PITTSBURGH (KDKA) -MegaBus officially named Pittsburgh as one of its hubs Tuesday morning and is expanding service to nine new cities.

The company has offered service in Pittsburgh for over a year now.

This is the company’s second stint in Pittsburgh. Their first attempt offered service to Chicago.

When they brought the service back, offering trips to New York and Washington, D.C., they knew they were on to something.

“The growth has been phenomenal. We’ve seen anywhere from 35 to 45 percent growth in our ridership and that’s exciting,” MegaBus President Dale Moser said.

Today they announced Pittsburgh as a hub with service to Akron, Buffalo, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Columbus, Detroit, Erie, Toledo and Toronto.

As for the cost, one-way fares to the new cities will be as low as $1.

“People are looking for value. They want to save money, they want to leave more money in their pocket at the end of the day and it’s all about spending the money when you get to the destination,” Mosen said.

The first few seats on each trip sell for $1. The price goes up as the bus fills up, with a last-minute trip to New York costing $39.

The company did receive some negative publicity last year when driver error led to a fatal accident in Syracuse, N.Y.

However, the federal agency that oversees bus safety gives MegaBus a satisfactory rating.

“We train our drivers over all of the requirements that are out there by the federal and state,” Mosen said. “We’ve put a whole bunch of technology into what we do now. But, we’re still a very safe form of transportation.”

Local officials couldn’t be happier that MegaBus is making a commitment to Pittsburgh.

“Now we’ve got a very affordable way to bring people to a very affordable city. So, there’s a great opportunity here to bring in people who are young and old [with] a comfortable way to get here and an affordable way to get here,” Beverly Morrow-Jones of Visit Pittsburgh said.

MegaBus handles all of their reservations online. While trips to the new cities won’t start until May 11, you can start making your reservations today.

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