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NEIGHBORHOOD REPORT: SUNSET PARK

July 7, 1996

NEIGHBORHOOD REPORT: SUNSET PARK;Illegal Van Express Overtakes Slow Trains to Chinatown

By SOMINI SENGUPTA

Shortly after 5 o'clock on a muggy afternoon last week, Connie Lui, spent from a long day poring over ledgers, hopped out of a powder blue Dodge van that rolled along Eighth Avenue in Sunset Park. For more than a year now, Ms. Lui has relied on the army of vans that line Eighth Avenue during rush hour to take her to and from the Chinatown meat market where she works as an accountant.

The ride costs $1.75 each way, sometimes only $1.50. To Ms. Lui, the 45-minute ride in the back of a van packed with fellow Chinese-speaking New Yorkers is far more comfortable than a longer trek on the N or R subway lines -- known among some Brooklynites as the Never and the Rarely. "The subway is dirty and dangerous," she said, shaking her head. "If we can choose, we prefer the van."

But not everybody has kind words for the estimated 100 vans that connect thousands of commuters like Ms. Lui between Chinatown and Sunset Park. Nearly a year after the City Council approved a law allowing the so-called "dollar vans" to obtain licenses to operate legally, the unlicensed, sometimes dangerous, vans that ply the streets of Sunset Park have expanded their service, opting to take passengers straight to Manhattan. In other parts of the city, vans drop riders at subway stations. Transit Authority officials were not available for comment on Friday.

Police in the 72nd Precinct, which has jurisdiction over portions of Sunset Park, say the illegal vans frequently lack insurance, seat belts and fire extinguishers. Other critics, including Councilwoman Joan Griffin McCabe, charge that during rush hour, the vans clog traffic and scoop up scarce parking spots along Eighth Avenue. And legal van operators -- only 3 among an estimated 9 or 10 in Sunset Park -- are infuriated by what they perceive to be unfair competition.

"They would like to rob our business," fumed Peter Wong, the owner of 183 Van Service, which runs six vans. "They try to lower their prices to $1, $1.50."

Paul Mak, president of the Brooklyn Chinese-American Association, defended the illegal operators. He said they cannot keep prices affordable for the neighborhood's low-income immigrants and meet the city's costly and complicated licensing requirements -- insurance alone, according to Mr. Wong, costs about $10,000 a year. "These van operators are just filling the service gap between the M.T.A. and the subway system," Mr. Mak argued.

Police in the 72d precinct have stepped up enforcement in recent months, said Police Officer Chris Dirusso, but the summonses and occasional confiscations of vans do little to clear the dollar vans from Eighth Avenue. "It's pretty much a revolving door," he said. "We do what we can."

One driver of an illegal van on Eighth Avenue who insisted on anonymity shrugged when asked about the stepped-up enforcement. On the day that the police issue tickets, said the driver through an interpreter, he stays off the road. SOMINI SENGUPTA

Zhong Hua Flushing-Chinatown Shuttle Van Service - Queens/Downtown Flushing - New York, NY

Yelp review

Zhong Hua Flushing-Chinatown Shuttle Van Service
2 reviews

Category: Public Transportation
Neighborhood: Queens/Downtown Flushing
Main St & 41st Ave
Division St between Market St & Bowery, New York, NY
New York, NY 10002

18th National Rural Public and Intercity Bus Transportation Conference

The 18th National Conference on Rural Public and Intercity Bus Transportation will be held October 19-22, 2008 in Omaha, Nebraska.

COMINGS AND GOINGS; Budget Bus Fares As Low as $1

Now you can travel comfortably between New York City and Toronto without spending your entire budget en route. Neon, a new low-fare bus service from Greyhound Canada and Adirondack Trailways, offers two daily departures from both cities for as little as $1 (there is at least one $1 seat on every bus) -- although a $25-to-$75 price range is more likely -- one way. Buses have video screens, Wi-Fi service and power outlets. Customers board in New York outside Penn Station and in Toronto at the Royal York Hotel. Walk-up tickets cost $85 (one way), and the better deals (the earlier the reservation, the lower the price) are available at www.greyhound.com.

COMMUTER VAN DRIVERS SAY RENEGADES SWIPE BIZ

* COMMUTER VAN DRIVERS SAY RENEGADES SWIPE BIZ

By AUSTIN FENNER

Friday, May 1th 1998, 2:04AM

Competition for van passengers between the Chinatowns in Sunset Park and Manhattan is so fierce that licensed operators say a swarm of speedier illegal minivans has stolen three-fourths of their business.

