The Chinatown bus from Boston to New York, at $15, is a great deal. However, a frustrating amount of time is spent driving through traffic congestion in one or both cities. Rail travel, because of a dedicated line, does not suffer (so much) from traffic congestion. Thus, imagine a bus service between the two cities, or between any two major cities, which goes from outskirts to outskirts, picking up and dropping off from points which may be reached by rail mass transit in both cities. For Boston, this might be a commuter rail station (Grafton?) ; for New York, a Metro North station (Naugatuck?).
Unfortunately, there are two problems with this: time and price. Because mass transit takes many stops, it may in fact take more time even than inching along a traffic jammed highway. The cost of commuter rail from South Station to Grafton is $7.75, and Metro North from Grand Central to Naugatuck is $11.88 to $23 depending on peak/offpeak and on-board/web-fare. Although the outskirts connecting bus needs to offer less mileage, this already exceeds the bus downtown to downtown cost of $15.
Something is wrong. Steel on steel has lower friction than rubber on pavement. It might be because public transit is granted a monopoly, while buses have to compete with each other.
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