Bus and train travel

Bus and train services, which got a big boost last year from rising gas prices, will hold onto gains, Joseph Schwieterman, a DePaul University professor who studies transportation, forecasts. “Boston will remain a hotbed of competition in the bus sector in 2009,’’ he says. “Prices may inch up, but consumers will reap the benefits of brutal head-to-head competition. Megabus is poised to do particularly well with its expanding hub-and-spoke system out of New York City.” Schwieterman says that Amtrak will continue to show strength, especially in the Boston-New York-Washington corridor. Also “the Downeaster service to Maine is poised to do particularly well as travelers take advantages of its improved schedules and reliability,” he says.