The ''Starlight Express'' was an

express bus service Public transport bus services are generally based on regular operation of transit buses along a route calling at agreed bus stops according to a published public transport timetable. History of buses Origins While there are indications ...

operating between

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

and the Central Virginia city of

Charlottesville Charlottesville, colloquially known as C'ville, is an independent city in the Commonwealth of Virginia. It is the county seat of Albemarle County, which surrounds the city, though the two are separate legal entities. It is named after Queen Cha ...

. It made three weekly runs in each direction. Like

Amtrak The National Railroad Passenger Corporation, Trade name, doing business as Amtrak () , is the national Passenger train, passenger railroad company of the United States. It operates inter-city rail service in 46 of the 48 contiguous United Stat ...

, it typically required about six and a half hours to make the trip.

History

Two Charlottesville-based businessmen inaugurated this service in 2004 to fill a perceived service gap and chose a name meant to evoke the luxury of storied trains such as the

20th Century Limited The ''20th Century Limited'' was an express passenger train on the New York Central Railroad (NYC) from 1902 to 1967. The train traveled between Grand Central Terminal in New York City and LaSalle Street Station in Chicago, Illinois, along th ...

and the

Orient Express The ''Orient Express'' was a long-distance passenger train service created in 1883 by the Belgian company ''Compagnie Internationale des Wagons-Lits'' (CIWL) that operated until 2009. The train traveled the length of continental Europe and int ...

. They were root beer company founder David New and outspoken developer Oliver Kuttner, and they launched with a single repurposed Greyhound bus body outfitted with leather BMW seats and charged $99 each way. Kuttner and New sold the company in 2010.

Today

The Starlight Express, under ownership of A Goff Limo, ceased operation in October, 2018.https://www.c-ville.com/starlight-memories-bus-service-folds-coming-megabus/

References

{{Reflist Intercity bus companies of the United States Transport companies established in 2004 Transportation companies based in Virginia