When Bobbie Joe Crail prepared to return home to Detroit after visiting friends in St. Louis in mid-September, she checked the online fares for flights she had taken in the past. Stunned at ' the high prices for a seat on JetBlue : Airways and Southwest Airlines, Crail, 22, cast about for alternatives. After a little digging, she stumbled on Megabus, an upstart bus line that would get her home-albeit over a two-day trek that wound through Chicago-for a mere $30. "The bus can be inconvenient," Crail sighs. "But it's so much cheaper to string bus trips together than to fly." If airline deregulation spawned a generation of low-cost carriers, the era of $100-a-barrel oil is giving rise to a new breed of discount bus operators. And unlike discount airlines, low-cost bus lines are thriving. While overall bus travel continues to grow in the mid-single digits, discount Operators such as BoltBus, DC2NY, Vamoose, and Coach USA's Megabus are enjoying heady growth by offering cheap, no-frills travel. "People are looking for alternatives...that are safe, reliable, and affordable," says Dale Moser, COO at Coach USA. "We
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