Blue planet, green ideas | “Luxury” coaches to replace the plane

For travelers frustrated with the airline industry’s delays but who hate long-distance travel by traditional coach, American start-ups are now offering another route: luxury buses. Could these coaches soon be rolling on Canadian roads and reducing the carbon footprint of those who normally fly?

Frederik-Xavier Duhamel
The Press

The Jet offers “a first-class travel experience, which combines the luxury and personal space of a private jet with the affordability and convenience of a coach,” its website says.

Its wide seats can recline to 45 degrees and neutralize road vibrations, they say. WiFi and drink service are offered on board, where there are also toilets “meant to look more like those of a luxury hotel than those of a coach”. The company sells up to 14 seats per departure, costing US$99 to US$199 (C$135 to C$271) for a one-way trip between New York City and Washington, a journey of approximately 370 km.

Napaway describes itself as “a new type of premium sleeper coach service that offers comfortable and convenient overnight trips” of approximately 12 hours between Nashville, Tennessee, and Washington D.C. starting at $125. US ($170 CAD). Its coaches can accommodate 18 passengers each with two seats, which can be reclined to form a berth. WiFi and a “nap kit” including mask, earplugs and toothbrush, in particular, are offered on board.

Other companies, like Vonlane and Red Coach, offer long trips between cities in Florida or Texas, for example. Their coaches are also equipped with fewer seats than a standard vehicle, but these are wider and can recline more.

Few luxury buses in Canada

“To my knowledge, no carrier fills this niche in Canada,” says Professor Fanny Tremblay-Racicot, urban transportation expert. “Companies like Intercar, Orléans and Megabus are pretty conventional and don’t offer an experience that we can call luxurious,” she explains.

The train is more akin to it, but “there are very few connections offered by VIA Rail”, she observes, while “the air service is limited and extremely expensive”.

In this context, luxury coaches “could pick up users who travel by train or plane, in addition to meeting a certain latent demand for this kind of service”, according to Professor Tremblay-Racicot, who teaches at the National School of Public Administration.

“Could certain corridors be profitable [au Canada] ? It is possible, but the American cases show that it is difficult”, she believes.

In fact, there is at least one such carrier in the country, Red Arrow, which offers routes between Calgary, Edmonton and other Alberta cities only. Their coaches have 36 wide reclining seats and they serve snacks and refreshments.

Greener?

More comfortable than the traditional coach and less expensive than the plane, this new offer is also presented as an environmental compromise. “Napaway’s carbon footprint is less than half the flight the same distance in a typical aircraft,” the carrier says on its website.

“It’s pretty well established that an intercity bus is the greenest form of public transportation,” says The Jet’s president and CEO, Rob Thorpe, citing the equivalent of about 1.6 liters of gasoline per passenger per 100 km by bus, compared to 4.7 by train or 5.6 by plane. “With fewer seats than a traditional bus, The Jet cannot claim to be as environmentally friendly as a standard operator,” he concedes, but he nevertheless estimates that he is achieving around 3.4 liters of petrol per 100 km.

“It is necessarily a good thing for the emissions [de gaz à effet de serre]if these buses are full,” confirms energy policy expert and professor at HEC Montréal Pierre-Olivier Pineau.

“It’s an excellent idea and a good approach to making public transit more efficient,” he adds. This would make public transport more attractive for customers who are reluctant to lose the comfort of their vehicle for traditional public transport. »

Can we expect to see this type of service from us soon? “As a start-up just approaching its first anniversary, we know that the next few years will see a regional expansion of our offering in the Northeast Corridor,” said Mr. Thorpe of The Jet. It would be great to offer the service for intercity travel in Canada, and I hope we will achieve that one day. »

Same story on the side of Napaway. “We hope to expand our services in Canada, although there is no specific timeline yet,” says CEO Daniel Aronov. We will probably focus on cross-border routes. »

Intercity bus companies already active in Canada contacted by The Press had not offered answers on this at the time of this writing.