New Service

Greyhound will offer new nonstop service from Baltimore to New York beginning May 10 as part of the expansion of its Express bus line into the Northeast. The Express bus is a premium service that includes a guaranteed seat for each rider and new environmentally friendly buses that offer free WiFi, leather seats, extra legroom and power outlets. In addition, fares start as low as $1 for the Express bus. Greyhound introduced premium Greyhound Express in the Midwest last December, serving Chicago, Milwaukee, Cincinnati and Minneapolis, among a handful of other cities.

Dear Whomever is in Charge of Customer Service for DirecTV: All I wanted was to watch the game. I was back in my hotel room after a long day, and I figured, what better way to unwind? Now, the game wasn't available on the hotel channels, but I've got that League Pass service you offer and one of its perks -- supposedly -- is that you can watch the game right on the ol' iPad. So I got out the ol' iPad and I fired up the app and I retrieved the password and I tried to sign in and nothing happened, so I called you guys and the robot lady answered and told me to OPRIMA NUMERO DOS if I wanted to conduct my business in Spanish, which I didn't, so I didn't and I said yes when the robot lady asked if I was a subscriber and I gave her my phone number when she asked for it and then she asked me to tell her what I wanted, and I tried to explain twice but she didn't get it, so I told her I had a question about League Pass and she gave me this long spiel about how I could buy League Pass, which I didn't need to do, since I already had it, so I asked the robot lady to connect me with technical support and she said she would and that's about when she hung up on me, so I called again and I went through the whole thing again and this time I got to a human being who listened to my problem and what I had done to solve it, expressed remorse, then told me to do the same things I had done, which had not worked the first time, and when I did and it didn't work again, this person...

For the second time in 24 hours, an airline has announced its arrival at Baltimore-Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport. Low-cost carrier Spirit Airlines announced Tuesday that it will start twice-daily nonstop service Sept. 6 from BWI to Fort Lauderdale, Fla., and daily nonstop service to Dallas-Fort Worth. The flights start at $77 round trip to Fort Lauderdale and $88 round trip to Dallas. Spirit is relocating its operations from Washington's Reagan National Airport to become the ninth domestic carrier to serve BWI. Southwest and AirTran are responsible for about 70 percent of the airport's traffic.

ON THE SITE... Two airlines announce new service from BWI : Low-cost carrier Spirit Airlines announced Tuesday that it will start twice-daily nonstop service on Sept. 6 from BWI to Fort Lauderdale and daily nonstop service to Dallas/Fort Worth.  On Monday night, Condor Airlines began its seasonal service to Frankfurt,  Germany . Chance for severe weather returns Tuesday, Wednesday :  A mass of hot air that remains over the eastern half of the country is fueling increased chances for severe storms to crop up during Fourth of July celebrations Tuesday and Wednesday afternoons.

T. ROWE PRICE Associates Inc. has launched a service for investors who are about to retire that some people believe could reshape the face of the company.Price's new program uses sophisticated computer modeling as well as the firm's financial experts to help retirees determine how much money they can spend without draining their nest egg.The company has spent millions of dollars developing "Retirement Income Manager," and it believes that the service is far more precise than the competition's.

In the cold war between those who find Caller ID appealing and those who find it appalling, Bell Atlantic is marketing a service that will disconnect callers who try to mask their telephone numbers by using an anti-Caller-ID service, also available from Bell Atlantic Corp.A division of the Philadelphia-based regional telephone company, Chesapeake and Potomac Telephone Co. of Virginia, said the new service, known as Anonymous Call Rejection, might be so attractive that even people who do not have Caller ID devices may decide to subscribe.

With an aim toward ending the frustrating waits that often meet new guests, Marriott Corp. plans to introduce a service that would cut in half the time it takes to check into one of its hotels.The service, which has been in development for three years, is called "1st 10."It is "based on the premise that the first 10 minutes of a guest's hotel experience are the most important in setting the stage for a successful stay," the company said."1st 10" is a call-ahead reservation service for Marriott's customers.

Chesapeake & Potomac Telephone Co. has introduced a service that would allow customers to convert their home phones to business phones while keeping many of the features of residential service.The new feature, called Home Business Service, could be used by an estimated 225,000 Maryland customers who operate businesses from their homes but who do not have business listings. "We're trying to help the people who are running businesses out of their homes," said Jeanine Smetana, a C&P spokeswoman.

American Airlines thinks there are a lot of people who fly between New York and Los Angeles who are willing to pay a premium price for a choice of movies, fine wine, goat cheese and a seat that turns into a bed.The airline announced yesterday that beginning Feb. 4 it will fly reconfigured airliners that offer passengers a level of service now largely limited to international flights.The McDonnell Douglas DC-10s will offer two classes of premium service -- business and first class -- in addition to coach seats.

