mark1447 Posted June 2, 2012 Share #1 Posted June 2, 2012 Federal transportation officials said Thursday they have shut down 26 curbside bus operators that carry an estimated 1,800 passengers daily along the heavily traveled Interstate 95 corridor between New York and Florida. Officials with the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration said they shut down the companies for a variety of safety violations. Curbside bus companies operate between major cities but usually don't use traditional bus terminals to pick up passengers. The curbside bus business has flourished along the East Coast, with many companies copying the business model used by Chinese-American bus operators who developed routes between the Chinatown sections of big cities. Originally tailored to serve Chinese immigrants, these routes have drawn a larger clientele that includes budget-conscious college students and tourists. Source & Video: http://www.wcsh6.com...6-bus-operators Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mtattrain Posted June 2, 2012 Share #2 Posted June 2, 2012 RIP Fung-Wah lol Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shortline Bus Posted June 2, 2012 Share #3 Posted June 2, 2012 Hopefully now they now raise the safety of the buses/equipement on these routes. The negative is the low prices may be gone for good. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Amtrak7 Posted June 2, 2012 Share #4 Posted June 2, 2012 RIP Fung-Wah lol Not all Chinatown buses are dead with this shutdown, Fung Wah is still alive. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BZGuy Posted June 2, 2012 Share #5 Posted June 2, 2012 Hopefully now they now raise the safety of the buses/equipement on these routes. The negative is the low prices may be gone for good. The fare are too low anyway. We should not be charging sub-20 fares on 200 mile trips. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Far Rock Depot Posted June 2, 2012 Share #6 Posted June 2, 2012 There goes my Philly bus. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paulrivera Posted June 2, 2012 Share #7 Posted June 2, 2012 The fare are too low anyway. We should not be charging sub-20 fares on 200 mile trips. No let's not. Greyhound/Peter Pan used to charge $40+ between NY and Boston alone. OTOH, I'm surprised Greyhound has a couple of $1 fares from NY to as far south as Richmond, VA, which is easily over 300 miles. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BZGuy Posted June 2, 2012 Share #8 Posted June 2, 2012 No let's not. Greyhound/Peter Pan used to charge $40+ between NY and Boston alone. It's 214 miles from New York to Boston. Tolls and diesel have gone up. They also have to pay terminal fees at each end....unless you want to stand out on a street corner..... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paulrivera Posted June 3, 2012 Share #9 Posted June 3, 2012 It's 214 miles from New York to Boston. Tolls and diesel have gone up. They also have to pay terminal fees at each end....unless you want to stand out on a street corner..... Nah I'd like to be indoors, but at the same time I wouldnt pay Amtrak fares for Greyhound service. The lowest Amtrak fare NY-BOS is about $49 here in 2012, the most my mother and I paid for Greyhound was $42 p/p one way in 1999. Those $1-$10-$15 fares are a little much though realistically, they can get away with more $15-$20-$25 fares. The point is as long as they dont overinflate the price where they drive away the customers they've been starting to gain back. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shortline Bus Posted June 3, 2012 Share #10 Posted June 3, 2012 Nah I'd like to be indoors, but at the same time I wouldnt pay Amtrak fares for Greyhound service. The lowest Amtrak fare NY-BOS is about $49 here in 2012, the most my mother and I paid for Greyhound was $42 p/p one way in 1999. Those $1-$10-$15 fares are a little much though realistically, they can get away with more $15-$20-$25 fares. The point is as long as they dont overinflate the price where they drive away the customers they've been starting to gain back. Agreed. While i understand B-Z point(he talking as a bus driver from Peter Pan/Greyhound)the expensives to run the services, a compromise could be offering fares around $25 1-way between NYC and DC or Boston. While between NYC and Philly/Hartford, Ct. could be around $15. Dont have to agree but a thought. The idea is to get some travelers who normally would drive along the NE Coordior(college students, weekend riders and occasional ones as well)off the road with reasonable fares. