Tuesday, April 11, 2006
The Mother of all Buses!
I am making this post on a bus traveling up to Cornell University from New York city right now. And it's not just any bus. The seats are genuine leather with a foot rest and lots of leg room, XM Satellite Radio, excellent air-conditioning, a snack bar, on-board wi-fi access (satellite access, i am sure) and AC/DC power sockets on every seat to plug your laptops into. The trip itself ought to take about 4 hours. I don't know because this is the first time I have used the bus. Until now, I've been flying or driving up to Cornell. How much does all of this cost? $150 for the round trip. What is the point I am driving at though?
Well, before you scoff at the 4 hours it takes, let's see what the air travel situation between NYC and Ithaca looks like. The flight itself takes about an hour. The trip from Manhattan to the airport is about an hour. You have to get to the airport at least an hour early to deal with security issues. It takes about 15-30 mins to get from Ithaca airport to the hotel on campus. So, effectively, the gain is about 30-40 mins for traveling by air. And for this small gain, you pay $520 or $370 extra over the bus trip. That's without considering transactions cost issues of worrying about security clearances (no minor nightmare), finding a cab etc.
Most importantly though, the onboard wifi lets you be productive right through the trip, though the cynics among you (fie on you!) will no doubt crib that blogging is not exactly being productive. But I guess you see my point. Now imagine a similar bus service between Bombay-Pune, Bangalore-Madras etc with similar accoutrements, charging a reasonable premium, whatever that may be. I suspect you would do great business with the business crowd by segmenting the market with a premium product like a luxury bus. For that matter, even a train service with excellent on-board facilities, especially productivity enhancers like wi-fi, would do fabulously well, methinks. As for the nausea that visits some of us while doing too many things on a bus, there's always the excellent Dramamine.
Well, before you scoff at the 4 hours it takes, let's see what the air travel situation between NYC and Ithaca looks like. The flight itself takes about an hour. The trip from Manhattan to the airport is about an hour. You have to get to the airport at least an hour early to deal with security issues. It takes about 15-30 mins to get from Ithaca airport to the hotel on campus. So, effectively, the gain is about 30-40 mins for traveling by air. And for this small gain, you pay $520 or $370 extra over the bus trip. That's without considering transactions cost issues of worrying about security clearances (no minor nightmare), finding a cab etc.
Most importantly though, the onboard wifi lets you be productive right through the trip, though the cynics among you (fie on you!) will no doubt crib that blogging is not exactly being productive. But I guess you see my point. Now imagine a similar bus service between Bombay-Pune, Bangalore-Madras etc with similar accoutrements, charging a reasonable premium, whatever that may be. I suspect you would do great business with the business crowd by segmenting the market with a premium product like a luxury bus. For that matter, even a train service with excellent on-board facilities, especially productivity enhancers like wi-fi, would do fabulously well, methinks. As for the nausea that visits some of us while doing too many things on a bus, there's always the excellent Dramamine.