A new joint service to South America will boost cargo through NTC the new Seagirt Marine Terminal by 6,000 containers a year, the Maryland Port Administration announced.Mediterranean Shipping Co. of Geneva, Switzerland, and Empremar S.A., the national shipping line of Chile will begin the joint service on Oct. 7 with the departure of the MV Presidente Aguirre Cerda from New York. The joint service will provide service to ports on the U.S. East and Gulf coasts and ports in Peru and Chile.The joint operation is expected to handle about 6,000 containers annually through Seagirt, according to Maryland Port Administration press release.

For the second time in 24 hours, an airline has announced its arrival at Baltimore-Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport. Low-cost carrier Spirit Airlines announced Tuesday that it will start twice-daily nonstop service Sept. 6 from BWI to Fort Lauderdale, Fla., and daily nonstop service to Dallas-Fort Worth. The flights start at $77 round trip to Fort Lauderdale and $88 round trip to Dallas. Spirit is relocating its operations from Washington's Reagan National Airport to become the ninth domestic carrier to serve BWI. Southwest and AirTran are responsible for about 70 percent of the airport's traffic.

Free circulator bus service will be extended to Fort McHenry in Locust Point, city officials said Monday. Called the Banner Route, the new service will provide a free bus link to the historic site beginning in June, in time for bicentennial celebrations of the War of 1812. U.S. Rep. John P. Sarbanes joined Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake and his father, former Sen. Paul S. Sarbanes, in announcing the Charm City Circulator service to Fort McHenry National Monument and Historic Shrine on Fort Avenue.

The Pentagon is creating a new intelligence service aimed at gathering information on terrorist networks, weapons of mass destruction and other emerging concerns, a senior defense official said Monday. The new Defense Clandestine Service will draw several hundred officers from the existing Defense Intelligence Agency, according to the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly about the classified program. The officers - some military, some civilian - will work alongside CIA counterparts in places such as Africa, whereal-Qaida has grown more active, and Asia, where Chinese military expansion and North Korean and Iranian weapons ambitions are drawing increasing U.S. concern.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Visitors to the National Mall and to Arlington National Cemetery will have new transportation options in time for the National Cherry Blossom Festival. A new shuttle and tour service begins operating Monday at Arlington cemetery, the park service said. The new shuttle, which covers just the cemetery, costs $8.75 per person. For the National Mall, a new express bus service will begin operating March 12. It will run in a loop from Union Station to the World War II Memorial, the Lincoln Memorial, Arlington cemetery, the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial and the Smithsonian Metro station.

One of the world's largest container companies chose Baltimore over other East Coast cities as its first U.S. stop for direct shipping from Northern Europe after a long courtship by Maryland officials and private business leaders. The service by Hapag-Lloyd AG, which starts in February, will boost container traffic at the port of Baltimore by roughly 10 percent, increasing the number of waterfront jobs and further raising the region's profile within the maritime industry, state officials said.

Baltimore and the Bahamas' Freeport have a lot in common. They're both cities with a mix of tourist areas and heavy industry, and both often play second banana to a national capital. Now the two cities are linked by a direct air service that began Thursday. Vision Airlines, a U.S. carrier known for its occasional role as a charter contractor for the Central Intelligence Agency, will offer twice-weekly service between Baltimore-Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport and Freeport, a vacation destination that in recent years has been eclipsed by bustling Nassau.

The Chesapeake and Potomac Telephone Co. has introduced a service that would allow customers to convert their home phones to business phones while keeping many of the features of residential service.The new feature, called Home Business Service, could be used by an estimated 225,000 Maryland customers who operate businesses from their homes but who do not have business listings. "We're trying to help the people who are running businesses out of their homes," said C&P spokeswoman Jeanine Smetana.

AT&T Wireless rolled out a new wireless phone service yesterday in the Baltimore-Washington market that offers free, unlimited access to 40 Web sites and other features in a bid to capture a larger share of the exploding market for Internet access via handheld devices. The Baltimore-Washington area has emerged as one of the leading regions in the country for cellular telephone usage, according to the Federal Communications Commission. The FCC estimates that 20 percent of the region's 3 million to 4 million residents have a cellular telephone account.

Greyhound will offer new nonstop service from Baltimore to New York beginning May 10 as part of the expansion of its Express bus line into the Northeast. The Express bus is a premium service that includes a guaranteed seat for each rider and new environmentally friendly buses that offer free WiFi, leather seats, extra legroom and power outlets. In addition, fares start as low as $1 for the Express bus. Greyhound introduced premium Greyhound Express in the Midwest last December, serving Chicago, Milwaukee, Cincinnati and Minneapolis, among a handful of other cities.

Most people use the Charm City Circulator to commute. But some people, a fraction of total riders, use it after 6 p.m., according to the Baltimore Department of Transportation. What for? The department doesn't know. It could be more commuting. I wondered, would it be possible to use it to barhop? Recently, I put it to the test. The challenge: five bars, one night, using only the Circulator as transportation. My only rule was to have only one drink at each bar. Within five minutes at my first stop, I'd had four.