KUTZTOWN, Pa. Philadelphia businessmen and women love their trains.
So much so, in fact, they forced Carl. R. Bieber Tourways to drop its fledging luxury motorcoach service between Philadelphia and Washington D.C. after just nine months. (See Dec. 15, 2004, Bus & Motorcoach News.)

"In Philly theres this train mentality; they grew up with the train and thats it," said John Kowalski, general manger of Bieber Tourways and the the luxury service. Bieber Business Class, as the service was called, has ceased operations after failing to attract riders.

He said that while two or three business people would catch the 27-seat coaches in Allentown, Pa., in the mornings, the stop in Philadelphia was always empty.

"I think between January and September, we took three passengers from Philadelphia and they were people visiting the city who wanted to spend the day in Washington," he said.

Kowalski said the company tried everything from offering free tickets, to Internet specials, to showing off the buses at business gatherings, but was unable to attract any interest from business executives, who were its target audience.

He took one of the three luxury coaches that the company equipped with extra-wide leather seats, satellite televisions, XM radios, power ports for laptop computers, Internet access and other amenities to conferences in Philadelphia where people could not only sit in it, but get free tickets as well. Still, there were no takers.

"I even went to the Amtrak station and handed out free tickets and couldnt even get a rider," he added.

Kowalski said Amtrak proved to be a tough competitor because of its frequent runs it makes 12 trips daily between the two cites, charging $115 each way for its high-speed trains and $49 for regular coach runs. Bieber offered two round trips on week days and one on Saturdays and charged $59 each way, which was $10 less than the price when the service was launched.

The failure to draw business people shocked the company, mostly because there are so many train riders and only about 16 of them needed to switch to the motorcoach for the service to break even.

"Amtrak takes 1,000 to 2,000 people to Washington D.C. from Philadelphia every day, and all we were trying to get was eight or so to ride each of our buses," he said. "Combine them with the two or three we were getting in Allentown and we would have been OK."

The first-class Prevost coaches used for Bieber Business Class service previously had been used to launch ExecConnect, the ill-fated luxury coach service that operated for nine months between Pittsburgh and Cleveland. ExecConnect was suspended in July 2002.

Meantime, Bieber Tourways is marketing the upscale coaches for corporate trips and luxury tours and charters.

"But, if someone came along and said they needed three buses, we would sell them," Kowalski said.