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A Trip to N.Y. for the Price Of a Trip to the Soda Machine 

Bolt Bus is an effort by the folks at Greyhound to come to terms with the newly competitive nature of the East Coast intercity bus business. Ever since the various Chinatown bus services arrived on the scene a few years ago, the Big Dog has been left to chase his own tail. Everything the hound did, the Chinatown buses (they started out as a service run by Chinese immigrants for their compatriots in New York's Chinatown) did better: The upstarts were cheaper, faster, more flexible . . .

The Big Dog tried to fight back by noting that some of the upstarts had been the subject of government complaints about their safety. But riders like me didn't care. We preferred to take our chances on the cheap trip, even if some drivers seemed more interested in smoking, eating and chatting while they operated the bus. . . .

Given the price of gas and tolls, not to mention insurance and taxes, these companies can't offer these bargain-basement fares for long, so grab them now. You can always go back to the seething, cursing, wild-driving, smoking Chinatown drivers; those trips get you there for next to nothing, but they feel as cheap as they are.

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