NEW ORLEANS (AP) - Starting April 2, discount bus carrier Megabus plans two routes a day between New Orleans and Atlanta, with two stops in Alabama.

The Stagecoach Group PLC subsidiary offers fares starting at $1 and rising as bookings increase and the travel date approaches. Sunday morning, the lowest fares showing on its website for April 26 were $5 to Atlanta and $8 to New Orleans.

The routes include stops in Mobile and Montgomery, Ala., which Megabus also serves on other routes.

New Orleans is being added by popular demand.

Megabus got "a significant amount of customer inquiries, via our website and social networking, recommending that we bring our service to New Orleans," president and chief operating officer Dale Moser told The Times-Picayune (http://bit.ly/zNJf1H).

The double-decker buses will leave New Orleans at 10 a.m. and 9:30 p.m., and will leave Atlanta for New Orleans at noon and 11:59 p.m.

Megabus launched in the United Kingdom in 2003 and four years ago in the United States and Canada, gaining popularity for buses with wireless Internet and electrical outlets in each row

In November, it opened an Atlanta hub with service to Mobile, Montgomery and Birmingham, Ala.; Charlotte, N.C.; Chattanooga, Knoxville, Nashville and Memphis, Tenn.; Gainesville, Jacksonville and Orlando, Fla.

Each departure has some $1 seats, said Moser. "It's not just a promotional thing. Every bus, every day, every trip, has some $1 seats."

Moser said the company has no current plans to expand past New Orleans. "We tend to be very deliberate with how we roll these out," he said.

Its buses will pick up passengers near the French Quarter, at Bienville Avenue between North Peters Street and North Front Boulevard.