MegaBus will start offering $1.50-$15.00 fares from San Diego to LA fare will vary depending how far in advance you reserve this service will start in Aug 07

I think it is $1.00. Not that the fifty cents matters that much, but it could be an interesting way to get to LAX from SAN.

The fares are $1 plus $0.50 per-transaction reservation fee. Megabus.com is also now offering similarly low fares between Los Angeles and Oakland, San Francisco, San Jose, and Tempe.

This expansion in service snuck up on me. :p
I've rode Megabus from Chicago to Saint Louis, Minneapolis, Milwaukee, and a couple of times to Cleveland. The last time coming back from Cleveland was Sunday, 1 April, which was when it expanded its service to Pittsburgh and Kansas City.
The fare is unbeatable. If there is anything I would warn prospective riders about - it's that the lavatory on the motor coach doesn't seem to have a wash basin. So, do not get too filthy.
The coach will make a stop somewhere en route. From Chicago to Minneapolis, it's a rest stop in Osseo, WI. on US 10 & I-94 [Exit #88]. From Chicago to Saint Louis, in Bloomington, IL. on SR 9 & I-55 [Exit #160]. From Chicago to Cleveland, in Toledo, OH. on US 20 north of I-90 [Ohio Turnpike Exit #59].
You can register with it if you want it to save some of your identifying data. It does not ask you for a credit card.
The route from Los Angeles to San Diego looks ok on the Los Angeles terminus; but the route number of the San Diego Transit bus to which it refers [#965] sounds like a part-time only route; so how you would get to your precise destination in San Diego seems queasy. :eek:

The route from Los Angeles to San Diego looks ok on the Los Angeles terminus; but the route number of the San Diego Transit bus to which it refers [#965] sounds like a part-time only route; so how you would get to your precise destination in San Diego seems queasy. :eek:

The MTS 965 route seems to run 5am-9pm on weekdays and 7am-7pm on weekends. Outside these times, Google Transit suggests walking a mile north to Home Ave and Fairmont to catch the MTS 13 bus, which runs until midnight on weekdays and 11pm on weekends. Thus, only the 11:30pm weekend arrival is particularly worrisome, but in general transit on arrival should be planned in advance.

it does NOT go from LAX or San Diego airport

It goes from Union Station , Downtown LA , a very very bad area, skid row

to San Diego (I do not know what kind of area, (

All I can say is you barely want to be near Union Station in the daytime , and never at night unless you are out looking to buy drugs...

Rally

it does NOT go from LAX or San Diego airport

It goes from Union Station , Downtown LA , a very very bad area, skid row

to San Diego (I do not know what kind of area, (

All I can say is you barely want to be near Union Station in the daytime , and never at night unless you are out looking to buy drugs...

Rally:

Have you even BEEN to Union Station?
I'm guessing you live in some gated pasty-white-bread suburb...
And don't know downtown LA worth a damn.

Union Station is no more "a very very bad area, skid row" like you claim than it is Brentwood. The grounds (including the parking lot) are patroled 24/7 by transit cops and I've personally see vagrants run off if they were looking to set up camp or panhandle. Moreover, you can reach Patsouris bus plaza where the Megabus departs from via MTA bus, light rail, Metrolink or Amtrak if you prefer not drive there. Yes, it's a bit seedier than LAX. But if you want to see a skid row terminal....that's LA's downtown Greyhound Station at 649 S WALL ST. almost two miles away. (although to be fair, skidrow probably starts only a mile SSW from Union Station on the other side of the freeway).

While I'd not recommend single women or youth wandering off the station grounds after dark, I've strolled from the Red Line terminal to Phillipe's or the dim sum shops of Chinatown at 10 p.m. to get a late snack with a group of friends w/o a care.

Edited to add: And of course,the Downtown LAX FlyAway bus drops off at Union Staion's bus plaza as well... $4.00 from downtown to LAX 24/7, at least once an hour (2-4X more during daylight hours).

Union Station is no more "a very very bad area, skid row" like you claim than it is Brentwood.

Um, been to both, and Union Station is not exactly Brentwood ... :rolleyes: Still, walked around at night and it was sort of OK.

Mod hat ON.

Let's not get personal here :td:

Some people may take it in stride (I would), but I can also see where someone may consider "in some gated pasty-white-bread suburb..." to be a personal attack, something that is of course against FT's code of conduct.

This is a wonderful thread, let's keep it civil.