The licensed 14-passenger commuter van companies say they are being driven out of business by seven-passenger minivan drivers who also ply Eighth Ave.

in the 50s and 60s, the main commercial strip for the Asian community in Sunset Park. Commuter vans are licensed to provide service from Sunset Park to Canal St. in Manhattan.

The minivans usually are licensed by the Taxi and Limousine Commission, but only to answer telephone requests, and not to stop for street hails, the head of the commuter van trade association said.

More than half of commuter vans towed after inspections - Hudson County - NJ.com

More than half of commuter vans towed after inspections

by Michaelangelo Conte/The Jersey Journal Tuesday September 23, 2008, 3:02 PM

The Hudson County Prosecutor's Office towed 15 of 27 jitneys pulled over today in West New York, part of a continuing campaign to enforce safety laws that officials concede is having little impact.

"It still seems that there is a lack of compliance here and as far as our office is concerned, we are going to move forward and protect the citizens of Hudson County by conducting more of these stops to enforce the law," said Hudson County Assistant Prosecutor Michael Zevits.

Surprise inspections began at about 7 a.m. at 59th Street off Bergenline Avenue.

About 151 safety violation were cited during the inspections, by the state Motor Vehicle Commission Commercial Bus Unit, West New York police, the Hudson County Prosecutor's Office and the Hudson County Sheriff's Office, Zevits said. Police also issued 35 motor vehicle tickets, Zevits said.

Safety violations included bad brakes, cracked frames, fuel leaks and safety equipment violations including bad windows and missing fire extinguishers, Zevits said. Motor vehicle summonses were issued for uninsured vehicles, expired drivers licenses and failure to produce medical cards, Zevits said.

West New York resident Santos Mercedes said he doesn't understand why police pulled him over and inspect his van when he had a good inspection sticker and his paperwork is in order.

"I was just driving on Bergenline around 7:50 a.m. and I was stopped by a policeman and I gave him my license and registration and everything was up to date," Mercedes said. "I had in my bus like 25 passengers and he made me take out all my passengers in the middle of street. They have to go to work. Maybe some of them will lose their jobs."

Mercedes said that in the end, he was allowed to drive away with no citations, adding that last month his van was towed at a cost of $850.

The Prosecutor's Office's Insurance Fraud Unit has conducted more than a dozen surprise inspections of commuter vans in Hudson County over the past two years.

Judge Rejects Most of Law On Commuter Van Licenses - New York Times

By ANTHONY RAMIREZ

Published: March 24, 1999

Backers of the private commuter vans, often called ''dollar vans,'' that serve poor and working-class neighborhoods in Brooklyn and Queens, won a legal victory last week. If it stands, the decision is certain to sharply increase the number of licensed vans in New York City.

In a decision reached Thursday and made public yesterday, Justice Louis B. York of the State Supreme Court in Manhattan intervened in a six-year-old clash between Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani, who backs licensing more vans, and the City Council, which does not.

Justice York struck down most of a 1993 law passed by the Council giving it the power to reject van licenses already approved by the Taxi and Limousine Commission, which is part of the Mayor's office.

There are 362 licensed vans in the city, carrying about 40,000 passengers daily. Among those vans are fewer than a dozen licensed vans approved by the City Council, which has rejected nearly all of the applications from the taxi commission. But estimates of the number of illegal vans vary from 1,000 to 5,000, with many operating part time and without regular safety inspections.

The dollar vans, which carry 20 or fewer passengers, first emerged in 1980 when a transit workers' strike disrupted bus service. Since then, the vans have continued in neighborhoods with little bus service. But van ridership has been hurt recently by the introduction of bus and subway discounts with the Metrocard. Proponents hail the vans as examples of free enterprise, but opponents -- notably the transit unions -- fear they may hurt mass transit.

Justice York ruled that the Council's law, known as Local Law 115, violated the constitutional separation of powers by allowing the Council to administer rather than write a law. ''This it cannot do,'' the judge wrote in a ruling on an October 1997 suit filed by the Mayor against the Council. The Mayor's suit followed a February 1997 suit filed by van operators against the City of New York. In that suit, Justice York ruled in favor of the van operators.

