While nearly all indicators lately show a slowing economic engine, at least one sector has been pressing hard on the accelerator in 2008: the intercity bus industry.

Driven by downward economic pressures, spiking gas prices and a contraction in the nation’s airline industry, this year the intercity bus industry has posted its biggest one-year gain in service in at least nearly a half-century, according to a study by DePaul University’s Chaddick Institute for Metropolitan Development.

Scheduled intercity bus departures in the United States grew 9.8 percent between the fourth quarters of 2007 and 2008. This marks the second year of robust growth after more than four decades of persistent decline. (The annualized rate of growth between the second quarter of 2006 and the fourth quarter 2007 was 8.1 percent.)

Due to significantly higher fuel efficiency per passenger mile achieved through bus travel, the trend toward buses for city-to-city travel also produced a bonanza in reduced greenhouse gas emissions. An estimated 36,000 tons of carbon dioxide was kept out of the atmosphere in 2008 as a result of the shift, according to calculations compiled as part of the study.

As intercity bus service grew during the past year, other forms of long-distance travel experienced pronounced declines – especially air travel, which saw a roughly 8 percent decline in seat-miles provided between the fourth quarters of 2007 and 2008. Travel by private vehicle was also down 3.3 percent for the first eight months of 2008 compared to the year earlier period.  Train ridership as reported by Amtrak has increased over the past year, though the amount of new service added during the past year has increased only about 3.3 percent.

“The growth in intercity bus traffic is being driven by a number of factors, chiefly the spiking price of fuel over the past year,” said Joseph Schwieterman, professor of public service and director of the Chaddick Institute, who directed the study.  “The basic economic efficiencies of bus travel are proving to be extremely attractive in this difficult economic climate.”

The majority of the growth was driven by increases in service offered by two companies, Megabus and Boltbus, which is a joint venture of the Greyhound and Peter Pan bus companies.  Intercity bus service is most popular between cities located 175 to 300 miles apart.  The majority of train service growth during the past year occurred in markets in the Northeast, especially between New York and Washington, D.C.

For a copy of the full study or for media interviews of researchers on the study, please contact the Chaddick Institute at 312-362-5731.