Suburban Express

History

Suburban Express began operating in late 1983. At that time, scheduled bus service between Champaign and the Chicago area in Illinois was a monopoly operated by Greyhound Lines, and reinforced by exclusive ticket sales through the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign (UIUC). Between November and December 1983, Greyhound Lines suffered a nationwide strike by its drivers. For the Thanksgiving break during the Greyhound strike, 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.

In January 1984, and then named Western Trails Transportation, the company announced regular weekly and holiday service. 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. The travel center also briefly offered its own competing charter service.

In 1984, a fare war between the company and Greyhound 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. 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. According to Suburban Express' 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. In 2002, the company introduced self-service ticket kiosks in the Champaign area. The company's Illini Shuttle began service connecting UIUC to Chicago's Midway and O'Hare airports in October 2004. Service to the University of Iowa began during the 2006–2007 academic year.

Transportation services

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

Business practices and lawsuits

Suburban Express' business, legal, and media practices have been the topic of numerous media discussions since early 2013. At that time, 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". In April 2013, the company sought $500 payment from a passenger whom they alleged engaged in disruptive behavior on a bus, leading to an active social media discussion. The passenger was upset by the driver's words and actions, and an account of the situation was widely seen on Facebook and in a college newspaper.

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, a Freedom of Information Act request by the company to UIUC, and a page on the company's website directed at the complaining passenger.

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. 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. In explaining its small claims actions, Suburban Express stated that 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." Some students asked why Suburban Express chose not to refuse invalid tickets during boarding. Suburban Express said processing during loading would be "too slow." After a backlash from UIUC students, 116 of the suits were withdrawn from Ford County, and later, 20 suits were changed to permit refiling in another venue. Suburban Express indicated it would switch its litigation to Champaign County, so that students would have access to free UIUC legal aid. The company also eliminated convenience fees from the terms of service in response to complaints.