Inter-city bus travel has risen 13 percent in the past couple of years, says a study by DePaul University. Our nation is witnessing its first increase in inter-city and inter-state bus travel since the 1960s.

Plusher seats, cleaner bathrooms, free WiFi service, and more consistent schedules are all helping to improve the tarnished image of bus travel. In previous blog posts, our readers have applauded this trend.

Leading the low-fare bus revolution has been Megabus, a sister company of Gray Line New York Sightseeing. At the end of May, Megabus launched service between New York and Boston, Washington, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Buffalo, Atlantic City, and Toronto. It uses double-decker buses on some of its routes.

NeOn, a new twice-daily bus service operated by Greyhound between New York and Toronto, recently launched with fares as low as $1 each way.

BoltBus, a new discount express service operated by Greyhound, recently launched with fares as low as $1 each way between New York City and D.C. (We tested the service and liked it.)

Even Greyhound's traditional service is seeing a rise in ridership after a couple of years of declines. Greyhound now lets passengers pay $5 each way for priority seating on bus rides departing from more than 30 cities.

LUXURY BUSES: NOT A CONTRADICTION
For more of a splurge (while still saving money on alternate transportation options), try LimoLiner between Boston and New York City. We recently blogged about our test drive of the service.