I've taken two round-trip trips with BoltBus. The first one was during the first week of June, 2008 from New York to Boston. The bus was 30 minutes late arriving (likely due to rush hour traffic; it was scheduled to leave at 8:30am) I wasn't in a rush so I didn't care much. After years of South Station, boarding on the street was definitely strange, but it worked out well. The bus was barely a third full, so internet was blazing fast on the way up. Coming home from Boston a few days later, the bus was full and the internet was obviously slower. My second trip was from New York to Philadelphia in late August, and it went off without a hitch. The street boarding in both cities was smooth, and the bus was on time for both departures. I booked the Philly trip early, so my total round trip cost was $8 ($7 south, $1 north). I had an A class ticket and was allowed to board first. All in all, BoltBus is a good service. If you're hard pressed for time and need to get to your destination exactly on time, I'd say avoid bus travel altogether and take Amtrak. But for college breaks and the occasional fun trip, BoltBus is the way to go.