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Illini Shuttle, operated by Suburban Express, at Illinois Terminal in Champaign, Illinois.
Founded1983
Headquarters714 S Sixth Street
Champaign, Illinois 61820
Service areaIllinois, Indiana, Iowa
Service typeIntercity coach service
DestinationsSix universities served and Chicago suburbs
Chief executiveDennis Toeppen, President
Websitewww.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 operated under the name "Illini Shuttle". The company contracts buses from other carriers, and is based in Champaign, Illinois.

In the 1980s, Suburban Express broke the bus monopoly[1] that Greyhound had between Champaign and Chicago leading to a price war that cut student fares by more than half.

Since 1994, 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 began operating in late 1983.[2] At that time, scheduled bus service between Champaign and the Chicago area in Illinois was a monopoly[3] operated by Greyhound Lines,[1] and reinforced by exclusive ticket sales through the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign (UIUC).[4] Between November and December 1983, Greyhound Lines suffered a nationwide strike by its drivers.[5][6][7] For the Thanksgiving break during the Greyhound strike,[8] Dennis Toeppen, then a 19-year-old student at UIUC, and later Suburban Express' founder, chartered 6 buses, sold tickets through a local travel agent, spent $600 on advertising, and undercut Greyhound's fares by $4 to $8. The Thanksgiving 1983 service carried nearly 300 students.[1]

In January 1984, and then named Western Trails Transportation, the company announced regular weekly and holiday service.[8] UIUC's travel center, saying it relied on commissions from Greyhound and feared losing revenues, initially refused to sell competing tickets, despite their lower price.[4] The travel center also briefly offered its own competing charter service.[1]

In 1984, a fare war between the company and Greyhound[9] cut prices between Champaign and Chicago by more than fifty percent. Reacting to new competition, Greyhound lowered its prices from around $36 to $14.75 and filed two complaints with the Illinois Commerce Commission.[1] In February 1985, the company, by then called Suburban Express, charged Greyhound with predatory pricing, claiming the $14.75 price was below Greyhound's costs and designed to drive competitors out of business.[10] According to Suburban Express' lawyer, after the Department of Justice sent a letter to Greyhound, the bus service raised their rate by $3.[1]

Suburban Express expanded its service to Eastern Illinois University in 1985,[1] and to Illinois State University in 1989.[11][better source needed] In 2002, the company introduced self-service ticket kiosks in the Champaign area.[12] The company's Illini Shuttle began service connecting UIUC to Chicago's Midway and O'Hare airports in October 2004.[13] Service to the University of Iowa began during the 2006–2007 academic year.[14]

Services

As of September 2015, Suburban Express offers weekly service to Chicago-area locations from four universities: UIUC,[15] Illinois State University,[16] Purdue University,[17] and the University of Iowa.[18] The company's Illini Shuttle runs daily from Champaign to O'Hare International Airport and the suburbs.[19] According to the company, it hires only non-smoking drivers, has free Wi-Fi on most buses,[20] and in the year prior to April 2013 carried around 100,000 passengers, on up to 75 buses a day.[21]

Business practices and lawsuits

In early 2013, a student passenger posted Facebook messages about a situation he witnessed as a Suburban Express passenger. The comments led to pushback from the company and numerous social media discussions of Suburban Express contract terms and their aggressive enforcement of same. [21][22]

According to Ars Technica, Suburban Express had developed a "bad reputation online" from reviewers who wrote that the company's fining, banning, and suing customers for alleged violations of its terms of service amounted to "cutthroat business practices."[23] According to Suburban Express' response at the time, some students broke the company's rules by "printing out multiple copies of the tickets and allowing others to use them," or "using tickets on the incorrect dates, or altering the dates listed on the printed copy."[24] Some students asked why Suburban Express chose not to refuse invalid tickets during boarding. Suburban Express said processing during loading would be "too slow."[25]

The company's terms of service said passengers would be charged a $100 convenience fee for using an "invalid, altered or duplicate ticket" and $500 for "disruptive behavior"[26] until April 2013, when fees were eliminated from the terms of service in response to complaints.[25][26][27]

