Bolt Bus

Growing up in HRVA, I honestly had no idea how close NYC is to Philadelphia until my friend explained it to me this past summer; it’s about the distance from Norfolk to Richmond (An hour and a half to two hours depending on traffic.) and once I heard there was a bus service that takes you straight between the two cities round trip for only $ 12, I had to check it out.
Now the bus was a little late at both the Philly pick up to NY and the NY pick up back to Philly, but I appreciate this because traffic in both areas were very heavy so it gave a chance for stragglers to get on the bus without having to worry about their money being wasted. Our über almost had us there late, so I know the people who arrived late because of the traffic were relieved.
The bus itself was not bad at all, pretty comfy seats, outlets, and wi-​fi. What I appreciated the most is that the back of the bus didn’t have that nasty smell that a lot of public transport buses have. After listening to a few songs and a quick nap we were at our destination safe and sound. I totally recommend the Bolt Bus. It really came in handy during my travels this past summer.

I’ve taken the bolt bus a total of 3 times. Once from DC to New York one way, the other from New York to DC and back.
You definitely get what you pay for here. Crappy worn out seats, and the general population that take these busses are not great. Guy in front of us blasting hip hop so loud on his headphones, I’m surprised his ears weren’t bleeding.
Driver made a pit stop to get out and smoke, even though it was supposed to be nonstop.
Don’t sit by the bathrooms unless you want to smell shit every time the door opens and wafts poop gas in your nostrils. Yum.

I’ve been a faithful Bolt Bus customer since we moved here to Philadelphia from New York, but my opinion of the service has changed. For those of you who take Bolt Bus, you should stop. We left something on board a bus today, and it was stolen less then 20 minutes after (and no other passengers had access to the bus after us!) Hmmmm. I wonder who took it! Let all of your friends know too!

To help you with location, it’s the same place as where the megabus picks up. Chances are you’ll see one of the buses waiting. It’s right in front of the public parking lot on JFK and there are BoltBus signs to NYC and NJ/​Boston marking the area. Have a great trip!

I’ve taken the bus from DC (union station) to nyc a few times, and my experience has been fairly terrible across the board.
1. They make you stand in arbitrary boarding zones, which seems to only serve to divide people into classes for no reason.
2. They ask you to get there 15 minutes before boarding, yet never board on time (a problem when it’s cold out).
3. The bus is always freezing (hovering around 50 degrees).
4. They take a needless «15 minute» pit stop that stretches on, with no updates as to why.
5. They always make it to the nyc location about 30 mins late.
6. It’s more expensive than the other options.
Take best bus instead.

This is my very first one star review. I have been using Bolt Bus for a while now off and on. I found their service mediocre at best but for the price I could ignore their other downfalls. My experience on Saturday changed all this.
My niece was down from college in Connecticut over Thanksgiving. On Friday we made a reservation and paid for the 8:20 bus leaving on Saturday Morning from Cherry Hill. We arrived at the stop near the Cherry Hill Mall at 8:10 and miraculously the bus and ourselves arrived at the same time. I was amazed, over the years picking up and dropping people off I have never seen a Bolt Bus early, it is very unusual they are on time.
We got my niece in line and there were 5 or 6 passengers in front of her and 1 behind her. When they go to the passenger in front of her I realized there was trouble. The driver got on his phone and was talking to a supervisor. The problem was they loaded 2 standby passengers in Philadelphia and they had to bounce 3 ticket holders with seats in Cherry Hill including my niece! The other passenger that was bounced complained they should take the standbys off the bus for the passengers that had booked seats in advance. The driver was having none of this. He claimed there was a mistake on his manifest.
The driver got back on the phone and said he had a solution. There was an 8:30 bus leaving from Philadelphia that was going directly to NYC. This bus would now stop in Cherry Hill and pick up the 3 passengers that this driver screwed over by giving their seats to standbys. He promised the bus would be there by 8:45 — 8:50 so it was only a 30-​minute delay. He did not offer any apology and was generally indignant.
Well if you have ever been to the Cherry Hill Stop there is really nowhere to wait except in your car on the shoulder of Route 38. The mall is too far away and it is not really open at 8:00 am on a Saturday. 8:50 came and went and the bus Bolt promised never came. We were lied to, which sucks. What sucks even more was if they had told us honestly there wasn’t a «special» bus coming for us, we could have gone to get coffee, etc until the next bus arrived at 9:30, an hour and 10 minutes past the bus we had booked.
When the 9:30 bus arrived the driver again was indignant and although Bolt got all three of passengers on the bus, no apology again was offered. They even made them board last after all they had been through. The on line app read this bus was full but it wasn’t fortunately.
I will never use the Bolt bus again for myself or my friends and relatives. I will either use Greyhound that has a terminal and guaranteed seats or NJ Transit out of Hamilton. Bolt Bus service is terrible and their customer service even worse.

