When a Minneapolis-bound Megabus caught fire and exploded last month in the suburbs of Chicago, no passengers were injured. Their baggage, however, was destroyed, and that’s how they learned how difficult it is to get compensation when everything in your bag has burned up in a bus explosion. Even having a travel writer for the New York Times on board isn’t enough to recuperate the full value of everything they brought on the bus. [More]
megabus
Passsengers On Exploded Megabus Get Inadequate Compensation For Bags, Can’t Get Legal Help
By 3.23.16
No Passengers Injured When Megabus Catches Fire, Explodes Outside Of Chicago
By 2.22.16
In September 2010, a Megabus en route to Chicago burst into flames. History appeared to repeat itself Sunday, when another of the company’s discount travel buses caught fire in a suburb of the Windy City. Thankfully, no one was injured in the incident, but passengers say they lost hundreds of dollars in possessions. [More]
19 Passengers Injured After Megabus Double-Decker Rear-Ends Stopped Truck
By 4.13.15
Taking a long bus ride can be uncomfortable enough without glass and people flying around everywhere inside. In the fourth Megabus crash in Indiana since October, 19 passengers were hurt when a double-decker bus driving to Chicago from Atlanta ran into a stopped semi-truck on the interstate. [More]
Megabus Adds Reserved Seats To Double-Decker Bus Trips, But It’ll Cost Ya
By 4.1.15
If you’ve ever taken a trip with a group or family on Megabus, then you know it can be a pain to get seats together unless you show up extra early. Now, the company plans to change that by allowing customers to reserve seats in advance — for a price, that is. [More]
Driver In 2010 Fatal Megabus Crash Dies After Brain Injury, Stroke
By 3.17.15
You may remember the fatal 2010 crash of a Megabus in Syracuse, NY, where the double-decker bus missed its turn and struck a low railroad overpass, killing four passengers. After four and a half years and multiple wrongful death lawsuits against the bus company, the aftermath of this accident became even sadder: the driver who crashed the bus has died. [More]
Megabus Oversells Tickets, Driver Calls Cops When Passengers Refuse To Give Up Seats
By 5.21.13
When a an air carrier sells too many tickets on a particular flight, it usually asks for volunteers to take later flights (in exchange for travel vouchers and other rewards, of course). What the airline doesn’t normally do is call the cops when it can’t resolve its own screw-up. Unfortunately, the airlines aren’t running Megabus. [More]
Megabus Hero Grabs Wheel From Unconscious Driver, Steers Bus To Safety
By 8.29.12
The driver of the Megabus traveling from Philadelphia from Pittsburgh was, witnesses told various local media, “out of it.” She forgot to take her blood pressure medication, became ill, and lost consciousness. Dozing passengers were alerted to her state when two tractor-trailers boxed in the bus. Passengers rushed to the front to help, but one man happened to be in the right place and had the right qualifications. That was a Pittsburgh pastor who has driven a variety of large vehicles, and had just earned his commercial driver’s license. [More]
Waiting 3 Hours In The Heat For Our Bus, Megabus Only Answers Via Twitter
By 8.14.12
Megabus serves as an alternative to Greyhound or Amtrak travel, but has a distinct disadvantage over its competitors. Passengers have to queue up outside to wait for their buses instead of inside air-conditioned bus stations. Or at least some kind of shelter. Kenneth found himself waiting outside for three hours, fifteen minutes for an absentee Megabus. He tried to call the company to find out what was going on, but no one was picking up the phone. The Twitter representative did pick up the computer, though, so that was something. [More]
After 2 Fatal Megabus Accidents In A Week, Illinois Governor Wishes Feds Cared
By 8.10.12
Megabus is not having a very good week. The company settled a wrongful death lawsuit, agreeing to pay $5.1 million to the family of a man hit and killed by a Megabus in a downtown Chicago crosswalk in 2010. The day before the settlement was announced, another Megabus hit and killed another elderly pedestrian in a crosswalk just a few blocks away from where the 2010 accident occurred. Last week, a bus leaving Chicago hit an overpass, killing one passenger and injuring dozens more. Oh, and a Charlotte-bound bus caught fire in Georgia this week, too. The National Transportation Safety Board declined to investigate this week’s incidents, and Governor Pat Quinn isn’t happy about that. [More]
7.5 Sweltering Hours On A Bus: The MegaSauna Rides Again, Gets Lost
By 7.18.11
When Alexandros set out on a Megabus trip from New York City to Washington, D.C. last week, he had no way to know that he and his fellow passengers were in for seven and a half hours of roasting hot travel mayhem. The travel delay was understandable at first: there was apparently an accident on I-95, the standard Megabus route between the two cities. This might have been bearable if the bus had had functioning air conditioning. Or any air circulation at all. Or if the passengers had been allowed to board the new bus they had promised. Or if the driver had received valid directions to the spot where they were supposed to exchange their rolling sauna for a new bus that never came. [More]
7 Hours Sitting In The Aisle Of An Overbooked Megabus
By 3.15.11
This weekend, Sean spent a miserable seven hours sitting in the aisle of a packed Megabus traveling between two East Coast cities. The company had taken too many reservations for the overnight bus, and had four five more passengers than seats. The last four five passengers had a choice between two incredibly crappy options: be stranded overnight in the city of departure and miss their connections, or crouch in the aisle, cursing Megabus with every mile. Sean and his companions went for the second option. [More]
Megabus Bursts Into Flames
By 9.30.10
A Megabus enroute to Chicago from Detroit was engulfed by fire this Tuesday, forcing the driver to flee for his life, abandoning the bus by the side of the highway as it turned to cinder. [More]
Lost Megabus Driver Crashes Into Bridge While Checking GPS; Four Passengers Killed
By 9.16.10
Very early Saturday morning, a double-decker Megabus lost on its way to the bus station crashed into a low railroad overpass (pictured) outside of Syracuse, NY. Four passengers were killed, and twenty people injured, including the driver. Now, the public has learned that the driver was looking at his personal GPS unit at the time of the accident–which Megabus drivers are not permitted to use while driving for work. [More]
Whoops: Megabus Driver Doesn't Know Route From D.C. To New York
By 5.6.10
David tells Consumerist that he took a nightmarish Megabus trip where the driver did not, strictly speaking, now how to get to New York City from Washington D.C. After it took the driver an extra three hours to get there, he worked hard to find out how to complain to someone with actual power to give him a refund on. If you find yourself on a similar epic trek, or riding inside a MegaSauna, David sent along the contact information that he found. [More]
Megabus Offers Complimentary Megasauna On NYC To DC Trip
By 4.21.10
Megabus is a bus service that goes from city to city, and is meant to compete with Amtrak and Greyhound. They offer decent prices, occasional great specials, and free wi-fi. On a trip during Easter weekend, Mark learned that the service offers another perk he didn’t exactly want: a 4-hour complimentary Megasauna. The air conditioning on his bus failed, and the passengers roasted down the East Coast. [More]
Megabus Might Honor Your Prepaid Reservation, But Only If You Chase The Bus Halfway Across Philadelphia
By 8.17.08
A Megabus driver claimed that Chris’ prepaid reservation was actually a standby ticket, and refused to let him board unless he met the bus at the next stop halfway across Philadelphia. The driver was apparently worried that the bus would be full after the second stop, but he wouldn’t let Chris ride along to find out.
