For those fed up with the substandard Peter Pan bus service that monopolizes transportation between the Pioneer Valley and Boston, MA, there is a new charter rideshare service that provides faster and more affordable passenger transportation between Amherst/Northampton and Cambridge/Boston. For just $19.95, those who have long suffered the grueling, lengthy and expensive Peter Pan bus rides now have a long awaited alternative: The Road Rabbit Express.
“In terms of our identity, we wanted to be a somewhat green business,” says Matt Hnatio, the owner of Road Rabbit. “But what we’re also trying to do is offer a more intimate setting where people can meet each other and interact in a friendly way. With smaller vehicles, people are going to be less likely to misbehave and more inclined to socialize.”
Many Mount Holyoke students have complained about the insufficient service the Peter Pan Bus service provides and how expensive it is. Some people feel stuck, as they have no car and no friends to take them into Boston. The only thing they are able to rely on is a semi-functional service that offers little comfort, especially for those leaving or returning from home, long trips or brief agendas based in the Cambridge or Boston area. “The schedule is very limited and they don’t update their schedules online. Once I was at South Station and they told me there was no 4 p.m. bus, although it was listed online,” comments Unika Shrestha ’10.
It is fairly obvious that for a ridiculous $28 few people desire to be passengers on a Peter Pan bus that has hard seats, people constantly talking on cell phones, no free Wi-Fi most of the time, no outlets for charging electronic devices (which seem especially necessary on a three hour ride) and bus drivers who are rarely friendly, sometimes who multitask while driving. According to an article in The Boston Globe dated May 9 2009, a passenger filming a Peter Pan bus driver noticed that he was “…folding and tearing tickets, [with] both hands off the wheel and eyes apparently not aimed at the road [as well as] a cell phone call, even as the driver maintained highway speeds alongside tractor-trailers.” Furthermore, international student Anum Shahid ’10 said, “It takes forever; it’s very slow. I’m a senior and I’ve been taking those buses for four years.” The bus at least offers bathrooms, which she says are “very clean.”
Unlike the Peter Pan Bus, the Road Rabbit Express is a refreshing and comforting experience that I would recommend to all students – especially those who are homesick, new to the area, miss their parents driving them around or are simply in need of a faster means of transportation. Rabbit Express offers small vans or buses that take a maximum of two hours to arrive at either the Pioneer Valley or Cambridge/Boston locations. The van departs from the Amherst Common as well as the Alewife MBTA station in Cambridge. Safety is a priority and the vans are equipped with regulatory state features such as emergency window and door exits and fire extinguishers. Among its major technical features are free wireless internet and charging outlets for electronic devices at each row of seats. Having recently been students, Matt and his business partners know that if you are leaving campus for the weekend you probably have school work on your mind, so they wanted to give passengers the ability to connect to the Internet and not get cut off. Other special features include bicycle transportation at no extra charge since a lot of people seem to have bikes in the area and need a secure, reliable way to transport them.
Matt and his partners started the business back in July after hearing many of their friends from the Pioneer Valley complaining about the lack of transportation options. Matt was an entrepreneur looking for a business opportunity. “In terms of the process of getting a business started we decided to work with a traditional business plan and limit it to one service area,” says Matt. “We built a dynamic financial model and made conservative assumptions of fuel mileage and wages.” Eventually the numbers looked good, and “that’s what really pushed me to go ahead and start up capital.”
After four round trips on the Rabbit Express, I can confidently and enthusiastically say that I was more than satisfied. In fact, I was thrilled to finally have a relaxing environment where I could sit back and enjoy my car rides to and from the Pioneer Valley.
http://www.roadrabbit.com
Related posts:
- Make your own sandwich, Peter Griffin
- Students navigate networking
- Australian Philosopher Peter Singer discusses food and global poverty
- On the road with alumnae
- Celtic beats: Zoe Darrow and the Fiddleheads
anyone know what happened to road rabbit?