Express bus service on a roll

Allen McElrath is an ideal customer for Atlanta’s new express bus services. The retired DeKalb County music teacher is a frequent flier who usually drives his car when he goes to Chattanooga to visit relatives.

On a recent weekday, however, he was traveling to Tennessee by Megabus, a new curbside carrier that initiated Atlanta service in November, departing from the MARTA Civic Center station downtown.

“Being retired, I don’t like to do anything stressful,” said McElrath, 57, navigating his iPad as the big blue bus cruised north on I-75. “If I was driving, this trip would be a little more stressful.”

It was McElrath’s first express bus ride. The affordable price convinced him to try it. He paid $6.50 for a round-trip ticket, including a 50-cent service fee. “You can’t drive to Chattanooga for $6,” he said.

Megabus prices start as low as $1, but fees depend on the route, the day you’re traveling and when you purchase your ticket. I paid $4.50 for my round-trip ticket to Chattanooga, purchasing it online two days in advance. Megabus CEO Dale Moser said prices will rise with the popularity of the routes and service. Some $1 fares will always be available.

“We’re trying to fill capacity,” Megabus CEO Dale Moser said from his office in New Jersey. “If you like us at $4 or $1, you’re going to like us at $10 or $15 or $20. It’s still more affordable than driving or flying, or potentially taking a train.”

Like Megabus, a subsidiary of Coach USA, the new Greyhound Express service, which debuted in Atlanta in September, offers rock-bottom fares and amenities such as Wi-Fi, plug-ins and expanded legroom.

Both companies expect to appeal to typical bus riders such as college students and military personnel.

But they also want to attract passengers such as McElrath, who seek alternatives to flying and driving. “We get 80 percent of our passengers out of an automobile or out of an airplane,” Moser said.

Nationwide, safety has become a concern with the escalating growth of curbside carriers — defined as bus services that don’t use a traditional terminal.

The National Transportation Safety Board released a study Oct. 31 that said motor coach travel, for the most part, is safe but that “curbside carriers with ten or fewer buses and carriers who have been in business for ten years or less, have higher accident rates and higher roadside inspection violation rates. The fatal accident rate for curbside carriers from January 2005 to March 2011 was seven times that of conventional bus operations.”

One offending company, East Point-based JCT Motor Coach, was ordered shut down earlier this year for safety violations.