Bus service teams with MD Anderson, easing patients’ travel
For Texas cancer patients heading to Houston for treatment, the trip just got a little easier, a little cheaper and a whole lot cushier.
The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center has forged a partnership with Vonlane, the amenity-packed luxury bus service, to offer a 10 percent discount for patients traveling to Houston for treatment.
The program launched this week with routes from Austin, San Antonio and Dallas. One-way fares range from $79 between Houston and San Antonio to $100 for a Dallas-toHouston run.
Traveling can be stressful under the best of circumstances, but for patients and their families who are facing cancer, the anxiety levels are even higher.
Driving is often impossible for patients who are incapacitated after treatments, and flying is expensive, cramped and — for those whose immune systems are already compromised — dangerous.
Vonlane executives say their luxury coaches fill a specific need for patients. They are less crowded, with only 22 seats, and offer high-end pampering such as noise-canceling headsets, Wi-Fi, satellite television and attendants to serve food and drinks.
“We’ve been hearing for two years from passengers from MD Anderson about what a huge impact riding Vonlane coaches has meant to their health,” founder and CEO Alex Danza said in a statement.
In addition to giving
passengers a 10 percent break on their fare and allowing them to cancel without penalty, Vonlane will also donate 5 percent of each patient fare to the MD Anderson indigent patient travel program, the company said.
The new service is also aiming to be a help to the families of patients who might be unable to ferry them back and forth.
“Coming to Houston multiple times in a week or a month can be a barrier for families and an added stress,” said Lynsay Gaines, assistant director of social work at the cancer center.
She added that letting patients travel on their own, mixed among other passengers, “allows them to maintain a sense of independence.”
The partnership is a first between MD Anderson and a bus service. Vonlane, which bills itself as a “private jet on wheels,” debuted in 2014 with a route between Dallas and Austin . It quickly spread to the other major Texas cities in the so-called Texas triangle.
Patients must book directly through MD Anderson’s travel department to get the discount.