Midtown - Buses Near Port Authority Terminal Called a Neighborhood Nuisance - NYTimes.com

October 5, 2008

Midtown

A Glut of Buses at the Crossroads of the World

By SAKI KNAFO

AT the Manhattan Plaza Health Club, on West 43rd Street near 10th Avenue, members often discuss the peculiar challenges of living in a neighborhood that also happens to be the crossroads of the world. But lately, the chats on the treadmills have focused on one particular issue: the swelling ranks of private buses and vans that pick up passengers in the area — not from the Port Authority Bus Terminal, on Eighth Avenue, but from the streets nearby.

“They’re everywhere,” said Piper Smith, an illustrators’ agent who is a regular at the club. “They seem to be reproducing as we speak.”

The largely white vehicles shuttle passenger to and from New Jersey at all hours. During peak travel times, particularly on Friday and Saturday nights, dozens of vehicles line up along both sides of 42nd Street between Eighth and Ninth Avenues while customers wait in dense clusters on the sidewalk.

It’s hard to say just how many buses congregate on these blocks, but few doubt that the number is increasing. Norberto Curitomai, the owner of Spanish Transportation Corporation of Paterson, N.J., one of four major busing companies in the area, says that his fleet of 180 vehicles has added 10 to 15 new vehicles each year since 2001.

Like most — though not all — of the companies, Mr. Curitomai’s firm is registered with the city’s Department of Transportation, which allows his vehicles to quickly load and unload passengers by a designated stretch of Eighth Avenue near 41st Street. What particularly vexes local residents, however, is what happens when the buses aren’t picking up passengers.

“These vehicles need to make three left turns to get to the tunnel,” Ms. Smith said of the Lincoln route. “When they’re not being used, they hide all over the neighborhood.”

Pollution is another concern. “When these buses are waiting for their time to pick up and stuff,” she said, “they don’t turn of the motor. It just idles.”

The Downside of Low-Cost Buses (Gotham Gazette, September 2008)

Gotham Gazette - http://www.gothamgazette.com/article/transportation/20080918/16/2648

The Downside of Low-Cost Buses
by Graham T. Beck
18 Sep 2008

On a recent Wednesday evening, Erin Brown waited for the Fung Wah bus to Boston with a dozen or so other people on a crowded Canal Street sidewalk. "It's such a crush - the people, the vendors, the cars, narrow sidewalks, narrow streets. I don't know why they leave from here, but the price is right," she said.

Brown is not alone in her sentiment. It often feels as though every inch of Chinatown is jam-packed. Cars clogs street from the Manhattan Bridge to the Holland Tunnel. Sidewalks overflow with tourists, workers and neighborhood residents. Stalls spill out from shops, and lately it seems that every few blocks there is a line of 20 or so people queuing up for an interstate bus.

The buses are nothing new. Since 1998, companies like Fung Wah, using spaces reserved for tour buses or agreed upon spots in the neighborhood, have run curbside operations, picking up and dropping off passengers. The recent surge in travel costs, though, has made more outfits see the benefits of such a low-overhead way of doing business. This means more buses jamming city streets and curbsides and more bus queues on already crowded sidewalks.

It has reached the point, according to City Councilmember Alan Gerson, where there now are more interstate bus pick-ups and drop-offs in Chinatown each day than there are at the Port Authority. Although the competition has driven down prices for travelers, it has created some difficult situations for neighborhood residents, passing pedestrians and local businesses.

An East Coast Latino Lifeline, on the Road for 30 Years - NYTimes.com

September 14, 2008

An East Coast Latino Lifeline, on the Road for 30 Years

By KIRK SEMPLE

ABOARD OMNIBUS LA CUBANA — It was shortly after 1 p.m. when the bus, its garish designs glinting in the late summer sunlight, pulled away from the curb on Broadway in Upper Manhattan and headed toward Miami.

The mood inside was pensive as the passengers tugged sweaters, snacks and travel pillows from their bags and prepared for the long trip. They were all Latino and mostly immigrants, each with a different reason for being there. Taking vacations. Looking for work. Fleeing bad decisions. Chasing dreams.

A Cuban-American widow was returning to Miami after visiting her husband’s grave in Union City, N.J. A Chilean chef was leaving one job in Manhattan and hoping to find another in South Florida. A Dominican musician living in Washington Heights was bound for a three-day recording session that he hoped would provide his big break.

“We carry all sorts of people: good people, bad people, all types,” said Carlos Rodriguez, 40, a Cuban émigré and one of the bus’s two drivers. “It’s life.”

