August 27, 2024 - TRA Newswire -

Bus riders on Megabus routes in Texas were in for a rude awakening this month when the carrier suddenly stopped serving the state. Refunds should be on the way to riders that already purchased tickets. 

Colin Emberson, Megabus Vice-President of Commercial Operations said in a statement "Unfortunately Megabus had to make the difficult business decision to discontinue our service to/from Texas. We are still offering trips to more than 500 cities in North America and we’re always looking for opportunities to provide new routes in the future." Service ended on August 16th.

Megabus served Dallas, Houston, Austin and San Antonio with fares as low as $1.00 each way and had a number of daily departures between the cities. Average fares, around $23.00, apparently proved to not be enough to keep the bus line afloat. 

Texas Rail Advocates President Peter LeCody asked "Did we really think that picking people up for a dollar at a downtown street corner on an intercity trip was going to be sustainable?" LeCody pointed out that the loss of Megabus should be a wake-up call to get serious about putting in frequent conventional passenger rail service in the Texas Triangle. 

"Our high-growth state needs dependable ground transportation that intercity train service can supply", said LeCody. "Megabus and others that have come and gone only highlight the need for us to build a long-lasting infrastructure system to move hundreds of people at a time by train, not just 50 or so and add another bus to our crowded roads. It's up to our state leaders." 

Megabus, a subsidiary of Coach USA, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy and has pulled out of other markets recently, besides eliminating service in Texas. The buses mostly ran direct between the major cities and did not serve intermediate towns.  Amtrak, on the other hand, serves cities like Temple, San Marcos and Cleburne on its daily service between San Antonio and Fort Worth/Dallas. 

Some service may still be available with Greyhound, Flixbus or Turimex.

Photo credit: KVUE