The Megabus fiasco

It’s just about 10:30 p.m. Eastern time, and I should be in Ann Arbor by now. I should be, but I’m not. Instead I’m in Indiana, cruising along I-94 on a Megabus that’s four hours late.

I’ll blame the snow for some of it. It was the snow that slowed the bus to a crawl as it chugged from the South Side depot to Union Station to pick us up. By the time we departed, we were already two hours behind schedule. The snow caused major traffic issues, trapping us on the highway on-ramp for fifteen minutes with hundreds of slow-moving cars. The snow doubled the normal drive time from downtown to the Skyway, outside the city. It was 8 or so, Central time, when we finally got to the tollbooth, and we should have been far into Michigan. A pox upon the snow.

As for the other problems, I am not sure whom to blame.

First, the cold. We drove for an hour (maybe more), but the bus never quite got warm.

OK, that’s an understatement. An hour in, I still wore my full winter jacket, plus scarf and hat, with an extra jacket used as a blanket for my legs. And I was still shivering. And I think the air conditioning was on. At the very least, the heat was busted.

Second, the Wifi. I don’t know how, but the Megabus has Wifi. That’s how I’m blogging while traversing Indiana. Also how I’m downloading yesterday’s episode of Heroes off iTunes to watch after I tire of blogging. Wifi is one major perk offered the Megabus.

Or, it should be. But 20 minutes into the trip, the Wifi went kaput. Minor inconvenience, but still. I like my Internet. I whine a lot when it dies on me.

Third, the leak. Just before the Skyway tollbooth, the guy behind me started yelling in Spanish that he was covered in agua. I assumed he’d spilled on himself, but no. This agua was from the outside, it turned out. Cold agua, because the Megabus had a leak in its roof.

Yes, an actual leak. Poor guy sitting behind me. As if he weren’t cold enough without melted snow dripping on him through the hole in the roof of our shoddy, POS bus.

In sum, the Megabus was unsafe for interstate travel. The driver came on the PA system and announced as much. We were experiencing “problems” and “had to return to Chicago” to get a “different” bus.

Heh. Awesome. We drove back into the city, not all the way downtown, but about halfway there. Then we boarded our new bus and set off into more snow and traffic. That added another hour. Combine snow, traffic and bus problems, and I’ll be in Ann Arbor around 3 a.m. Barring tragedy or another leak, of course.

How a bus could make it out of the depot with no heat and a leaky roof is beyond me. The situation calls for targeted anger and a full refund (later), as well as patience and a sense of humor (now). And a nap (near future, after the rest stop).

To Megabus’ credit, the employees have all been super-friendly and funny throughout the fiasco. But yeesh! I want my four hours back!

(P.S. While writing this post, we crossed into Michigan (yay!) and the Internet went kaput again (boo ). So I’m posting from Atlanta, about 36 hours after the Megabus fiasco ended. We got to Ann Arbor at 3:30 a.m. Then I woke up at 7:30 the next morning to drive here with my sister. On the drive, other fiascoes ensued.)

(Also, when I called Megabus today to request a refund, they provided one, no questions asked. Yay for reasonable customer service…)