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 Illini Shuttle, operated by Suburban Express, at Illinois Terminal in Champaign, Illinois. | |
| Founded | 1983 |
|---|---|
| Headquarters | 714 S Sixth Street Champaign, Illinois 61820 |
| Service area | Illinois, Indiana, Iowa |
| Service type | Intercity coach service |
| Destinations | Six universities served and Chicago suburbs |
| Chief executive | Dennis Toeppen, President |
| Website | www.suburbanexpress.com |
Suburban Express is a bus service that provides transport services to students at six universities in the American Midwest, primarily to and from the Chicago area. Airport shuttles are run by its subsidiary Illini Shuttle. The company contracts buses from other carriers, and is based in Champaign, Illinois.
In the 1980s, Suburban Express started a price war against incumbent Greyhound that led to reduced fares for both companies. Since 2000, it has filed at least 200 lawsuits over alleged violations of its terms of service, leading students to criticize the bus service online.
History
Suburban Express was founded in 1983 by Dennis Toeppen, then a 19-year-old student, to provide students at University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign (UIUC) transport home on weekends and holidays. The only company providing this service at the time was Greyhound. He chartered six buses and drivers, sold tickets through a local travel agency, and spent $600 on advertising. The university's travel center received a commission from Greyhound and at first refused to sell Suburban Express tickets, even though they were cheaper. The travel center briefly founded its own competing charter service, resulting in lower fares at both bus services.
A price war began between Suburban Express and Greyhound that led to a more than fifty percent price drop. As part of the competition, Greyhound initiated two Illinois Commerce Commission investigations against Suburban Express in 1984, and in 1985 Toeppen charged Greyhound with "predatory pricing" for lowering its round-trip fare to Chicago from around $36 to $14.75. According to Toeppen's lawyer, after the Department of Justice sent a letter to Greyhound, the bus service raised their rate by $3.
Suburban Express expanded its service to Eastern Illinois University in 1985 and to Illinois State University in 1989.
Services
As of 2013 the company serves six universities: UIUC, Illinois State University, Eastern Illinois University, Purdue University, University of Iowa and Indiana University. Each of the six campuses has weekend service to several Chicago locations, and the Illini Shuttle runs daily from Champaign to O'Hare International Airport and the suburbs. The company says that it hires only non-smoking drivers and has free Wi-Fi on most of its buses. In the year prior to April 2013 it carried around 100,000 passengers, running up to 75 buses a day.
Business practices
According to Ars Technica, Suburban Express has a "bad reputation online" due to students who say it has "cutthroat business practices," such as fining, banning and suing customers who allegedly violate its terms of service. According to Suburban Express, these students broke the company's rules against riding without a printed ticket, getting two rides for the price of one, counterfeiting tickets, or using tickets on the wrong day. Some students said the bus driver should have refused them if something was wrong with their ticket, while Suburban Express claims checking tickets and IDs would slow onboarding. The company's terms of service said students would be fined $100 for using an "invalid, altered or duplicate ticket" and $500 for "disruptive behavior" until the fines were eliminated in changes to its terms of service in May 2013 after being contacted by the attorney general.
Suburban Express initiated 209 lawsuits from April 1994 to April 2013. Most were against students it alleged violated its terms of service, while four were against competitors. There were 126 lawsuits in the fist half of 2013. 116 of the lawsuits were dismissed with prejudice, but some dismissals were overturned. Many of the lawsuits were filed in Ford County, 30 miles from UIUC, which made students ineligible for the university's free legal aid for cases filed in Champaign County.
The company issued a lifetime ban and penalty of $570 to one student for allegedly disruptive behavior after the student's allegations that a driver made a racist comment went viral on Facebook and were published by the college paper. The case triggered discussion among students on the UIUC subreddit, a threat by the company to sue the subreddit's moderator if they did not remove negative comments, and an attack on the company's website. Negative publicity resulted under the speculation that Suburban Express was intimidating students who spoke negatively about it online. The company filed Freedom of Information Act requests with the university to identify the subreddit's users.
References
- ^ Rozek, Dan (October 20, 1985). "Fare wars - Bus service run by student butts heads with Greyhound" (PDF). Daily Herald (Arlington Heights).
- Russell's Guides (September 1999). GLI Schedule 397.
- "Frequent Service Between Champaign and O'Hare, Chicago Suburbs!", Illini Shuttle. Also see Suburban Express website
- ^ Ruff, Corinne (April 28, 2013). "Suburban Express lawsuits reach 125 this year; conversation continues on Reddit". Daily Illini.
- ^ Gallagher, Sean (2013-04-26). "Express to Internet Hate: Bus company threatens redditor with lawsuit". Ars Technica.
- ^ Neil, Martha (May 3, 2013). "Cheap bus ticket included a trip to small-claims court for unwary students". ABA Journal. Retrieved January 4, 2013.
- ^ Brumleve, Will (April 26, 2013). "Bus firm's lawsuits criticized". The News Gazette.
- China News (10/14/2013): 赴美留学：行前需多了解当地生活细节避免被骗 (Translation)
- ^ Geiger, Kim (May 1, 2013). "Bus company's lawsuits anger students, parents". Chicago Tribune. Retrieved January 4, 2013.
- ^ Brumleve, Will (July 31, 2013). "Judge allows bus company to refile some claims against passengers". The News-Gazette. Archived from the original on 2013-08-11.
- Bus company promises to drop Ford lawsuits News Gazette Accessed November 9, 2013.
- Ruff, Corinne (2013-04-28). "Suburban Express lawsuits reach 125 this year; conversation continues on Reddit". The Daily Illini. Champaign-Urbana. Retrieved 2013-10-25.
- Gallagher, Sean (February 13, 2013). "Troll road: Bus company posts "dirt" on complaining passenger". Ars Technica.
- Gallagher, Sean (April 26, 2013). "Express to Internet Hate: Bus company threatens redditor with lawsuit". Ars Technica.
- Gallagher, Sean (May 2, 2013). "Nonstop to schadenfreude: Suburban Express' u-turn on reddit lawsuit". Ars Technica.
- Gallagher, Sean (June 19, 2013). "Bus company that threatened redditor with lawsuit tries to reopen suit". Ars Technica.