The Chicago Sun-Times has a good story about the Megabus.  Megabus is a British company that offers low-priced bus service between many midwestern cities with a Chicago hub.  $50 is the HIGHEST price possible for a round-trip between Chicago and Detroit.

Excerpts and link:

Megabus is popular because you can get a one-way ticket for as little as $1.50, depending on when you buy it. The earlier you book, the cheaper the ticket. My $16 round-trip fare was booked three weeks in advance.

Regular Megabus riders point out that classic bus riffraff (think “Midnight Cowboy”) is eliminated because you need to pay by credit card.

No-frills Megabus is cheap because it keeps its expenses low. My bus has six small television screens. None of them is on. There are no Megabus stations. Riders wait on city sidewalks, rain or shine. Megabus is like a B.L.T. sandwich without the tomato.

Chicago food historian Peter Engler has made about 25 round trips on Megabus. Engler, who doesn’t have a car, takes Megabus to sample regional cuisine in Detroit, Milwaukee and Toledo, where he had a “Double Goopie” hamburger at the Green Lantern diner.

“Considering the price, Megabus service is great,” he said. “On my second trip ever the bus caught on fire before they let people on. It was right outside Union Station. There weren’t any flames, but the fire department came and sprayed foam all over the back. The bus actually drove away and they had another bus there within 15 minutes. It still got into Milwaukee on time. That impressed me.”

“We’re at triple-digit growth,” Moser said. He said $50 is the most you can pay for a round-trip ticket between Chicago and Detroit; $24 is the highest price between Chicago and Milwaukee.

http://www.suntimes.com/lifestyles/hoekstra/1029985,TRA-News-Detours29.article

Megabus link:

http://www.megabus.com/us/schedules/index_midwest.php

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