Chinatown Buses: Getting More Than You Pay For

by David Deutsch

Every time I visit my native East Coast, I am amazed at all the cool stuff I did not take advantage of: I did not visit Ford’s Theatre, never visited Gettysburg (which is only a couple of hours away from the District), and failed to view the U.S. Constitution, even though I worked one Metro stop from the National Archives. I even learned that my tiny hometown of Ringoes, NJ—population 2,000 on a good day—played a small but significant role in the American Revolution.

In addition to various cultural and historical misses, I also failed to take advantage of some of the more colorful transportation options. For instance, on this trip I needed to travel from Washington, D.C. to Philadelphia, about 140 miles, without a rental car. Fortunately, I knew that many bus companies regularly run between D.C., Philadelphia, New York and Boston at very low prices. Since these buses are largely owned and operated by Chinese immigrants and operate between the cities’ respective Chinatowns, they are referred to colloquially as Chinatown Buses.

A company called Fung Wah started operating these buses between New York and Boston in 1998. Originally they shuttled Chinese restaurant employees between major cities, but they quickly expanded to include all kinds of people. Numerous Chinatown companies currently operate between Richmond, Virginia and Boston, and recently some competition came rolling in from companies like Vamoose and Megabus.

The most appealing part of these buses is their cost. A round-trip ride on a standard Chinatown bus between Philadelphia and Washington, D.C. costs a maximum of $30. By comparison, Greyhound charges over $50, where driving costs $13 in tolls alone. Needless to say, this Ancient Chinese Secret didn’t stay secret for long: given their low cost and relatively decent service (more on this later), these Chinatown buses have become quite popular among Asians and non-Asians alike.

I first learned about these buses while working as a Federal transportation auditor. Back in 2005, the Assistant Transportation Secretary—the title is less impressive than it sounds, since he was apparently an inept former Bush administration intern who got a sweet position because he was on the winning team—directed us to research, analyze and file a report on them. I suspect this request came from Greyhound lobbyists who were—and are—trying to re-monopolize the D.C. to Boston bus corridor. From what I recall, the Assistant Secretary’s complaints had some validity, specifically regarding safety. Indeed, at least one Chinatown bus caught fire in the middle of the night on a Connecticut interstate. The buses have also allegedly attracted less-savory characters. For instance, a major player in the Chinatown bus arena, De Jia Chen, was shot and killed in Manhattan in 2003. Some have alleged that this means that Chinatown buses have been taken over by organized crime, although I have not yet seen direct causal evidence supporting this theory, since Chen’s murder could have been linked to non-bus related activities. And although they are alleged to be very unsafe (again, more on this later) the legitimate ones are registered with the Department of Transportation and therefore are subject to the same safety inspections that Greyhound and other bus companies are required to pass.

Safety and organized crime issues aside, how can they offer service between major East Coast cities for so cheap? A few reasons: first, they do not do any significant marketing. Chinese communities tend to be very close-knit and know each others’ business. So marketing can be relatively easy; once a few of them find out about good deals, word tends to travel quickly. Second, these bus companies have very low overhead: they don’t have a CEO or senior executives sucking up massive salaries; terminals are small sitting areas at best, and at worst have a sign sticking out of the Earth near larger bus terminals; and buses are regularly filled to capacity, keeping costs down.

Third, their service can be a tad sketchy, to say the least. So help me God, this is a true story: last week, while traveling from Philadelphia to Washington, D.C. on a Chinatown Bus, we suddenly took a South Philly exit that was clearly not headed toward D.C. The bus pulled into a very sketchy garage-type structure and idled for a while, at which point I was certain we were going to be sold into the black market for cheap labor in North Korea or something. The driver walked to the back of the bus and began knocking furiously on the bathroom door. Unfortunately there was a woman in the bathroom, doing her business. Two minutes later, she knocked again, and the woman finally came out and zipped to the front of the bus, head down, humiliated. The driver then put on rubber gloves, grabbed a scrubber and began furiously cleaning the bathroom, stinking up the bus. Since I was sitting near the bathroom, that experience wasn’t pleasant. Then, after the driver was done cleaning the bathroom, she returned to the driver’s seat and drove the bus under an oversized car wash spray. That wouldn’t have been so bad, except that the air vent directly above us was open, so we got sprayed with soapy water, apparently in an effort to wash us off after the bathroom cleaning. Fortunately we were not sold into the slave trade, and we made it to Baltimore in about an hour, which means we must have been driving at least 80 mph.

At any rate, these buses provide a valuable service to those who want to get out of town without breaking their budgets. They may exceed a speed limit or two, or attempt to sell you into international slave trade, but hey ... you get what you pay for. As for my first experience with Chinatown buses, I got a whole lot more than I had bargained for, and I get to write a funny story about it. So I guess it’s not all bad.

You can find more information about all kinds of buses, their schedules and their prices at www.gotobus.com.

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