For decades, New York and Miami have been the capitals of Latino life on the East Coast, linked by culture, business, extended families and a superhighway, I-95. People have flowed easily between the two hubs, and for 30 years, this bus line, the Omnibus La Cubana, has been the transportation of choice for many.

NYSun - Fung Wah Is Getting Stuck In Low-Cost Bus Traffic Jam

Fung Wah Is Getting Stuck In Low-Cost Bus Traffic Jam

By DAVID PEPOSE, Special to the Sun | July 15, 2008

Ms. Wambaugh added that BoltBus competes with Fung Wah in price because its online ticket purchasing system and its curbside service lowers its maintenance and human resources costs. Furthermore, she said, Greyhound's contracts with fuel companies allow BoltBus to buy diesel fuel at reduced prices.

...

While Fung Wah employees declined to comment, a company consultant who requested anonymity said it was not cutting any staff and hadn't seen any change in demand as a result of the increased competition. The consultant said the company receives 5,000 hits a day on its Web site, and "on July 4th, we filled every single bus." \

...

Some officials said the popularity of buses is only temporary. "There's clearly more players in the industry serving these routes than can be sustained," the president of the Economic Development Research Group in Boston, Glen Weisbrod, said. "They're trying to see which can outlast each other, because no one can make money on the low fares they have now."

A student at Wellesley College, Yael Misrahi, said prices and safety concerns led her to the newer bus companies. She said she's been warned against Fung Wah "by many people and told it was unsafe. I heard the bus drivers are not certified and that the buses are old and uninsured. That's why I would never take it ... on the other hand, I feel very safe on the Megabus."

This Just In: Budget Travel's Blog- The long-haul bus trip from hell - This Just In - Budget Travel

The long-haul bus trip from hell

Posted by: Thomas Berger, Thursday, Jul 10, 2008, 4:15 PM

If you travel up and down the East Coast between Washington, D.C., and Boston, you may have taken one of the many buses that run between the big cities' Chinatowns. Or you may wonder how they are. I’ve been a fan of the buses for some time, but they are not without their flaws.

My wife and I took a New Today bus from New York to D.C. on July 4 without incident, but the trip back (on Sunday, July 6) was rough. We arrived half an hour early, as advised, only to find about six busloads of people already waiting. (Not all of them were waiting for New Today buses; another company picks up passengers at the same place.) Some had been there for several hours. Each time a bus would come, a mob of people would rush to the door. Then the people at the back would start to push forward. It was hard enough to unload the buses, let alone get on one.

This was all very amusing until it started to rain. Hard. I don’t blame the bus company for the fact that I didn’t have an umbrella, but because of the crowds and the pushing even the people with umbrellas were getting soaked.

Eventually, someone called the police, and several officers arrived to provide much-needed crowd control. But of course the police could not conjure more buses.

We got on a bus about two and a half hours after our scheduled time (with some people who said they had been waiting for five hours), but the adventure wasn’t over. When we got to New York, the driver headed north from Midtown. When I asked where we were going, he said that the destination was 88th Street and Broadway. I explained that we needed to go to 88 E. Broadway, in Chinatown—about 95 blocks south from 88th.

A woman named Annie at the New York office said that New Today’s buses was running behind on Sunday because of holiday weekend traffic, which the rain only exacerbated. She also said that New Today had chartered other bus companies for the D.C.-New York route to resolve the problem, and that the driver of my bus must have misunderstood where he was supposed to go.

I don’t think New Today is worse than the other Chinatown bus companies, and they’re all preferable to Greyhound. But this experience did give me pause, and my wife says the lesson is that we shouldn’t travel on a holiday weekend.

Bus, train passengers: Border Patrol racial profiling at times -- amNY.com

Border patrol agents upstate are increasingly arresting New York City undocumented immigrants aboard Amtrak trains and Greyhound buses, raising questions that the government sometimes resorts to racial profiling, immigration advocates and attorneys said.

The arrests have been an authorized practice for decades but seem to have hit a fevered pitch recently, according to advocates.

The patrols have sparked protests in the city as well as upstate, most recently last weekend in Syracuse, where a group said that agents have even targeted U.S. citizens who look "foreign". Immigration attorneys say witnesses have said that agents sometimes question only people of color.

"We are a nation of law, but is their enforcement money better spent going after criminals and youth gangs?" asked the Rev. Brian Jordan, of the Franciscan Immigration Center in Manhattan, who has counseled one Irish and 12 Mexican and Central American undocumented immigrants who were taken off Greyhound buses and Amtrak trains in the past year.