I agree with other reviews — Bolt Bus has definitely gone downhill over the years. The remote NYC location is really inconvenient. The last time I took the bus, I waited for over 40 minutes and the bus never showed up. There was no details on their Bus Tracker App. I called customer service only to be left on hold for over 10 minutes. After 40 minutes, I just left. I found out later that apparently the driver just forgot to stop. They refunded my money for the ticket but they didn’t apologize or offer me any other compensation. Not only did I waste my time but I had to make alternate travel arrangements at the last minute. I recommend that if you’re traveling between NYC and Philly to use
. They operate out of Greyhound and is much better.

Wow, what happened to Boltbus? I’ve been a loyal customer for nearly 10 years. But since they got bought up by Greyhound they have been AWFUL. Not once in the past 5 – 6 times has the Wifi worked, and usually the outlets don’t work either. Boltbus used to leave precisely on the dot every time, and the last few times it was nearly an hour late. The drivers used to be friendly and wonderful, and now they’re extremely rude.
Last time, the bus left over an hour late, and the bus driver yelled (actually yelled!) at some passengers who didn’t speak English for no particular reason, and made fun of their English and grumbled about tourists the entire trip. Then we were delayed for a long time and he gave us no updates whatsoever. I still don’t know why we parked on the highway for that time. I emailed Boltbus to complain and got a form letter from a do-​not-​reply address saying «your opinion matters.» Yeah, right. Maybe someone will see this.
I used to be willing to pay more for Bolt than Mega, Greyhound, or anything else because it was just better. Now I just go with whatever is cheapest.

This review is for bolt bus Washington DC to NY. Bolt bus used to be the premier bus company for traveling to NY and I used to be a regular rider. Since we are now a family of four we drive more often because the savings isn’t there any more but we decided to ride this weekend for the convenience and are sorely disappointed. The buses are no longer clean but revolting and remind me of Greyhound back in my college days. Definitely bring your lysol wipes! It still has convenient stops and competitive rates. I wanted to include pictures.

Not always on time, never takes as long as advertised, but I came in with low expectations. Also, most of the outlets don’t work, which is pretty annoying for a long bus ride between Philly and NYC for example when you’ll want to do a lot of work/​browsing on your phone. For the price though, this is one of my favorite ways to get between the two cities and makes it much easier for me to take a trip on a whim to see a concert, explore, eat amazing food, or whatever else cool is happening in NYC.

I bought my girlfriend a ticket to go from Philly to NYC. We got there 10 minutes before the bus was scheduled to leave, but the bus was full because they let stand by passengers on early. Disappointed, I spoke with the boltbus employee about it. I was being nice about it, but the employee was unreasonable. He became irate and angry, shoving his finger in my face. He physically threatened me until I walked away.
If you use this company, I advise you think about using Megabus or another bus company. Yes, we should have been there 15 mins early as the tickets say, but no one deserves to be physically threatened over a $ 15 bus ticket.

Efficient ride, but the hectic line and boarding process feels like a cattle call. Waiting outside in really hot or really cold weather kind of sucks too.

Fair price to get you from point A to point B. I was upset that the wall outlet in my seat did not work as I needed to charge my electronics. I also would have liked if the driver gave updates on the drive. Oh and let’s put some arm rests between seats. Not everyone travels in pairs and personal space is very much appreciated.

BUS SMELLED LIKE FECES
The minute we board the bus, the bus smelled distinctly of an uncleaned porta-​potty. Twenty minutes into the trip, the scent becomes disgustingly unbearable to a point where several passengers became sick. Any bus that repeatedly circulates unclean bathroom air is perpetuating toxic air quality. Imagine that pungent odor along with breathing that air in for 5 solid hours from NYC to DC. That this company didn’t even bother cleaning their buses clearly reflects their lack of care, quality of service, and consideration for basic levels of hygiene. I would definitely not recommend this bus to anyone. It is Not worth 5 hours of nauseous misery.

I’m very unhappy about bolt bus lately. I used to take the bolt bus regularly to commute between philly and New York. However, over the last couple years, it’s gone downhill dramatically. Not only did the bus drop off location in New York moved to the extremely remote location of 12^th street, forcing people to stand in the dark and cold in the harsh New York winter with no shelter and nothing else to do but to wait for the bus (which is regularly and unapologetically late), but it changed its policy to one where you have to show up 15 mins before your departure time else it sells your seat to the standby people.
These two changes really increased my «cost» and inconvenience of taking the bolt bus especially in the winter. The only reason I took bolt bus before was because it was cheap and it was relatively easy and reliable. With these two changes, it’s not longer convenient, and it’s certainly not easy anymore. It also increases the effective time of my journey making the amtrak seem that much more attractive in comparison. Since I don’t commute everyday between the two cities, when I do commute i much rather pay the premium ($ 40 more if you book in advance) and have a much much more pleasant experience. Best of all, I would know that i can show up 5 mins before departure and know that my seat (which I paid for with real money) is not sold to someone else who didnt want to purchase a reserved ticket. I have sworn off the bus for good.

