Bus Companies Come and Go…and Now You Can Travel on Yo! Bus Too!

I’ve signed up for about a dozen magazine subscriptions after I was offered a chance to trade unused United miles for them. Among them is New York Magazine which included a fascinating piece about the many Chinatown bus lines which have come and gone serving New York and Washington.

The first was Fung Wah Bus, which lost its right to operate on March 4 after a series of accidents, including a bus catching on fire, another rolling over on a ramp.  A similar company, called Apex, was also pulled to the curb in 2012.   A company called New Century had its license revoked in 2010, but kept operating using different names until 2012.

Today there are still many of these renegade coaches plying the interstates of the east coast.  Lucky Star and Eastern have adopted the strategy of MegaBus, (owned by Coach USA) by offering $1 tickets to early ticket buyers. Like most of these upstarts none of them take passengers into Port Authority, preferring to drop people on the streets.

In December, a new company founded by Greyhound joined the pack. They even included Chinese characters on the sides of buses. It’s called Yo! Bus, and to find it, you have to go to Pike Street in Chinatown.