Suburban Express initiated 209 lawsuits between April 1994 and April 2013, of which most were small claims cases alleging terms of service violations by customers, while four were against competitors.[21] A group of 126 lawsuits were filed in Ford County, Illinois in early 2013. Students complained that the company's choice of Ford County (30 miles from UIUC), made them ineligible for free legal aid from UIUC.[28] After a backlash from UIUC students,[29] 116 of the suits were withdrawn from Ford County, and later, 20 suits were changed to permit refiling in another venue.[28] Suburban Express indicated it would switch its litigation to Champaign County, so that students would have access to free UIUC legal aid.[26][30]

In April 2013, the sought $500 payment from a passenger who they alleged engaged in disruptive behavior on a bus. The passenger was upset by rude behavior on the part of the bus driver, and his acount of the situation and his opinion were widely seen on Facebook and in a college newspaper.[25][31][32] The case led to discussion on the UIUC subreddit, a threat by the company to sue the subreddit's moderator over false and libelous comments,[23] and a page on the company's website directed at the complaining passenger.[33] Negative publicity resulted from speculation that Suburban Express or its owner had intimidated those who spoke negatively about it online.[23] The company filed Freedom of Information Act requests with UIUC to identify the subreddit's users.[34]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g Rozek, Dan (October 20, 1985). "Fare wars - Bus service run by student butts heads with Greyhound" (PDF). Daily Herald (Arlington Heights).
  2. ^ Rozek, Dan (October 20, 1985). "Fare wars - Bus service run by student butts heads with Greyhound" (PDF). Daily Herald (Arlington Heights). [In October 1983] Toeppen hit on the idea of chartering equipment. A little research showed it just might be profitable and a Greyhound driver's strike added momentum to the idea.
  3. ^ Rozek, Dan (October 20, 1985). "Fare wars - Bus service run by student butts heads with Greyhound" (PDF). Daily Herald (Arlington Heights). The one-man service broke Greyhound's monopoly on the route
  4. ^ a b Rozek, Dan (October 20, 1985). "Fare wars - Bus service run by student butts heads with Greyhound" (PDF). Daily Herald (Arlington Heights). The university travel center...refused to sell Toeppen's tickets...published a letter encouraging students to take Greyhound...UNIVERSITY OFFICIALS said they did not want to sell both types of tickets because they feared Greyhound would not approve and would dump the university as a ticket agent, meaning less ticket revenue for the university...We were concerned about (Greyhound's) reaction. {{cite news}}: line feed character in |quote= at position 98 (help)
  5. ^ Townsend, Ed (4 November 1983). "Strike against Greyhound forces customers to leave driving to somebody else". Christian Science Monitor. Retrieved 9 April 2014.
  6. ^ "Ray Phillips and the 1983 Strike Ray Phillips and the 1983 Strike". 31 December 2011. Retrieved 9 April 2014.
  7. ^ Townsend, Ed (5 December 1983). "Tentative settlement in Greyhound strike". Christian Science Monitor. Retrieved 9 April 2014.
  8. ^ a b Rubey, Peter (28 January 1984). "New cut-rate bus company to begin service next week" (PDF). Daily Illini. Retrieved 9 April 2014. Western Trails Transportation Co., a new bus service which operated during the Greyhound bus driver's strike, will begin regular cut-rate weekly service next Friday
  9. ^ Rozek, Dan (October 20, 1985). "Fare wars - Bus service run by student butts heads with Greyhound" (PDF). Daily Herald (Arlington Heights). Fare wars... ignited a price war that dropped fares dramatically for both Greyhound and Toeppen's Suburban Express.
  10. ^ Taylor, Barbara (16 February 1985). "Greyhound pricing illegal, bus service official claims" (PDF). Daily Illini. Retrieved 9 April 2014.
  11. ^ Russell's Guides (September 1999). GLI Schedule 397.
  12. ^ "Suburban Express Self-Service Ticketing". suburbanexpress.com. Suburban Express (subject's website). Archived from the original on 2002-02-01. Retrieved 22 April 2014. Suburban Express is pleased to introduce self-service ticketing.
  13. ^ "Illini Shuttle - O'Hare & Midway Schedules". illinishuttle.com. Suburban Express. Archived from the original on 16 October 2004. Retrieved 11 April 2014. Schedules...will begin operating October 12, 2004...October 27, 2004. We will begin accepting reservations and selling tickets on September 30, 2004.
