It's just gotten easier to travel -ist to -ist on the West Coast -- British cheapo bus service Megabus is starting up next week between the Bay Area and LA. Megabus is already in Chicago too.

The big draw are the $1 tickets (yes, you read that right, one dollar to go to LA) -- if you're one of the first four people to book on a particular bus, that's all you'll have to pay. (Well, that and the 50 cent booking fee.) Like Southwest, the prices go up from there as the bus fills up, with the most expensive seat ultimately going for $36. You can only buy tickets online.

There's only three departure times from SF (8:15 a.m., 3 p.m., and 11:30 p.m.), and there's no bus stop -- it's just picking people up by the Caltrain station on 4th and King. Before heading south, the morning bus will stop in San Jose (picks up behind the SJ Caltrain station), the two p.m. buses go through Oakland (picks up behind the West Oakland BART). Buses from LA up here leave at 7 a.m, 2:30 p.m., and 11 p.m., the ride looks like it takes 7 hours.

While this is fewer buses than Greyhound, it's cheaper and it makes fewer stops. (Compare: $45 on Greyhound for a 7 hour trip, $53 and 10 hours on Amtrak.) We're now waiting for the inevitable price war and exciting road safety deficiencies that'll enter this cheap ground transportation business model when the storied Chinatown buses from the East Coast respond to this challenge. Why is it that we've never had a good Chinatown bus system out here in California before?