Today’s Bus

Used to be Apex but I see that Eastern and Apex merged and boy such a great improvement! The seats are comfortable! The smell isn’t as bad! Fast and efficient service! Took the 3pm bus from DC to Philly and the bus driver did a great job of avoiding traffic by taking several detours. I took a nap and woke up and noticed we were in Jersey. I started to panic in my head and think that I got on the wrong bus buuut no… bus driver took the route into Jersey and then took the Ben Franklin bridge from Jersey to Philly, avoiding the heavy traffic of I-​95. Niiiice!

On December 28^th 2009, I bought a round trip ticket from DC to Philly on the APEX/Today’s bus website. It was a freezing cold morning in DC so I was really dismayed at the large crowd of shivering people standing at the bus stop waiting for the 9AM bus. Many people around me had been turned away from their original reservation the evening before and complained through chattering teeth about being treated rudely and denied refunds or even schedule information from APEX employees. The bus finally arrived — over an hour late — and the scowling, shrieking APEX employees herded everyone on board. There was no heat on the bus. Every seat on the bus was occupied and still many people (myself included) wore coats, hats, and gloves all the way to Philadelphia. I consoled myself by recalling that the rt ticket only cost $ 28, and you get what you pay for.
These thoughts didn’t help me that evening when I arrived at the Philly APEX Bus station for my return to DC and found that the last bus to DC had departed 20 minutes earlier than the scheduled time printed on my e-​ticket! The surly APEX employee (–not surprisingly– behind bullet-​proof glass) in the office shouted at me that I was mistaken about the time and that there must be something wrong with my computer. She refused to give me a refund, telling me I should «Come back in the morning». No one even answered the APEX BUS «customer service» line. I don’t live in Philadelphia and was forced to spend another $ 33 to get back to DC on the Greyhound Bus.
Yes, you do get what you pay for and when you patronize APEX, you’re paying for abysmal customer service, substandard, uncomfortable buses, and the real possibility of being stranded far from home.
Save your money.

I paid to take this bus roundtrip from DC-​Philly. My review would have been higher b/​c the bus was clean and the ride was pleasant on the one-​half of my round trip going up. Going back was another story. I got there early to get the 6:30 which was the last bus back, they said the bus would be «at least 2 hours late» but to check back in an hour and they had us line up to get a number (no idea what for) and to let them know if we wanted a refund or not. Well all they have is a big room with a few raggedy folding chairs and torn up carpet on the floor, with bad ambience and limited seating. They gave some people their number to call back while they were in the line, but not to me, and I couldn’t hear when they gave it out, but I assumed the number on the wall was theirs so I’d put that into my phone. Since it is tba when the bus will arrive I went to a bar around the corner where I could sit. Tried their listed number but it didn’t work. So I had to walk back there at at 7:15, they said maybe 8 check back then and they gave me the number. My stuff was still at the bar b/​c I didn’t want to drag everything back just to turn around again, so I asked for their number. I call at 7:50, no answer at all, so I close my check and walk back, and it is just about 8. As I approach, I see a bus at the light. I should have banged on the door to ask if it was mine, but I knew their were lots of buses in the area, and didn’t, so I went to the bus’ store front. No one there. I try to chase the bus that just rounded the corner for about 4 blocks, no luck. Go back to the bus store front, no one there, it is now 8:18, I wait for another 10 minutes and the guy says he told me a 8 (he said to call b/​c they weren’t sure what time the bus would arrive due to traffic) but I can get a refund in 21 days. I am PISSED. Go to another chinatown bus place around the corner they have nothing until Monday. So I have to go to Greyhound, spend the equivalent of my whole chinatown round trip bus ticket to get to DC one-​way. Have to wait until 10 pm and then I sit next to a smelly teen all the way to Wilmington, DE then I get a seat to myself that smelled like urine until B-​more and then from B-​more to DC I got a non smelly seat. I had to walk to my car which was parked in Chinatown from Greyhound near Union station to my car in the rain with no umbrella. I won’t be doing the Chinatown bus again anytime soon and if the bus is late I’m going to just stand there in their crappy room and wait the 1 – 2 however many hours it is late, plus I won’t take the last bus but a mid-​day bus with at least 2 or 3 buses after it just in case. So I am not a happy camper. If I split the experience in half, I’d say 3 stars for up and 1 for going back.

