When the tourists stopped coming, Kaz Nakagawa got an idea.
Formerly a tour operator for Japanese groups visiting California, Nakagawa's business had been battered by the war, the global economy and now SARS. So he had some empty tour buses -- and decided to send them to San Francisco.
Nakagawa's new service, California Shuttle Bus, plays on the fact that Los Angeles' main Greyhound terminal is in a rather terrifying location just east of downtown. Greyhound has a Hollywood stop for travelers who don't want to go downtown, but you're still traveling in grim, cattle-like conditions.
Nakagawa promises a civilized, comfortable service, departing from nine hotels in the Los Angeles area and dropping off passengers at three locations near or in San Francisco. The trip takes 7-8 hours -- depending on where you're being picked up and where you're being dropped off -- and it runs once a day each way: the buses pick up travelers between 2 and 4 pm, and drop them off between 9 and 10.
Nakagawa's service needs some work. He's got four pickup locations in LA's eastern suburbs and none in the popular tourist areas on the West Side. In fact, car-free travelers staying on the west side in places like Santa Monica and West Hollywood have to come downtown to get the new bus, which basically defeats its purpose. (At least you get to wait in a fancy hotel rather than an awful Greyhound terminal.)
And Nakagawa needs to lower his prices a bit. His base fare is $40 -- Greyhound has 10 buses a day that take less than 10 hours, and they charge only $35 with a three-day advance purchase. (For $60, you can guarantee an empty seat next to you on the new bus, but at the moment most seats are empty anyway.)
The true competition to beat, Southwest Airlines, offers one-way tickets from LAX to Oakland airport for $37.50, with up to 11 flights a day. Of course, you've got to get to LAX and get through airport security -- Nakagawa is hoping some travelers won't find it worth the hassle.
On the other hand, if you've seen Japanese tourists tooling around your city, you know how comfortable and classy those tour buses look. Unlike with Greyhound, these new buses are nonstop, which shaves between one and three hours off of Greyhound's leisurely schedules. And you get to support a small, local business that treats its customers as individuals, not livestock.
Nakagawa told us that other struggling charter bus operators are hoping his service succeeds, so they can lease their buses to him and thus survive. We think his bus is worth checking out, especially for weekend trips up (or down) the coast and for backpackers who want to travel in a little more comfort, and at a little more speed, than Greyhound provides.
Get in touch with the California Shuttle Bus at www.cashuttlebus.com or 800/387-3319.