Bolt Breaks Away

BoltBus is quickly becoming many TKC students’ favorite way to travel around the Northeast.
Junior Rebecca King uses Bolt every time she goes home to Virginia. She enjoys the convenience of not having to walk all the way to Port Authority to take a bus, as well as the advantage of paying ten dollars less than Greyhound each way. King took Bolt to arrive at school this year, to travel home for a wedding, and she is planning on buying her ticket home for Thanksgiving soon.
After she had a horrible experience with Eastern Travel (one of the sister companies that founded Bolt’s rival, Megabus), King’s mother has also become a BoltBus “apostle.” Mrs. King took Bolt last weekend when she came to New York for the Parent’s Weekend and loved it.
They are not the only ones enjoying the “era of cool bus travel,” as Jaunted.com, a site for various consumer reviews, called the new endeavor. Many other TKC students are boarding the bus as well. Bolt has made it cheap and easy for King’s students to take more trips outside of the Big Apple. Already in the semester, students have ventured to D.C. and Boston just to explore.
Bolt is attractive because it knows that interurban bus travelers want one thing: simplicity. According to a CNN report, Bolt’s strategy is working. Greyhound, Bolt’s parent company, made a smart move by opting for a simpler approach to bus travel. After opening the D.C route in March ’08, Bolt turned out a profit within two months. On many of its routes, Bolt experienced at least an 80% growth rate each year.
Bolt’s online order form is simple and effective. After you reserve a seat, Bolt sends a confirmation number to your e-mail address. Riders can print out the number or show it to Bolt workers on their phone. The bus to D.C. departs from 33rd and 7th almost every half hour and the company is a stickler about punctuality. Bolt also has a brand new fleet of buses which are both safe and innovative. Each bus has the usual restroom and overhead light, but the company has also equipped the buses with WiFi and power outlets. King cautioned that because there are fewer outlets than passengers, the best strategy is to arrive early and “be assertive.”
Bolt tickets go on sale a month and a half before the scheduled departure date and each trip will have at least one $1 ticket. However, as the seats fill up, the prices of the tickets go up. The highest price for a ticket is under thirty dollars. For instance, on Thanksgiving weekend, most tickets to D.C. are $25.
TKC students have certainly taken advantage of this smart business model. King has had generally great experiences with the company and plans on remaining a loyal Bolt user. “20 bucks to go home—how cool is that?”