like the Amtrak Acela is better (I haven't tried Internetting on one). And a business/first-class bus like the LimoLiner bus is the best for space and amenities, and possibly more productive than the train.

Of course, that's assuming you need, or want, to be that kind of productive. Deadlines and schedules permitting, you may prefer to enjoy being off-line and uncommunicative, so you can catch up on work or non-work reading, thinking, or letting the little grey cells relax.

Daniel P. Dern is a freelance technology writer based in Newton Center, MA. His website is www.dern.com and his technology blog is TryingTechnology.com.