Going My Way for $15

If a bus leaves NY bound for Boston traveling at 60 MPH, takes an exit turn off the highway at an extensive speed, how long will it take before it reaches Boston? Never, if it's a bus from the infamous Fung Wah. In the news yesterday, a Fung Wah bus bound for Boston took the exit for Route 12 too quickly and flipped on its side. Fortunately none of the 57 passengers was seriously injured, although 33 were admitted to a nearby hospital for minor cuts and bruises.

I recently returned from Boston riding one of these buses. The last time I rode one of these $15 coaches, it was a hush-hush operation, where you boarded the bus under the Manhattan bridge. A vendor would tackle anyone on the block with a bag, inquiring if they wanted to go to Boston, DC, Philly, or any other numerous cities. "Uh... I'm going to visit my mom, and this bag I'm carrying is a cup of coffee and a snack. But maybe I'll consider leaving the state if you keep asking me to. Now back off before I accidentally spill this hot coffee on you." Once boarding the bus, which sometimes was standing room only (yes, for $15, you do have the luxury of standing for the 4 hour ride), you would likely be surrounded by questionable characters and very loud cell phone conversations and people coughing. Once the ride was over, you would be dropped off in a notorious Asian gang-strewn area outside Boston's Chinatown, affectionately dubbed "The Combat Zone." From there, you're on your own to get to wherever you need to get to. Good luck blending in with your big overnight backpack and the disheveled just-came-off-the-Chinatown-bus look.

Nowadays, highly visible Fung Wah employees are wearing fancy maroon embroidered Polo shirts, encouraging orderly lines and selling tickets from their well-marked booth off the mouth of the Manhattan Bridge. The bus is till as crowded, but the passenger manifest now consists of students and tourists, readily willing to spend $15 to go back to school or see the sights. We pulled into Boston not in the outskirts of Chinatown, but now in brightly lit South Station (like Port Authority, but cleaner and with better food). They even have their own stand inside, and make announcements over the station loud speaker in a Chinese accent. I was so proud to see little Fung Wah so grown up.

Before this bus company gets a really bad rap, consider that a bus leaves NY to Boston probably every hour from 7 AM to 11 PM, almost twenty times a day, which during one week, is about 140 times. The last time a major accident was reported with this bus line was last August, when a bus was engulfed with flames. Don't be so dramatic... nobody was hurt either, and that was over 7,000 bus trips ago! I still think this bus is pretty darn safe, and what are you people complaining about for $15 a trip?