Megastunt: $1 bus trips out of Chicago

to places like Detroit, St. Louis and Minneapolis. Coach USA's new Megabus brand is launching service here in the USA out of its Chicago hub.

Maybe this will be some good news for Coach USA's owner, Stagecoach Group plc--which has a rough time of it since buying Coach USA for £1.2 billion ($1.7 billion) in 1999.

• In 2001, the company was forced to write down the value of Coach USA by some £376 million
• In 2002, it took another £575 million writedown for Coach USA and accelerated plans to "restructure" the subsidiary by selling off big "non-essential" chunks of it.

Got all that? Stagecoach paid £1.2 billion for Coach USA and within 3 years marked it down nearly 80%!

• To shed load, Stagecoach sold its Coach USA business in New England to Peter Pan Bus Lines in 2003.
  

Stagecoach is also in the train business big-time. It holds three passenger-train franchises in the UK and has a 49% share of Virgin Trains.

Does Megabus represent a competitive challenge to Amtrak? To some extent, sure. Amtrak killer? Probably not. Back east, LimoLiner hasn't exactly pushed Acela off the rails.