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Peter Pan flies away from Greyhound
By adamg on Mon, 08/28/2017 - 4:24pm
The Springfield-based bus company, which connects Boston to the Pioneer Valley and other points, reports it's ending its affiliation with the national bus company. Peter Pan says this will let it offer more express service and better fares.
Greyhound responds: Yeah, well screw you, Pete (or words to that effect), vows to start new service to Springfield.
The news is not the most shocking in the world, given that Peter Pan sued Greyhound in 2015 over a variety of issues related to ticketing and revenue sharing.
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Comments
The dirty dog's take on the
The dirty dog's take on the same event:
https://www.greyhound.com/northeast
May not help Peter Pan
I don't see how this works out to Peter Pan's advantage. Most travelers will think of Greyhound first, or Megabus, Bolt, or other discount buses. I tend to think of Peter Pan for trips to western Mass, the Cape, or Worcester. Sometimes I've been on their New York buses but only when Greyhound's website put me on one of Peter Pan's cutely named buses. I never think of them as a discount carrier. Maybe they want to get out of the cutthroat New York business. Whether or not that's their goal, I think it'll be the result of this move.
Yeah
Not sure how well this will work for Peter Pan. Sure they have the market share in W Mass.. but they only have it because of the code sharing with Greyhound (you almost always get put on a PP bus if you are going anywhere in W Mass and update NY).
Maybe they just want to focus on their core markets and expanding into a few new ones. Best of luck, Greyhound can afford to drop fares on several routes to gain customers.. PP not so much.
However, Greyhound will be the first bus company to kill a route if it isn't profitable..
Are they dropping the code
Are they dropping the code shares? Or are they just dropping the Boston-NYC-DC pooled service, which is a closer relationship than a code share?
Not my experience
Granted, I'm originally from the Berkshires, but I never think of Greyhound for travel. It's always been Peter Pan.
Peter Pan has also started competing with Plymouth & Brockton
on the Boston-Hyannis route, offering rides for $7 each way.
Good. On a typical summer
Good. On a typical summer weekend, P&B buses fill up, leaving people stranded.
From what I read in online reviews, their solution to that problem is to tell people to wait for the next bus. They don't bother to add extra trips. This can take hours if you're at an intermediate stop and multiple buses fill up at the earlier stops.
There are even some reviews where people were stranded overnight because the last bus of the day was full.
yeah
P&B Needs it. I follow them on twitter and they often cancel trips in the morning due to lack of drivers.
I guess P&B has issues keeping drivers during the summer because the migrant workers tend to work elsewhere for more money during the summer.
And with the T
Peter Pan now offers rides between South Station and Logan. Sure beats the garbage fest that is the Silver Line
what does that service cost?
I did not know Peter Pan even allowed such short trips.
I have mixed feelings about
I have mixed feelings about this.
On one hand, it can be a benefit to passengers if multiple carriers form an alliance and coordinate their schedules, effectively making one service that runs more frequently.
On the other hand, prices went up a *lot* when they formed the alliance in 1999. They only started to drop once the Chinatown buses came along, but went up again once Fung Wah got shut down.
As a passenger, what I want is a frequent, cheap service. Ideally I wouldn't need a reservation -- I could show up at any time, pay a low price, and get on a bus within 15 or 20 minutes.
About Time!
I take Peter Pan down to Hartford a couple of times a year, and it's always frustrating having to make sure I've printed out my ticket and remember where I've stashed it. Looking forward to paperless ticketing!
E-Ticketing
Peter Pan is starting to (slowly) roll out e-ticketing. I travel from Boston to Fall River a few times a year and it's available on my route. It's about time.
Bonanza
Peter Pan took over all of Bonanza's old routes in Fall River, Newport and Providence.
When I was in college at UMass Dartmouth, I used to take Bonanza coach from Fall River because it was a straight shot to Boston (when motorcoaches stopped directly at Back Bay Station), but a little more expensive (I think a one-way fare was $8). American Eagle from New Bedford was cheaper ($5 to Boston), but somewhat slower as it made three stops (New Bedford/Dartmouth line, Kings Highway and Silver City Galleria) before went on Route 24 in Taunton.
Bolt Bus?
I wonder what becomes of Bolt Bus. That was a joint venture between Peter Pan and Greyhound...
Bolt Bus
As I'm planning a Halloween trip to Philadelphia with a group of folks your question inspired me to look up Bolt Bus, just to be complete.
From Bolt's website all appears fine except I was unable to select any dates. It's possible there was a mismatch between their web service and my device/browser but still a dire problem.
I did a search for latest news, the most recent was their improving wifi and onboard media in April. Interestingly the disclosure at the bottom of the PR blurb identified Bolt as a premium Greyhound product, no mention of Peter Pan.
Bolt is owned by Greyhound.
Bolt is owned by Greyhound. Routes in the northeast are operated in partnership with Peter Pan just like regular routes, which presumably will end now, but Bolt itself is owned by Greyhound, not a joint venture with Peter Pan. Shouldn't be any significant changes.
Bolt Bus
Today's Globe article says that Bolt Bus will become solely owned by Greyhound.
After the Christmas Trip To
After the Christmas Trip To Springfield Via Nine Circles Of Hell a few years ago, I just want regular train service a few damn times a day. I'd be happy to never step on a bus again. As it is, we're stuck with it for visiting the partner's fam in Greenfield & Springfield & friends who live in Jamestown.
As far as marketing goes, I think of Peter Pan for Massachusetts, Greyhound & Bolt for everything else. If Peter Pan were to completely focus on New England & blast more buses on each route, they could maybe get me interested, rather than using them as a last resort when car rentals are impractical. We used to rely on them more often, but too many scheduling screw-ups and overcrowded buses stopped that.
Train service to Greenfield
FYI, there is now train service to Greenfield (via Springfield), although it's really infrequent. But it's there.
Boston to Greenfield via
Boston to Greenfield via Springfield would require an overnight in Springfield.
Connecting in New Haven is possible, but Amtrak won't sell you such a ticket. I'm not sure why, since they'll sell a ticket from Boston to Springfield via New Haven on other trains, just not the Vermonter. They'll also sell you a ticket from Boston to New Haven via Springfield, if you want to save a little money but waste a lot of time.
An overnight stay, or …
The T/MassDOT to run a single train which currently sits in Worcester all night to just run out to Greenfield instead. (Would also require CSX to play ball.)
Ya know what?
I sometimes see commuter rail cars in the yard at Greenfield. No lie.
No idea what that's about though.
The old Kawasaki bilevel cars
The old Kawasaki bilevel cars are being cycled out to upstate NY for refurbishing. It's quite strange to see them rolling through Athol.
Thanks!
Thanks!
Connecticut
Pete Pan is a huge service throughout all of Connecticut, as is Bonanza, running most of the CT local routes, especially out of Hartford and the Hartford-Springfield trip. So I am dismayed that they are going to shoot themselves in the foot like this. They should continue to expand throughout all of New England. But it definitely isn't just Massachusetts it's a CT and MA thing. The streamlined schedules and interchangeability is a HUGE loss for all Boston-NYC trips and forget about easy options for Boston/CT--->Philly/DC.
Bonanza!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mjdRgBAY278
Bonanza
Didn't Peter Pan retire this name and logo entirely a few years ago? Does it still exist on the outside of any of their buses?
Yes, they retired it. The one
Yes, they retired it. The one remnant is that those trip numbers start with a B on the paper and PDF schedules.