Megabus May Reduce Service to Athens

By Mark Hodges

Everybody who drives into Atlanta for the day knows how unpleasant this ride can be. Over the past year, Megabus has offered an alternative: several low-cost daily routes between Athens and Atlanta.

The schedules have worked very well for those commuting to jobs in Atlanta, with routes leaving Athens at 6:15am and returning from Atlanta at 3:45pm and 7:15pm.

Unfortunately, Megabus is planning to curtail its bus service between Athens and Atlanta in a way that will make daily commuting to jobs in Atlanta impractical. 

After early September, the earliest daily bus will leave Athens at 10:30 am, and the latest bus back to Athens will return from Atlanta at 2:45 pm.

This change is probably due to the fact that the buses have had relatively few passengers in the first year (the Megabus business model is full buses and low ticket prices). However, the Athens-Atlanta route has not been well advertised, and the potential for use by commuters is large.

Some of the current riders have sent email notes to Megabus asking that the company reconsider this action.  If you are a Megabus commuter to Atlanta or would like to be one, here are some people and/or email addresses to write:

--John Garrett of Coach USA (John.Garrett@coachusa.com).  He is located in Atlanta and recently passed my note on to the corporate Megabus office for consideration.

--The Megabus corporate "contact us" page at http://us.megabus.com/ContactUs.aspx. On this page, you can send in your concern via email.