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Far Rock Depot Posted June 3, 2012 Share #11 Posted June 3, 2012 most of those $1 fares come with a catch like BoltBus. My uncle uses that to travel between boston and Nyc. the catch is, the $1 fare is the price for your return trip if you but a round trip in advance of your trip. So if you buy your tickets say...a month ahead of time youll pay full one way in one direction and $1 in the other. on a Side note, coming home from work yesterday, saw "Eastern" buses operating from Allen St. Thats Apex Co. The one i use to Philly. According to the article, they were shut down Wednesday. Hmmmm........ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paulrivera Posted June 3, 2012 Share #12 Posted June 3, 2012 The low fares on Mega/Bolt/Greyhound Express are pretty restrictive too, since they're technically only valid for the date/schedule on the ticket. On a local Greyhound all you have to do is look at the timetable, show up an hour before you want to leave and get in line. On Mega,Bolt, and express Greyhounds, you have to go on a standby line if you want to leave on a different bus. And for standby, Megabus charges $5 and Greyhound Express charges $15 extra on top of what you already paid. IINM Bolt doesnt charge extra for standby. Are the low fares on the Chinatown operators just as restrictive or is it more lenient there? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CDTA Posted June 4, 2012 Share #13 Posted June 4, 2012 Show up and your good. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
engineerboy6561 Posted June 9, 2012 Share #14 Posted June 9, 2012 The low fares on Mega/Bolt/Greyhound Express are pretty restrictive too, since they're technically only valid for the date/schedule on the ticket. On a local Greyhound all you have to do is look at the timetable, show up an hour before you want to leave and get in line. On Mega,Bolt, and express Greyhounds, you have to go on a standby line if you want to leave on a different bus. And for standby, Megabus charges $5 and Greyhound Express charges $15 extra on top of what you already paid. IINM Bolt doesnt charge extra for standby. Are the low fares on the Chinatown operators just as restrictive or is it more lenient there? It's far more lenient, at least on the buses I use (Fung Wah and Lucky Star between New York and Boston). All daytime buses (6:30-11:00) are $15, and there's a $25 red-eye bus that leaves at 2AM. Tickets for each bus are on sale up until that bus leaves (but if there are more people with tickets for a bus than there are seats the people at the back of the line get bumped to the next bus), and the tickets are good for 7 days according to them. In my experience, you buy tickets for a specific bus, but they're good on any bus that day at no extra charge. On another note, I'm less than pleased about this bust and I look forward to seeing many of these same buses back on the street in different (but equally shoddy) livery. I go to MIT, and my family lives in the Bronx; for me Fung Wah is a bit of a lifeline. $30 round-trip from New York to Boston means that I can come home for three- and four-day weekends during the year rather than having to restrict myself to Christmas, spring break, and summer (which I would have had to due to lack of funds of the fares were still $40-$50 each way). In addition, knowing that I'm only four hours and $15 away from home in the event of a family emergency (as compared to having to buy days in advance or deal with having to spend money that might not be in my bank account at the time on regular carriers) gives me great peace of mind. I'm lucky enough to retain that lifeline (Fung Wah/Lucky Star are halfway legit and therefore still operational) but a whole lot of other people in similar postions in other cities aren't. Here's the thing; if the market is such that traditional carriers aren't capable of meeting demand, then by all means nontraditional carriers including ethnic bus lines should be encouraged to soak up the excess. New York now has Bolt and Mega acting as low-cost carriers, but both of those companies are subsidiaries of the Big Three (Greyhound, Peter Pan, and Coach USA) and the only reason they came into existence was because Chinatown carriers (despite being shady and sometimes dangerous) were cheap enough to justify the added risk for people who otherwise might not have been able to travel as regularly or on as short a notice as they needed to. With that competition gone and MegaBus already being driven out of one of its pickup locations, what's to stop fares from going back to where they were? I hope that the fight with the Chinatown carriers is not in fact over, and that this is just the latest stroke of the hammer in a game of Whack-A-Mole that will continue indefinitely. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