Word of the patrols has broken out in some immigrant communities, and people who have overstayed visas or who never had one are staying off trains.

"Certainly it sent shockwaves through the Irish community," said a Manhattan Irish pub owner, whose bartender was recently deported after Border Patrol agents found him on a bus without identification. "You're not safe anywhere."

New York - Washington $5 Is Cheaper Fare Since 1952 - New York Times

August 8, 1992

New York - Washington $5 Is Cheaper Fare Since 1952

By ADAM BRYANT

Move over Delta, United and American. Another savage fare war is under way, driving down the price of a bus ride between Manhattan and Washington to $5.

Five dollars.

That is the lowest price on the route since 1952, when Truman was President and Greyhound charged $5.05 -- a sale price then, too. And it is less than the trip cost in 1939, when LaGuardia was Mayor and the bus ride down to Washington cost $5.50.

In a money-losing battle, the country's two-largest bus companies, Greyhound and Peter Pan Trailways, have knocked the price down three times in the last three weeks from its $25 starting point. Doesn't Cover the Costs

109th Congress House Hearings - CURBSIDE OPERATORS: BUS SAFETY AND ADA REGULATORY COMPLIANCE

[109th Congress House Hearings]
[From the U.S. Government Printing Office via GPO Access]
[DOCID: f:28267.wais]

 
      CURBSIDE OPERATORS: BUS SAFETY AND ADA REGULATORY COMPLIANCE

=======================================================================

                                (109-52)

                                HEARING

                               BEFORE THE

                            SUBCOMMITTEE ON
                    HIGHWAYS, TRANSIT AND PIPELINES

                                 OF THE

                              COMMITTEE ON
                   TRANSPORTATION AND INFRASTRUCTURE
                        HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                       ONE HUNDRED NINTH CONGRESS

                             SECOND SESSION

                               __________

                             MARCH 2, 2006

                               __________

                       Printed for the use of the
             Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure



                                   ____

                    U.S. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE
30-298                      WASHINGTON : 2006

Welcome to the Fast Lane: The Official Blog of the U.S. Secretary of Transportation: FMCSA Administrator Hill Reports on Curbside Bus Carriers

May 29, 2008

FMCSA Administrator Hill Reports on Curbside Bus Carriers

Many of you likely spent at least part of the holiday weekend traveling – whether driving to the beach or perhaps flying somewhere to visit friends and family. Last week, I traveled from Washington, D.C. to New York City for a conference and decided to personally experience a relative newcomer to the transportation industry: “curbside” bus carriers.

Curbside buses transport passengers from predetermined locations after the rider purchases a ticket from a website, a local vendor or the driver. They post their schedules on-line, generally operate without ticket offices and make their stops street side instead of bus terminals. Besides those distinctions, curbside buses are held to the same federal safety requirements as the rest of the industry.

As I learned when purchasing my tickets, low costs are the big draw. Curbside carriers typically offer incentives to buy tickets early. For example, some curbside bus companies offer seats for $1 to the first purchasers. From there, the price increases as fewer seats become available. Buying a seat at the last minute, however, will still only cost about $35 for a one-way trip to NYC. In fact, I paid more for a taxi to take me 33 blocks in Manhattan than I did for the cost of the five-hour trip from Washington.

I tried two different companies – one for the ride up to New York and another for the return trip to Washington. Both were comfortable and affordable. Most importantly, however, they both operated in a safe manner, were familiar with our safety regime and both drivers appeared quite capable. And, for those of you who are wondering, I did not reveal my identity during either trip.

As the administrator of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) – the federal agency that regulates the safety of interstate trucks and buses – I’ve always maintained that interstate passenger carriers have long been and continue to be among the safest mode of transportation in the United States, something that was demonstrated to me yet again last week. Our agency is committed to rigorous oversight of the bus industry.

Banishing buses to L'Enfant

DDOT is planning to force all low-cost bus carriers, like Bolt Bus, DC2NY, and the Chinatown buses to stop loading in Chinatown and at various other spots around the city (a few pick up in Dupont Circle), reports the Examiner (via DCist). Instead, all buses will have to load and unload at a special zone at 10th and D Southwest, right by the L'Enfant Metro.

This seems like a terrible idea. It sounds like it came from the LOS-watchers within DDOT: "Hmm, these buses are causing a lot of pedestrian congestion and taking up some room on our streets which should be used to move commuters in and out of the city as fast as possible. OK, let's put the buses in an empty part of the city, but one that's near Metro."

