Quincy, Hannibal, Canton part of St. Louis-to-Cedar Rapids daily trip now offered by Megabus

QUINCY — Megabus, which offers city-to-city bus tickets for as low as $1 throughout North America, is expanding its service to 48 Midwest cities beginning Monday, March 27.

Quincy, Hannibal, Mo., and Canton, Mo., will benefit from this expansion. Through a new partnership with Iowa-based Burlington Trailways, Megabus will offer a daily trip from Cedar Rapids, Iowa to St. Louis and one from St. Louis to Cedar Rapids — with stops in Quincy, Hannibal and Canton.

“The post-COVID landscape has changed things dramatically,” said Colm Lynch, director of revenue and schedules for Megabus, headquartered in Elizabeth, N.J. “A lot of companies running very good systems for years are just looking to tap into bigger networks to get more feeder traffic. 

“It’s a good service that Burlington has been operating for many years. They’ve got a good reputation. We’re bringing it on to Megabus as one part of a much bigger picture of where we’re connecting a lot more towns and cities across the U.S. It’s part of a bigger vision to partner with good operators such as Burlington to offer our customers a wide range of destinations to visit.

Megabus, which introduced its double-decker bus service throughout the Midwest in 2006, is expanding service between Chicago and 12 cities, Denver and 22 cities, Des Moines and 33 cities, Iowa City and 20 cities and Indianapolis and 22 cities.

Megabus stops along St. Louis to Cedar Rapids route

The Cedar Rapids to St. Louis bus will leave Cedar Rapids at 9:15 a.m., then make stops in Iowa City, Mount Pleasant, Burlington, Fort Madison and Keokuk in Iowa, then in Canton, Quincy, Hannibal, Bowling Green, Troy, Lambert Field and the Gateway Transportation Center in St. Louis.

The Canton stop will be made at 1:45 p.m. at the Ayerco Truck Stop, 1700 Oak. The Quincy stop will be made at 2:10 p.m. at Seventh and Jersey. The Hannibal stop will be made at 2:45 p.m. at the Burger King, 4811 McMasters. 

The St. Louis to Cedar Rapids bus will leave at 7:15 a.m., making stops in Hannibal at 9:40 a.m., Quincy at 10:10 a.m. and Canton at 10:40 a.m.

Megabus lists the cost for a one-way trip from Quincy to Hannibal at $18.75 on its website. The cost is $17.25 from Quincy to Canton, and it’s $56 from Quincy to St. Louis.

Lynch said connecting other cities to St. Louis could come in the future.

“There’s a lot more in the works,” he said. “Ultimately, if you can ride this bus to St. Louis, and then there will be another service that conveniently connects with St. Louis. Ultimately, you’ll be able to book your ticket from Quincy, and as an example, cities like Nashville or Knoxville (Tenn.) will be in a drop-down menu. You might have a 40-minute layover in St. Louis, and then you could take a bus from St. Louis to Nashville or Knoxville. That’s not available today, but that’s certainly in the works.”

Lynch said a benefit to using the Megabus service is the communication with passengers in case of weather delays. Megabus offers a bus tracking system that informs customers exactly how many minutes a bus is away from their stop.

“We’ve heard horror stories with airlines cancelling trips and people not getting refunds and being offered points which aren’t all that useful,” he said. “With the Megabus option, if you want a refund, we will give you one.”