Always on time. Has outlets and wifi. Sometimes they dont work but most of the time they do.
Good drop off and collection points and i think u get a free trip after 10 trips or something.

I frequently take Bolt Bus from Philadelphia to New York. The prices vary from trip to trip, but I would say the average trip is about 25 dollars round trip. Tolls are more than that if I were to drive there and back, let alone the gas and parking.
The buses are generally close to schedule. The traffic between New York and Philadelphia is usually horrendous, so if the bus is late, it’s usually due to traffic. If I were in my own car, I would encounter the same problem. I cannot believe people are complaining that the bus is so late when they know its nothing but traffic.
I appreciate the fact that they have outlets for your electrical devices. Most of the time they work well. I think it’s a great value for the money. To all the cry babies complaining, I’d recommend they hire a limo.

If you want to get to NYC quickly, comfortably, and on a budget, Bolt Bus is the way to go. While Megabus is delayed all the time and the service kind of sucks, Bolt is not delayed as much, and the staff are professional and helpful. The internet is definitely more reliable as well.
While Amtrak is definitely faster, it’s at least 5 times more expensive. For $ 9 or less, Bolt Bus is a great deal.

You get what you pay for. Haven’t we all said that before? Yes, getting from NYC to Philly and back to NYC again is nice when it costs just $ 22 round trip for two people, but these buses were seriously lacking. On both buses, outlets worked sporadically. The WiFi was present yet didn’t really work for either of them. The seats were not uncomfortable and I rode pleasantly on both trips, at least.
However, at both the Manhattan and Philly stops, despite signs and people in and out of lines, getting on the bus is damn near a nightmare. In NYC, it was slightly more organized, with Group A, Group B, and Group C being called and boarded as they should with little confusion. In Philly, damn. Forget about it. We arrived at the stop at 2:45 p.m. for our 3:15 p.m. bus back to NYC. We stood in the space indicated for NYC passengers. When a bus pulled up at 3 p.m., people just came from all angles and attacked the front door of the bus. It was almost primal. (Albeit, a little funny as well…) At about 3:10, the bus driver finally came out of the bus, which had just been sitting there, and stated that the bus was the 3 p.m. bus to NYC (…a little late?) Only people with the 3 p.m. boarding passes could enter, he said, no 3:15 passengers. After those people entered the bus, a few of us asked a Bolt Bus staff member outside of the bus when the 3:15 p.m. bus was arriving. It was already 3:20 by then and the 3 p.m. bus was still there. He told us to get on the 3 p.m. bus anyways, as there were a few seats left and he had no idea when the 3:15 bus would even arrive.
I’m just underwhelmed. For a discount service, I’d go with MegaBus next time. I’ve had more luck with them in the past, and prices are pretty comparable most times.

As a longtime customer of Boltbus, I feel it’s high time I gave a comprehensive review of the bus service.
First off, I think people need to approach the service with some tempered expectations. It doesn’t help that Boltbus tries to sell itself as the best thing since sliced bread. They say you can «bolt for a buck», but all that really means is that there is one $ 1 seat per ride. As for the wi-​fi, yes that has been the most disappointing part of my experience, but let’s take a look at the competition. I refuse to take Greyhound/​Peter Pan, and my seldom rides on Megabus have all been quite horrific.
For me, the Boltbus — particularly the Philly-​NY route — has never let me down. The bus has almost always been there right on schedule, the lone exception being Thanksgiving weekend, which is understandable. And yes, while the 2 hour schedule for the trip between Philly and New York usually errs on the side of optimism, it really does depend on the time of day you are traveling. If it’s rush hour, that might stretch towards an additional hour of travel time. But if it’s in the middle of a weekday or in the dead of night, you’ll be there in two hours or less.
Is Boltbus perfect? No, but what similar cheap travel service is? Sure the lines/​queues could be a bit more organized, but by and large everything is run smoothly and efficiently. You can’t ask for much more.
P. S. I would give my approval rate of my trips for Boltbus at around 90%. For Megabus it is at 20% (1 for 5). Boltbus also has a simple loyalty program (8 rides get one free) and has been pretty good at recognizing tickets if you missed your bus, which is invaluable.