Intercity trains are much more energy-efficient than buses, but one advantage of buses is their flexibility. It's good that buses can choose to pick up in areas where there are many customers. Also, the service brings more pedestrian activity to those neighborhoods. At L'Enfant, there's nothing, and people will all just hop on the Metro.

If traffic is a problem, take away some curb parking or a traffic lane. Each of those buses carries as many people as a few blocks full of single passenger vehicles. There are some underutilized streets - how about a loading zone on the very wide F Street by Gallery Place?

Our street network is for the use of all, including buses. Buses aren't something we should move out of the way to speed transportation: they are the transportation. Let's move cars out of the way to make room for the buses.

Bus Rules: Let's Call a Time Out! - Greater Greater Washington

Bus Rules: Let's Call a Time OutThe number of cheap buses from DC to New York (like the Chinatown buses, DC2NY, Bolt Bus, Megabus, and others) has exploded recently. That's great for riders who want to get to New York cheaply, and to bring New Yorkers here to see what a great city we have (and spend money here).

It also causes noise in some neighborhoods. That's a problem, and one we should deal with. But after years and years of these buses operating, the District Department of Transportation (DDOT) has suddenly imposed "emergency" rules to banish all of these buses to the barren sidewalks of L'Enfant Plaza.

With only one month's notice, suddenly all of the bus companies will have to apply for permits, and can't pick up in more convenient areas. Some will go out of business. Visitors to our city will only see bland, depressing L'Enfant Plaza instead of vibrant, exciting Chinatown, Metro Center, Farragut Square, or Dupont Circle. There won't be anything to eat while waiting for a bus. People will feel less safe. Our businesses will lose revenue. And while private cars can still park for free or almost free on most blocks, we're hurting an environmentally friendly mode of transportation.

What's the rush? Can't we take a moment for a public discussion of better alternatives? What about auctioning off a few loading areas around the city? Or creating a bus zone in the huge parking lot that used to be the old convention center, or on one of the wide but mostly empty streets around Gallery Place or Judiciary Square?

Let's find a solution that keeps lively competition among our intercity buses while also fixing the problems. The buses have been operating for years. Let's take a time out on these rules until we can all work out a better solution.

DDOT is accepting comments for a few more days. Please send them a letter below asking them to call a time out on the new bus rules. Feel free to also weigh in with your opinion on what should be done.
Make Your Voice Heard

DDOT: Public Space Management

Issue in Spotlight: Intercity Bus Loading & Unloading in Public Space

In response to various complaints with regard to intercity buses using public space for loading and unloading passengers, DDOT has instituted new regulations* that will now require intercity bus operators to obtain a permit as well as use newly identified, designated area(s) for pickups and drop offs. Existing intercity bus service operators, who utilize public space for loading and unloading passengers, should submit their application* for permits by July 3rd.

Limited space is available. Applications filed by July 3rd will be processed together. Any of these applications that include requests for use of the space at the same time will be resolved by the District Department of Transportation. All applications received after July 3rd will be given space as available on a first come first served basis.

Applications must be submitted in person at 941 North Capitol Street, NE, Suite 2300 along with a check made out to the DC Treasurer for the $100 application fee. The hours for submission are from 8:30 am and 4:15 pm, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday. The new regulations are part of a one-year pilot program to provide safer pedestrian environments in public space for visitors and residents.

Low-cost, regional bus companies forced to load in designated zone - Examiner.com

Low-cost, regional bus companies forced to load in designated zone

Jun 18, 2008 3:00 AM (14 days ago) by Michael Neibauer, The Examiner

WASHINGTON (Map, News) - Say goodbye to the Chinatown Bus and hello to L’Enfant Coach.

Responding to the exploding popularity of inexpensive bus rides between Washington, New York and other destinations, the District plans to funnel all buses that load and unload passengers on city streets into a single “intercity bus zone” in Southwest. The myriad bus services, a staple of the downtown for years, will face fines up to $1,500 for loading

outside of that zone, which can accommodate only two buses at a time.

The D.C. Department of Transportation claims that the various Chinatown buses, DC2NY and BoltBus, among others, are congesting streets, disrupting transit and causing a safety hazard for pedestrians. With fares as low as $15 each way and modern amenities such as wireless Internet, the buses have proliferated as gas prices have skyrocketed.

