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Suburban Express is a bus service that provides transport services to students at six universities in the American Midwest, primarily to and from the Chicago area. Airport shuttles are operated under the name "Illini Shuttle". The company contracts buses from other carriers, and is based in Champaign, Illinois. In the 1980s, Suburban Express broke the bus monopoly〔 that Greyhound had between Champaign and Chicago leading to a price war that cut student fares by more than half. Since 1994, it has filed at least 200 lawsuits over alleged violations of its terms of service, leading students to criticize the bus service online. ==History== Suburban Express began operating in late 1983. At that time, scheduled bus service between Champaign and the Chicago area in Illinois was a monopoly operated by Greyhound Lines,〔 and reinforced by exclusive ticket sales through the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign (UIUC). Between November and December 1983, Greyhound Lines suffered a nationwide strike by its drivers.〔(【引用サイトリンク】url=http://atu1700.org/node/2639 )〕 For the Thanksgiving break during the Greyhound strike,〔 Dennis Toeppen, then a 19-year-old student at UIUC, and later Suburban Express' founder, chartered 6 buses, sold tickets through a local travel agent, spent $600 on advertising, and undercut Greyhound's fares by $4 to $8. The Thanksgiving 1983 service carried nearly 300 students.〔 In January 1984, and then named ''Western Trails Transportation'', the company announced regular weekly and holiday service. UIUC's travel center, saying it relied on commissions from Greyhound and feared losing revenues, initially refused to sell competing tickets, despite their lower price.〔 The travel center also briefly offered its own competing charter service. In 1984, a fare war between the company and Greyhound cut prices between Champaign and Chicago by more than fifty percent. Reacting to new competition, Greyhound lowered its prices from around $36 to $14.75 and filed two complaints with the Illinois Commerce Commission.〔 In February 1985, the company, by then called ''Suburban Express'', charged Greyhound with predatory pricing, claiming the $14.75 price was below Greyhound's costs and designed to drive competitors out of business. According to Suburban Express' lawyer, after the Department of Justice sent a letter to Greyhound, the bus service raised their rate by $3.〔 Suburban Express expanded its service to Eastern Illinois University in 1985,〔 and to Illinois State University in 1989.〔''Russell's Guides'' (September 1999). GLI Schedule 397.〕 In 2002, the company introduced self-service ticket kiosks in the Champaign area. The company's ''Illini Shuttle'' began service connecting UIUC to Chicago's Midway and O'Hare airports in October 2004. Service to the University of Iowa began during the 2006–2007 academic year. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Suburban Express」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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