Goodbye, double-decker, blue-and-yellow Megabus buses; Hello, green-and-white Peter Pan coach buses.
If you’re making last-minute budget travel plans along the East Coast for Labor Day weekend, you may have noticed that Megabus is no longer operating its New York City-bound stop under the Spring Garden SEPTA overpass in Philly.
Not only that, but it has new pick-up/drop-off locations at cities all along the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic, including in New York and Baltimore.
What’s going on?
The TL;DR version: This isn’t part of the ongoing saga of Philly’s constantly changing intercity bus station location. Rather, Megabus parent company Coach USA filed for bankruptcy in June, and as it tries to address hundreds of millions of dollars in debt, as of August 16, Peter Pan Bus Lines has taken over all of Megabus’ existing routes in the region. That’s unlike what’s happened in Texas, where Megabus routes have been eliminated entirely.
That means the following:
- Megabus’ website is still live, selling tickets as usual
- Here in Philly, the primary Megabus stop over by 30th Street Station — at Walnut Street and Schuylkill Avenue — is still operating as usual
- The secondary Megabus stop in Northern Liberties that goes exclusively to and from NYC has moved a few blocks east, joining other bus brands at the curbside along 520 N. Columbus Blvd., where a small indoor waiting room is available
- The NYC stop is no longer the 34th Street curb next to the Jacob Javits Center — Instead, it has been moved to the city’s main bus terminal at the Port Authority, where Peter Pan’s other bus routes travel to and from.
- Bus fares seem to not be affected at the moment, although Peter Pan’s CEO says fares across their bus routes will see a 40% drop. Considering Megabus was already considered a budget bus provider, we’ll see whether lower prices will change all that much. As of today, Megabus one-way prices at off-peak and peak times sit at the $18 to $25 range, whereas recent past off-peak prices have sometimes been as low as $15 — or the rare $1 fare.
- Megabus users will now have access to the extended routes across the U.S. that Peter Pan also operates.
If all this is just too much to process during an already harried holiday weekend, then another option for anyone heading to NYC is the SEPTA Regional Rail/NJ Transit combo, since NJ Transit is offering free fares through Labor Day (Monday, Sept. 2). That makes the trip only $9.25 via QuickTrip or $8.25 via SEPTA Key, although the commute time to Penn Station is closer to three hours compared to Megabus’ roughly two hours to the Port Authority.