“In some instances, this activity poses safety concerns to the general public and to the bus customers themselves,” Karyn LeBlanc, DDOT spokeswoman, said in an e-mail.

Under a soon-to-debut one-year pilot program, intercity buses will be routed to a curb lane on northbound 10th Street Southwest, just south of D Street beneath the L’Enfant Promenade. The regulations require that all buses obtain a DDOT permit to load there — the application for which must include a proposed schedule, plan for queuing passengers and a $100 fee.

WCBS NEWSRADIO 880 - Truck Hits Bus

Truck Hits Bus; Bus Crashes Into Bank

NEW YORK (WCBS 880) -- One person is dead and four people are injured after an out-of-control dump truck coming off the Manhattan Bridge slammed into a waiting bus that was loading people for a trip to Boston.

The dead was a 57-year-old pedestrian.

Photo Gallery - Chinatown Bus Crash

That Fung Wah bus that is now jammed into the side of the United Commercial Bank at Canal and The Bowery

An entire traffic light has been brought down by this accident. Police are still on the scene investigating.

The impact of the collision caused the bus to go into the plate glass window of the bank, so that's smashed, and so is the bus's front window.

LATImes - California Shuttle Bus- Busman Stops at Nothing

September 10, 2003
COLUMN ONE
Busman Stops at Nothing
* After 9/11, Kazuhiro Nakagawa's business was reduced from $10,000 luxury tours to $40 trips up and down the coast, but he doesn't give up.

By Ronald D. White, Times Staff Writer

It was almost departure time, but Kazuhiro Nakagawa's 55-seat tour bus still had that "Not in Service" look as it sat outside the Wilshire Grand Hotel in downtown Los Angeles.

Slowly, a handful of passengers assembled: two teenagers from Altadena, a frugal twentysomething couple just back from Israel and a 19-year-old German woman touring the country.

A few years ago, Japanese tourists paid Nakagawa $10,000 each for whirlwind tours of the Western United States on his luxury bus. With that market ruined by the sour Japanese economy and the lingering effects of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, Nakagawa sought a new niche running a nonstop luxury bus service from Los Angeles to San Francisco, $40 one way.
...

Press Release - Megabus.com Introduces Double-Decker Buses for Northeast City-to-City Travel

Megabus.com Introduces Double-Decker Buses for Northeast City-to-City Travel New York and Washington first cities to receive 79-passenger closed top-buses

Casino-Bound, Complaints in Their Wake - New York Times

April 15, 2007
Chinatown
Casino-Bound, Complaints in Their Wake

By CASSI FELDMAN

Around 8:30 p.m., a fat gray bus bound for Atlantic City pulls up on Division Street in Chinatown. Its doors wheeze open, and a line of riders shuffle into formation, clutching pink tickets and plastic shopping bags, and sucking a few final drags from their cigarettes before flicking them away.

The ritual takes no more than 15 minutes, but it happens dozens of times a day as buses headed to Trump Plaza, Foxwoods or other casinos load and unload passengers in the V formed by the Bowery and Division Street.

Now, citing pollution and noise, neighbors say they want the buses to find a new home.

"You can feel a toxic film in our yard," said Justin Yu, vice president of the co-op board at Confucius Plaza, a 44-story complex that overlooks the site. "It's very unhealthy."

While numerous bus companies operate out of Chinatown, Mr. Yu and his neighbors are particularly concerned about casino buses because their informal hub is a block shared by hundreds of senior citizens, an elementary school, a kindergarten and a day care center.

Dreams and Desperation on Forsyth Street - NYTimes.com

June 8, 2008

Dreams and Desperation on Forsyth Street

By SAKI KNAFO

IT began in 1998 with a routine act of bureaucracy, a decision by the city’s Department of Transportation to put up a pair of red and white metal signs in the eastern section of Chinatown, on a desolate block in the shadow of the Manhattan Bridge.

The signs, which bore the cryptic message “Bus Layover Area — 6 a.m.-midnight,” in effect allowed private interstate buses to wait briefly by the curb, seven days a week.

By the end of the year, two or three cut-rate Chinatown-to-Chinatown buses had adopted the strip as their base of operations, stopping there to drop off and collect passengers before lighting out for Washington, Boston and points beyond.

As the popularity of the buses increased, their numbers multiplied, and by 2002 three companies were wrangling over the little block, Forsyth Street between East Broadway and Division Street. One company owner hired several women to sell tickets on the sidewalk, and his competitors followed suit. Quarrels between rival ticket sellers became commonplace.