EmailKid
Budget Travel Moderator

it does NOT go from LAX or San Diego airport
It goes from Union Station , Downtown LA , a very very bad area, skid row

I think you're getting Union Station confused with the Greyhound Station. Union Station is in a fairly nice area of downtown LA, and as mlshanks noted very easy to get to. The Greyhound Station is in skid row, which is much less nice and much harder to get to. This makes Megabus a much more attractive option than the (more expensive) Greyhound bus.

The fact that the bus does not go to the airports is a GOOD thing, as it means door-to-door time and cost is greatly decreased by not having to get another bus all the way out to the airport.

OK.....yes I am lilly white....

now would you send your mother to this area of Downtown LA ?
maybe she misses her commection and is stuck there for hours or overnight !

Would you send a first time visitor to this area of Downtown ?

Its a nasty area, you can paint it up to look good , you can have a couple of rent a cops , its still a bad area,

and yes the Greyhound bus area is worse


OK.....if you want to call this "not so bad" thats OK, I would rather have people go there with open eyes,
its not Brentwood !

Rally

PS...I would say the same thing about the LAX Airport area if you go west of the airport on Century,
many of those cheap Airport hotels are in a pretty bad area

Umm, I think you mean east of the airport ;) If you went west, you'd be in the Pacific Ocean :D

Yes I would send loved ones and first time visitors to downtown Los Angeles & Union Square area. It's not Brentwood, but it's not South Central LA either.

We get that you don't consider it safe, but there are a number of us who don't feel that it's as bad as you seem to think it is, and for those reading this thread they should get all perspectives.

Cheers.

I don't hang around Union Station much, but, I do go to Chinatown and the Chandler Pavilion/Disney Hall area which are quite close by. This is not a bad area. Not great, but, not bad.

Maybe like South Wabash in Chicago around Roosevelt.

I know a very attractive lady who take the subway to the Union Station area all the time and doesn't worry about it.

Plus, the famous Philippe's, Home of the French Dip is right next to Union Station! ^ http://www.philippes.com/

FWIW,

saw a two inch ad that ran the whole width of front page of today's San Diego Union Tribune's Quest front page (that would be the one with entertainment, comics and TV stuff). Basically says San Diego to & from: Los Angeles from $1 plus $.50 booking fee. See website.

EmailKid

Plus, the famous Philippe's, Home of the French Dip is right next to Union Station! ^ http://www.philippes.com/
Mmmm, Phillipe's.... :)

To add context to the thread beyond my sudden hunger for a lamb dip w/blue cheese, I am surprised that there is not an intermediate stop someplace between LA and SD, especially if the SD stop is out of the way in terms of connections to public transit.

I drive by the Chicago Union Station Metrobus stop on my way to work and often pass by it as the people waiting for the 9am Chicago-Milwaukee-Minneapolis bus is starting to queue up. I have NEVER seen it not be jam-packed full.

I was curious about the $1.50 fare... so I looked up LA-SD-LA for two different sets of dates. To leave LA tomorrow and return on Friday, you're looking at $15/seat each way for any bus plus the fee, so $31 RT. To leave LA a week from today and return a week from tomorrow, the RT fare ranged from $9-$14. Going out another week, it was $3-$7.

I'll be interested to see if they set up a hub in the Bay Area, perhaps at the West Oakland BART stop.

now would you send your mother to this area of Downtown LA ?
maybe she misses her commection and is stuck there for hours or overnight !

Would you send a first time visitor to this area of Downtown ?

Mom would pick me up/drop me off at Union station on Amtrak, and occasionally we'd do lunch/dinner in China town... So the answer is yes.

Any visitor with enough sense to be trusted to travel outside of a package tour should be able to cope with Union Station! My 19 y.o. female niece will be transiting Union station solo next week, changing from Amtrak to a MTA bus for a trip out to UCLA. Again, no worries, she'll be in the station for the whole of the change.

And how in the world do you get "stuck there for hours or overnight?"
Megabus's last trip leaves at 11pm...

Which is well before the last MTA bus or light rail trip of the evening. Or the last Amtrak train of the evening. And I'd mention the last FlyAway bus...but they run 24/7...so if you're too worried to be downtown, you can pop on a bus and be at LAX in 30 minutes.

A quick on the San Diego pickup/dropoff location from the Megabus website:

Due to operational reasons Megabus has relocated the San Diego pick up and departure location to the Five Star Parking Lot. This is located on the east side of 13th Street between G Street and Market Street. Parking is available for a fee. The San Diego Metropolitan Transit System Park and Market Station is one block southwest of this location. Megabus.com apologizes for the short notice of this change.

This looks like a very positive change, as this is a block away from the Park/Market Trolley Station and many major bus routes that run late into the night.