September 29, 2003 -- High-speed Internet access. An attentive stewardess. All-leather seats so long that you could stretch out a python in one of them. This is a bus?
In possibly the most brilliantly perverse new travel idea of the year, Scottish businessman Fergus McCann is launching a luxury "liner" service (don't call it a bus, he says -- but we will) from New York to Boston. One-way rides on LimoLiner (www.limoliner.com) will cost $69, with four departures per day and a four-hour ride between the cities. Service starts Oct. 1.
We spent time in a LimoLiner bus last week, and you've never seen a bus like this. A cheerful stewardess, formerly a Delta Airlines flight attendant, greeted us onboard and showed us around. She serves non-alcoholic drinks and snacks (prepared by a Boston deli) during the ride, and sets the various satellite TV and radio stations for the trip.
The 28 all-leather seats have 41-inch pitch, in a two-and-one configuration, so if you don't want to sit next to anyone, you don't have to. The bus is divided into two compartments: the back room, with ten seats, is a "quiet zone" for cell-phone-free travel. (The front area, presumably, is cell-phone-ful.) You can book specific seats online, with an airline-style seat map.
Each seat is equipped with high-speed wired and wireless Internet access and power ports. There's a video screen for every five seats or so: in each 'quadrant,' passengers can agree on watching a DVD movie or a wide range of satellite TV channels. Audio ports at each seat take standard headphones and let you listen to one of five channels picked for each ride from XM Satellite Radio's portfolio; yes, you can make requests if you have a favorite channel.
The LimoLiner won't go anywhere near New York's Port Authority Bus Terminal; the grimy PABT would be the kiss of death to any kind of luxury journey. Instead, the buses will pick up and drop off passengers at Hilton hotels in midtown Manhattan and central Boston.
The Official Line on LimoLiner
The concept of luxury buses isn't new. Many other countries have clean, speedy and comfortable bus services, but the misery of Greyhound has poisoned bus travel in Americans' minds. One company, ExecConnect, tried to introduce a luxury bus service between Pittsburgh and Cleveland in 2002, but that firm has since vanished without a trace.
McCann says LimoLiner is trying to play on business travelers' aggravation with airport security hassles and with Amtrak's pathetic on-time performance over the past year. Drivers can dodge traffic by taking alternate routes and even arranging alternate transportation when necessary, McCann says. That's flexibility that airlines and Amtrak can't or won't provide.
The $69 fare makes LimoLiner a little more expensive than a standard Amtrak train ($64), but cheaper than Acela or most airline shuttle tickets. Greyhound (at $42) and the Chinatown buses (at $10-15) are much cheaper, but most business travelers wouldn't be caught dead on those.
LimoLiner's big seats, power ports and Internet access turn travel time into "billable time" that's more productive than time spent on a plane or a train, McCann says. We agree.
LimoLiner looks like a fun and productive, if costly way to get between New York and Boston. In one of the nation's most heavily-traveled corridors, it may just catch on with business travelers who'd rather surf the Web than ride the rails.
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