I travel fairly often to Philly and New York to visit college friends, and unfortunately I have yet to find a satisfactory bus to get me there. Last time I went up to NYC I chose Today’s Bus because they are cheap and the website said there are bathrooms on the bus. I purchased round-​trip e-​tickets for a total of $ 35 plus a small service fee. The tickets said the trip would be 4 hours long. I thought this was a bit optimistic given traffic, but this is a bus company, so I trusted their information to be correct. Sadly, I was wrong. We arrived in NYC an hour and a half late on a Friday night. During the trip, the bus experienced engine problems and the driver had to stop at a service station, yet not one announcement was made about the delay or what time we could expect to arrive. Then on my return trip, I had to wait in a line of about 100 people to get on the bus. Customers with e-​tickets are supposed to have guaranteed seating, but many of us were turned away from the bus and we were told we would have to wait another half hour for the next bus. (Some people who did not have e-​tickets had been waiting up to 3 hours and had been turned away from multiple previous full buses.) The bus left late because of the chaos of people trying to get on. After about 20 minutes, a different Today’s Bus headed for Richmond let some of us on. This bus also arrived late in DC– about 45 minutes late– although this time we did not stop with mechanical difficulties. The only good thing is that there was a bathroom, otherwise I would not have been able to handle the long hours on the bus. If you want a guaranteed spot and you care about getting to your destination on time, DO NOT take one of these buses!!!

Recently merged with Eastern & Apex. Has had consistently crappy service. Old, dirty buses. Continues to be that way. If you have low expectations, then they will meet them.
Last night, went to catch the 9pm bus from DC. Apparently the 7pm didn’t show, so the 9pm was overbooked. At least twelve passengers with tickets got left behind. At 9:30 another bus came, this bus was almost full. At this point people attempted to buy tickets. The guy kept saying that the bus was full, even though I could see at least 6 seats. There were at least two people still waiting from the 7pm bus that never showed. The bus left with six empty seats.
This place is cheap, but use it at your own risk.

Ever wanted to be part of an unorganized throng of transient people on the side of a road? Usually there is a sidewalk, but in Baltimore there is but a grassy knoll near the Greyhound station. Recently I felt like I was part of a surreal art project when, in Philly, I followed the DC-​bound crowd to an empty parking lot around the corner from the office. We faced south and just waited.
Round-​trip ticket from DC to Philly and back is $ 28, and roundtrip from DC to NYC is $ 35. Given rising gas prices, I can only see the seats here filling up faster than before. Book your tickets online if you can. Those seats were prioritized over ones purchased in-​person, on the last Philly-​DC trip I took. Also, bring toilet paper just in case the latrine runs out of it.
I once sat next to someone who was using free wireless internet on their laptop during the whole ride.
Boarding this bus reminds me of what a refugee/​evacuation effort might be like, because the crowd to get on can be a bit confused and chaotic. But at the same time, it’s also a bunch of laidback budget travelers trying to get to their next station in life. Today’s Bus is an efficient way to hurtle up and down I-​95.
Competitors include New Century Travel, MVP, Washington Deluxe, and Apex buses.

Today’s Bus has yesterday’s prices to get from DC to NYC! You’ll be surrounded by more college kids than the Dave Matthews Band in concert, but man, what a cheap way to go to NYC. I think I went for $ 18 each way. The bus is a Chinatown connector — DC — Philly, Wilmington — NYC, and maybe a couple other ones while I was asleep. The website claims plush seats; like I can claim my Honda Civic is a luxury sedan! But actually, the bus was clean and the ride was fine.
The trickier part is getting back from NYC. There are literally stacks of identical buses all parked in the bedlam of NYC’s Chinatown, and you have to somehow decipher which bus will get you back to Chinatown DC. It was like someone just kicked over a rotting log and all the bugs and insects were shocked by the light, streaming this way and that. If you can manage to find the right bus (get there early) and get a seat, you’re good to go and can’t beat the deal!