Bolt, Mega and Peter Pan are all nicer, cleaner and more comfortable.

You won't get mugged. Unless you find yourself acting like a fish out of water, flashing lots of money. I agree with the other answers. Never taken Dragon Coach, but I've grown tired of the Chinatown bus experience. On my last trip (Memorial Day wknd 2010), our bus broke down on the side of the New Jersey turnpike. And since it's not assigned seating, there may not be a seat on the bus you want to ride home (I've had that happen a couple of times). It's just as easy to take Bolt or Mega Bus.

LOL! Olney Station is a major access to all SEPTA transportation.Plenty of Septa police there at all times.

If you have to worry about getting mugged wait till you get to NYC to worry about that

Never heard of "Dragon Coach" All this low fare to NYC are just as good as the next. They get you to NYC quickly and cheaply. I prefer Bolt and Mega Bus.

Speaking of SEPTA and OLNEY Station the West Oak Lane Jazz Festival is coming June 18, 19 and 20th.Al Jarreau & George Duke Trio,Dave Sanborn & Joey DeFrancesco, Preservation Hall Jazz Band,Breakwater are some of the headlines,This is a FREE 3 day event. So bring your lawn chair, and come out early to enjoy great jazz.

I've taken many a Chinatown bus, but never Dragon Coach. Their NYC-DC route has some mixed reviews online:
http://www.yelp.com/biz/dragon-coach-chinatown-bus-washington
http://www.chinatown-bus.com/chinatown-bus-reviews.htm

That said, why take a Chinatown bus these days? You can get from the Olney Transportation Center to 30th St Station in a half hour, and from 30th you can take the Bolt Bus or the Megabus. Both are far superior to any Chinatown bus and cost only a little bit more.

http://us.megabus.com/
https://www.boltbus.com/

To search for all your options, http://busjunction.com/ is indispensable.

Must you plan ahead or can you go last minute? American has a hub in Chicago, IIRC, and they have weekly emails on last minute tix. Periodically they offer some good prices. Unlike other carriers AA's email is for the following weekend -10 days, rather than 3 in the future. From time to time I've had a luck with last minute packages. That was with site59 - now lastminute.com, I believe. They beat USAir's package so badly that I got several nights at a Wyndham *plus* airfare for less that USA was selling the seats alone.

I have never used this site but my husband has used it to book several trips. www.montrosetravel.com