Analysis of intercity bus markets on long distances in an established and a young market: The example of the U.S. and Germany

Recent deregulation in German long distance bus services lead to highly dynamic developments in this market. Long-distance coach services in the U.S. have been deregulated since the 1980th. The aim of this paper is to compare one established and one young/emerging market with the example of the U.S. and Germany. We first investigate how the framework conditions and market structures have developed in both countries. Based on a unique dataset with more than 2000 US and more than 150 German routes including various variables on long-distance coach services, we analyse in a second step the supply and ticket prices in both markets that results from the different regulative settings. The results show that distance, the number of stops and frequency are highly significant determinants explaining the size of ticket price. Regarding competitive behaviour, we identify operators determining significant lower ticket prices in the markets compared to others. Finally, we consider how the spatial structure in the US influences the supply. We find that spatial distribution of the cities as well as demographic attributes such as the size population and the share of white population are determining the supply of intercity bus services in the US.