Innovation brings emulation
IT USED to be that you had to venture below the grime-caked pylons of the Manhattan Bridge, to a scene more reminiscent of Luoyang than of the Lower East Side, in order to catch a cheap bus ride between New York and Washington, DC. Even now at the intersection of East Broadway and Forsyth St, ticket hawkers scream out destinations in thick Cantonese accents棑DC, DC, DC!� 揚hilly, Philly!敆and grab the arms of passers-by toting luggage. Loading queues often disintegrate into a Hobbesian struggle to nab untaken seats.
Despite all this, the business is a model of thrift and ingenuity, revolutionising travel in the north-east by selling tickets between its big cities for as little as $12. In a testament to the power of the invisible hand, the rough-and-tumble success of the Chinese bus lines is attracting new competitors, and the industry is becoming less dodgy in the process.
The Chinatown bus business developed in the 1990s to offer recent immigrants an inexpensive van ride around town and, later on, between cities. By the end of the decade, the Fung Wah bus company had begun shuttling college students and other cash-strapped Americans between New York's Chinatown and Boston's for $10 each way.
Competition soon became so intense that it prompted the 2004 揵us wars� in New York's Chinatown, in which buses were rammed and torched and a decapitated torso was left near a passenger loading zone. Spotty safety records梚n 2005 one Chinatown bus caught fire on the road梐nd reports of drivers working excessive hours also raised concerns about safety. But with prices so low, the buses still left packed.
Greyhound, America's biggest passenger bus line, dropped its prices, offering a name-brand alternative to the Chinatown coaches. Dozens of new competitors also emerged. Hasidic Jews from Brooklyn founded the Washington Deluxe and Vamoose Bus. Most recently, a Marriott executive founded DC2NY, a service between Washington and New York that guarantees customers seats if booked online and charges only slightly more than the Chinatown buses (a $40 round-trip versus $35). It also offers free bottles of water and Wi-Fi internet access. The 搇uxury� bus carrier has more than doubled its operation since its inaugural trip this summer. Watch as its older rivals start copying its perks.
|
|