qjtransitmaster Posted June 9, 2012 Share #15 Posted June 9, 2012 if fares go up amtrak it is. seriously I dont use chinatowns anymore haven't in years BUT their very presence keeps greyhound fares in check from going out of control. Usually my bolt/mega or greyhound tickets are way cheaper than chinatown. But their presence can be felt in the greyhound fares. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CDTA Posted June 10, 2012 Share #16 Posted June 10, 2012 I gotta agree with you on pretty much everything you said there. First off, MIT FTW. Secondly, I recently moved upstate, and use the Chinatown bus to go to the city when I have three or four day weekends. It's only $30 roundtrip, which starts to even be cheaper than gas (My grandfather owns a hybrid, so it might be a leetle cheaper, but not much) Greyhound is 25 bucks each way . Thats $150 for me, my mom, and my sister. We can go down alot more because of the Chinatown bus, and as you said, I can go down during an emergency, or an event that pops up last second. (i.e. train day @GCT) But nevertheless, i'm sure mine is still running, because it got shut down by the DOT twice before, and it never stopped. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shortline Bus Posted June 10, 2012 Share #17 Posted June 10, 2012 While Greyhound used to be very expensive before the so called 'bootleg' buses i.e Chinatown buses came into existence, they should still be able to pay for proper maintence and safety of their buses. Even if the fares went up say $5 each way, I pay for it. Thus i will still avoid the "Chinatown buses" and instead will use "Bolt Bus" for instance a Greyhound-owned discount bus service for lower fares. So there should be room for lower fares and at same time, buses that have safe drivers and safe coaches as well. In last couple of years I went between NYC and Washington 3x and paid only around $42($ 19.99 each way plus taxes)and it so comfortable in being in leather seats. Just my takes. PS CDTA and engineerboy6561 both NY trailways(Albany-NYC) and also Bolt Bus(Boston-NYC) do offer online discounts if you book at least couple of days in advance. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BZGuy Posted June 11, 2012 Share #18 Posted June 11, 2012 I just find it offensive that people think they should pay sub-$10 fares on trips over 200 miles. But hey let the Chinese keep killing the lowest common denominator! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FamousNYLover Posted July 9, 2012 Share #19 Posted July 9, 2012 I finally found the list of private bus operator shutdown. http://www.fmcsa.dot...-fact-sheet.pdf I-95 Motrocoach Fact Sheet THE NETWORK OF INTERSTATE-95 CARRIERS APEX BUS, INC. (Based in New York, NY) - APEX BUS NY INC (Based in New York, NY) – DOT Number: 1648076 - NEW EGG BUS INC (Based in State College, PA) – DOT Number: 1782669 - ASIA TOURS INC (Based in State College, PA) – DOT Number: 1981036 - UNIVERSE BUS INC (Based in Philadelphia, PA) – DOT Number: 1301467 - A ONE BUS INC (Based in Rochester, NY) – DOT Number: 2042137 - ALL STATE TRAVEL BUS INC (Based in Windgap, PA) – DOT Number: 1504113 I-95 COACH, INC. (Based in New York, NY) I-95 COACH INC GO TO TRAVEL INC (Based in Rocky Mountain, NC) – DOT Number: 2151433 - TWINS JIANG CORP (Based in East Meadow, NY) – DOT Number: 1786076 - UNITED TOURS INC (Based in Greensboro, NC) – DOT Number: 1964240 - HU MEI EXPRESS INC (Based in Chamblee, GA) – DOT Number: 1072668 - TONY BUS LINE INC (Based in Chamblee, GA) – DOT Number: 1479668 - TONY BUS EXPRESS LINE INC (Based in Chamblee, GA) – DOT Number: 1490687 - COACH 88 INC (Based in Rocky Mountain, NC) – DOT Number: 1785178 - TONY BUS EXPRESS LINE INC (Based in Bowie, MD) – DOT Number: 1628136 - RA TRANSPORTATION INC (Based in Lancaster, PA) – DOT Number: 1856875 NEW CENTURY TRAVEL, INC. (Based in Philadelphia, PA) - ANTAI TOURS INC (Based in Wilkes Barre, PA) – DOT Number: 1922290 - SUPER LUXURY TOURS INC (Based in Wilkes Barre, PA) – DOT Number: 1669914 - RED EAGLE TOURS INC (Based in Mishawaka, IN) – DOT Number: 2163652 - 2003 COACH INC (Based in Wilkes Barre, PA) – DOT Number: 1305152 - EAGLE BUS INC (Based in Indianapolis, IN) – DOT Number: 1889752 - FUJIAN TOURISM COMPANY LTD (Based in Springfield, PA) – DOT Number: 1858916 - SAMMY'S TOURS INC (Based in Indianapolis, IN) – DOT Number: 1471745 - BLACK LEOPARD TRAVEL INC (Based in Brooklyn, NY) – DOT Number: 2046152 - NEW CENTURY TRAVEL INC (Based in Philadelphia, PA) – DOT Number: 911125 - WAHOO TOUR AND CHARTER INC (Based in Philadelphia, PA) – DOT Number: 2163686 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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