The New York City Traveler

I am always up for adventure in my life. Cliff diving in Mexico, swimming with sharks in Thailand, taking a shoddy ferry across a very turbulent Strait of Gibraltar from Spain to Morocco, and so many more questionable things that I shouldn’t share because my mother reads this site. Last week I decided to let my adventurous streak continue and forgo the Delta Shuttle and the high-speed Amtrak and instead hop the the well-known Chinatown bus from New York to Boston.

Fung Wah Transportation Inc. is the original Chinatown bus service. Founded in 1997, Fung Wah was originally a dollar van transport service for Chinese workers between Brooklyn and the Manhattan’s Chinatown. More than 10 years later, the service has expanded and now offers hourly departures between Manhattan’s Chinatown to Boston’s South Station on new 60 passenger buses.

I had first heard of the “Chinatown Bus” in 2001, a good friend that was a student at Boston University used the service to visit family during weekends in New York. I remember his stories of being the only non-Chinese passenger on the bus, the crazy rides, and the fare being a meager $5.

Since then, much has changed for the famous Chinatown bus lines. There are now a handful of companies that offer service from all parts of New England and the Mid-Atlantic and Chinese are no longer the only passengers onboard. Now the buses are full of hipsters, indie rock bands, and budget travelers. Half the time the only Chinese person onboard is the driver himself.

Recently, the Fung Wah bus has made the headlines of local and national news– too bad the headline of “Riders Flee Bus Fire on NYC Run” isn’t exactly the most desirable. The Chinatown buses have a poor safety record and are constantly in the news due to their incidents and accidents on the interstate. In 2005 a Fung Wah bus had to be evacuated due to a fire in the wheel well. In 2006, another Fung Wah rolled over causing 34 injuries. And 2007 was a particularly harsh year for the company when, in three separate incidence, a bus lost its wheels, a driver lost control in a winter storm, and a driver high-centered a bus at a toll booth on the Mass Pike.

Despite the warnings of the media and of my several friends, I made my way from my Downtown Manhattan digs crosstown to Chinatown for my first Fung Wah experience.

Check out my pro and con list that I put together, see more photos of the bus, and hear my personal experience after the jump…

Pros:

• Cheap. Though it’s not $5 like when it started it is still a bargain at $15 one way.
• Convenience. You don’t have to battle to get to a transportation hub like Port Authority, Penn Station, or LaGuardia Airport.

Cons:

• Safety record. At least five major incidence in the last three years and showing no real signs of getting any safer.
• Traffic. I left on the 12 noon bus so I missed all of the traffic on the bridges and parkways. The NYC-Boston trip could take up to six hours in times of peak traffic or poor driving conditions.

In my personal experience, the trip on Fung Wah was relatively convenient and uneventful. I did begin to worry a bit as I got on the bus and saw there were bright orange plastic bags hanging from each seat. The last time I saw that I was on bumpy 4-hour journey through the mountains of Vietnam and 90% of the bus was “loosing” their lunch into the bags. And there was one point during the journey when I panicked because the bus got really hot inside, really fast. I wasn’t the only one with visible nervousness, there were other passengers that looked a worried as well. The driver quickly turned on the a/c which seemed to solve the problem.

The jury is still out as to if I would ever take the bus again. Though it is nice to know that we have another transportation option in the New York area. I will say that when it was time to return to New York… I took a plane.

Bus Station Locations: Chinatown-New York, 139 Canal Street (map); South Station-Boston, 700 Atlantic Avenue (map)

Getting There: New York: B, D to Grand Street, J, M, Z, to Canal Street, 6 to Canal Street, N, Q, R, W to Canal Street. Boston: Red “T” line to South Station

Hours: Nearly hourly service on most days between 7am until 11pm. Early morning departure of 2am on Mondays and Tuesdays only. Service every 30 minutes every holiday. Click here for schedule information.

Cost: $15 each way. May be purchased at the station or online.

Photo credit: personal collection

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