Took a Chinatown Bus from NY to DC Sunday night. It wasn't too bad. While on the bus, I over heard the bus driver and the ticket collector talk about the load factor between NYC and DC and cost of fuel and such. They were discussing that on average they get about 20 people per trip, and that they add exactly 150 dollar worth of gas in the tank for the round trip between NY and DC.
So we have 20 people * $20 per ticket (forget the $35 dollar round trip discount) - $75 gas - 25 dollars in tolls (est.) = 300 dollars or about 600 dollars for a round trip. This is before the bus driver cost, insurance (if they actually carry any), bus maintance, lodging fee if the bus driver stays over night. Lets say they clear 250 a trip, and they run 4 round trips a day, $1000 a day, $7000 a week, $3000 a month , $365,000 a year. Hmmm, it isn't a bad business at all. It seems to be a better business model than opening a bubble teashop.
Anyway, the bus driver drops us off at K and 14th street around 11pm. It isn't even close to Chinatown as I find out later . I noticed there is another Dragon Coach bus that has been parked there. I guess the lodging place they use is near by. I get off the bus and assume that Chinatown is on H and 14th that start walking that direction. [Chinatown is actually located at H and 7th] Anyway, to make the long story short, I get lost for a bit looking for the closest Metro station, found out where you can pick up prostitutes (J and 13 in front of the PWC building) and found people suspicious of you when you try to ask them a question around midnight. I did finally find a Metro station at McPherson Square.
Two links below, IvyMedia gives you the schedule of all the Chinatown buses for both the East and West Coast. It quite usefully. There buses that run to/from Rockville. I'll probably start taking those instead going all the way into DC Chinatown. The other is a Chinatown Bus Blog. Found it funny that bus company has a blog.
IvyMedia
Chinatown Bus Blog
