Association Events

I recently read an article in The Washington Post about the resurgence of bus travel. Once written off as unsafe, unsanitary and basically unappealing, bus travel is making a comeback. After all, it's affordable, eco-friendly and convenient—it's much easier to hop on a bus than navigate through airport check-in and security with your one bag and mini shampoo bottles.

In fact, the American Bus Association reports that nationwide, ridership rose by 20 percent between 2005 and 2007 up to 751 million passenger trips.

"We move about the same numbers as domestic [air] carriers each year and more people in two weeks than Amtrak does all year," ABA spokesman Eron Shosteck told The Post. "This is Transportation 2.0."

Travelers looking for bus transportation in Washington, DC can find a number of companies from which to choose. BoltBus, for example, travels to New York City from DC for—get this—as a little as $1 if you book far enough in advance. Compare that to airplane tickets for $60 and up (one-way) and Amtrak tickets starting at $49 (one-way) from the same date—both of which I checked today as a comparison—and it looks like some pretty affordable DC to New York transportation.

So this story got me thinking. With meeting and event planners trying to save money any way they can, is bus transportation becoming more of a realistic option for events? Whether recommending that your attendees travel via bus, or scheduling a charter (BoltBus offers this as an option), it seems like the right time to get back on the bus.

What do you think? Would you give it a try for your next out-of-town conference, or is it too much hassle to try to get past bus travel's less-then-stellar (though often undeserved) reputation?