Cheap oil undercuts U.S.
rail, bus service: study
Send a link to a friend
[August 23, 2017]
By Joseph White
DETROIT (Reuters) - Cheap gasoline is
squeezing U.S. bus companies and the Amtrak passenger rail system that
bet more consumers would embrace alternatives to driving for trips
shorter than 400 miles, a study by researchers at DePaul University
concluded.
The study, released Tuesday, found nine metropolitan areas in the United
States with populations above 700,000 now have no Amtrak passenger rail
service or express bus service.
Since 2014, eight of the 50 most heavily-traveled routes between cities
120 to 400 miles apart have lost either express coach or Amtrak service,
according to the study by the Chaddick Institute for Metropolitan
Development at DePaul University in Chicago.
Travelers favor planes for trips longer than 400 miles, and cars for
trips under 100 miles, but various enterprises have sought to profit
from offering alternatives to planes or cars for trips that fall between
those two distances.
![](http://archives.lincolndailynews.com/2017/Aug/23/images/ads/current/brickey_sda_2017.png)
Megabus, operated by Britain's Stagecoach Group, launched in the United
States in 2006. The Greyhound bus line and its BoltBus express coach
service is owned by the British company FirstGroup PLC.
Silicon Valley billionaire Elon Musk caused a stir in July when he
claimed, without offering details, that he had received verbal approval
from the government to build an underground, "hyperloop" transport
system that would whisk passengers between New York and Washington, D.C.
in a vacuum tube.
Startup Hyperloop One is developing a vacuum tube transport system.
[to top of second column] |
![](../images/082317pics/busine59.jpg)
An Amtrak passenger train sits in New York City's Pennsylvania
Station, U.S. April 27, 2017. REUTERS/Mike Segar
![](http://archives.lincolndailynews.com/2017/Aug/23/images/ads/current/graue_17_cruze_080717.png)
"The attention being given to the Hyperloop stems from a yearning by travelers
for something new and different at a time when improvements to intercity ground
travel seem to be stuck in low gear," said Joseph Schwieterman, one of the
authors of the DePaul study.
A family of three traveling between Detroit and Cleveland, for example, now has
a choice between driving or paying more than $1,000 for airfare purchased two
weeks in advance, the study found. Express coach bus service would cost about
$120 to $180, the study found.
Ridership and revenue on Amtrak and bus services such as Megabus and BoltBus has
declined since 2015, roughly tracking a decline in U.S. gasoline prices,
according to data compiled by the Chaddick Institute researchers.
Intercity bus traffic in the United States fell 8 percent in the first half of
2017, following a 1.3 percent decline for all of 2016, the study's authors
estimated.
(Reporting By Joe White; Editing by Nick Zieminski)
[© 2017 Thomson Reuters. All rights
reserved.] Copyright 2017 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
![](http://archives.lincolndailynews.com/2016/Aug/26/images/ads/current/napa_bch1-3108.png) |