  14. ^ "Weekend Bus Service from Iowa City to Oakbrook Mall and Woodfield Mall" (PDF). suburbanexpress.com. Suburban Express (company website). Archived from the original (PDF) on 21 February 2007. Retrieved 22 April 2014. $9.95 Introductory Fare Extended through February 16
  15. ^ . Suburban Express http://suburbanexpress.com/indexuiuc.html. Retrieved 3 September 2015. {{cite web}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)
  16. ^ . Suburban Express http://suburbanexpress.com/scheduleisu.html. Retrieved 3 September 2015. {{cite web}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)
  17. ^ . Suburban Express http://suburbanexpress.com/schedulepurdue.html. Retrieved 3 September 2015. {{cite web}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)
  18. ^ . Suburban Express http://suburbanexpress.com/scheduleuiowa.html. Retrieved 3 September 2015. {{cite web}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)
  19. ^ Illini Shuttle. Suburban Express http://www.illinishuttle.com/schedule.html. Retrieved 3 September 2015. {{cite web}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)
  20. ^ "Frequent Service Between Champaign and O'Hare, Chicago Suburbs!", Illini Shuttle.
  21. ^ a b c Ruff, Corinne (April 28, 2013). "Suburban Express lawsuits reach 125 this year; conversation continues on Reddit". Daily Illini.
  22. ^ Richard, Chalkey (April 25, 2013). "UI Should Defend International Students". Daily Illini. {{cite news}}: Text "http://www.dailyillini.com/article/2013/04/ui-should-defend-international-students-disallow-suburban-express-services" ignored (help)
  23. ^ a b c Gallagher, Sean (April 26, 2013). "Express to Internet Hate: Bus company threatens redditor with lawsuit". Ars Technica.
  24. ^ Brumleve, Will (April 26, 2013). "Bus firm's lawsuits criticized". The News-Gazette. Ramais said some of the alleged violations are related to students buying their tickets online, then printing out multiple copies of the tickets and allowing others to use them. Another issue has been students using tickets on the incorrect dates, or altering the dates listed on the printed copy, she said.
  25. ^ a b c Geiger, Kim (May 1, 2013). "Bus company's lawsuits anger students, parents". Chicago Tribune. Retrieved January 4, 2014.
  26. ^ a b c Neil, Martha (May 3, 2013). "Cheap bus ticket included a trip to small-claims court for unwary students". ABA Journal. Retrieved January 4, 2014.
  27. ^ Suburban Express terms of service, dated April 29, 2013. Retrieved Jan 28, 2014.
  28. ^ a b Brumlee, Will (26 June 2013). "Bus company wants to reinstate some lawsuits". The News-Gazette (East Central Illinois). Retrieved 9 July 2014. One issue raised by UI students: They are not eligible to receive free representation from the UI's Student Legal Services, which only offers such assistance for cases filed in Champaign County.
  29. ^ Brumleve, Will (30 July 2013). "Judge allows bus company to refile some claims against passengers". The News Gazette (Central Illinois). Retrieved 9 July 2014. After a backlash from UI students, Toeppen filed motions to dismiss 103 of the cases "with prejudice" on April 30;
  30. ^ Brumleve, Will. "Judge allows bus company to refile some claims against passengers". The News-Gazette (Central Illinois)archiveurl=http://archive.is/H43YS. Retrieved 9 July 2014. Toeppen said most of the cases that will be refiled will be brought to Champaign County Circuit Court, so the many UI students named as defendants can have access to free legal representation by the UI's Student Legal Services. {{cite news}}: |archive-date= requires |archive-url= (help)
  31. ^ Ruff, Corinne (April 28, 2013). "Suburban Express lawsuits reach 125 this year; conversation continues on Reddit". The Daily Illini. Champaign-Urbana. Retrieved October 25, 2013.
  32. ^ 20 dismissals were vacated, meaning those cases could be refiled anywhere; Suburban Express indicated they would file in Champaign County. Brumleve, Will (July 31, 2013). "Judge allows bus company to refile some claims against passengers". The News-Gazette. Archived from the original on August 11, 2013.
  33. ^ Gallagher, Sean (February 13, 2013). "Troll road: Bus company posts "dirt" on complaining passenger". Ars Technica.
  34. ^ Gallagher, Sean (June 19, 2013). "Bus company that threatened redditor with lawsuit tries to reopen suit". Ars Technica.
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