Megabus to halt service in L.A. - Los Angeles Times

Megabus to halt service in L.A.

Despite low fares, ridership remained too low to keep operating in Los Angeles.

By Andrea Chang, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
May 17, 2008

Bargain bus service Megabus, which touted fares as low as $1, said Friday that it would pull out of Los Angeles because of low ridership.

The decision to shut down the hub, which was expected, came less than a year after Megabus began service from Los Angeles to cities including San Francisco and Las Vegas.

"Our approach has been to go into different markets and give it a shot and see how they'll develop," said Megabus President Dale Moser. "If they develop quickly, we'll certainly sustain it. But in this case, the ridership trends aren't growing enough."

Megabus, a subsidiary of Coach USA, will end its service from Los Angeles to San Francisco and Oakland after June 22, and from Los Angeles to Las Vegas, San Jose and Millbrae, Calif., a few weeks earlier, Moser said.

Earlier this year, Megabus halted its service from Los Angeles to San Diego and Phoenix.

Despite spending "thousands of dollars" in advertising, Moser said, the 56-seat buses would sometimes pull out of Los Angeles with as few as 12 riders.

Meanwhile, the service is taking off in the Midwest, where Megabus serves 17 cities and has seen its business increase 137% during the last year, he said.

"We're disappointed too," Moser said. "It doesn't mean at a later date we won't revisit bringing the service back."

Fung Wah and easyBus

9 August 2004

Comparison of services

STATEMENT OF JACQUELINE S. GILLAN VICE PRESIDENT ADVOCATES FOR HIGHWAY AND AUTO SAFETY -BEFORE THE SUBCOMMITTEE ON HIGHWAYS, TRANSIT & PIPELINES

STATEMENT OF JACQUELINE S. GILLAN
VICE PRESIDENT ADVOCATES FOR HIGHWAY AND AUTO SAFETY

CURBSIDE OPERATORS' BUS SAFETY

BEFORE THE SUBCOMMITTEE ON HIGHWAYS, TRANSIT & PIPELINES

HOUSE COMMITTEE ON TRANSPORTATION AND INFRASTRUCTURE

U.S. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
WASHINGTON, DC
MARCH 2, 2006

It's No Hallucination: Polka-Dot Buses Aim to Cut Travel Time - New York Times

May 15, 2008
It's No Hallucination: Polka-Dot Buses Aim to Cut Travel Time
By JENNIFER MASCIA
No, there are no illegal drugs being handed out as passengers begin their morning commutes: For the past few weeks, those seats on the M23 crosstown bus really have been decorated with light and dark blue bubbles.

The new upholstery is probably the most conspicuous feature of Select Bus Service, an experimental project by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, with the support of the city and state Departments of Transportation, to improve service on congested routes.

The project, the result of several years of study, draws on several elements of Bus Rapid Transit, a system of bus operating practices used in cities around the world. The system's main elements will eventually include bus shelters where passengers pay the fare before boarding; fewer stops and greater distances between stops; dedicated bus lanes with a distinctive color and lettering; direct routes with frequent service that supplements, but does not replace, regular local bus service; and electronic signals that give the buses priority (a few extra seconds) if a traffic signal is about to switch, say, to yellow from green.

If the project is successful and put into place citywide, it could prove to be a great relief for customers who have long complained about the snail-like pace of city buses, especially the crosstown buses in Manhattan. It could also mark one of the starkest changes for bus riders, who for more than a century have been accustomed to dropping their change - or now, dipping a MetroCard - into the fare box upon boarding.

Under the new system, customers will pay before boarding, collecting a proof of purchase from a fare dispenser, similar to a MetroCard vending machine or Muni-Meter parking ticket machine, in the bus shelter.

7online.com: Six hurt in Bronx bus accident 5/09/08

BRONX (WABC) -- Six people were hurt when a bus scraped an overpass on a Bronx highway Friday night.

None of the injuries are considered life-threatening, but the roof of the Greyhound bus was ripped off in the crash.

The incident happened on the Henry Hudson Parkway near 252nd Street. The bus was coming from Massachusetts.

TROUBLE ON THE HIGHWAY AND PARKED IN CHINATOWN

TROUBLE ON THE HIGHWAY
AND PARKED IN CHINATOWN
Questions about 'Chinatown bus' policies gain urgency after last month's deadly crash. > By I-Ching Ng

City Limits WEEKLY #591
June 11, 2007

Best known for their bargain prices, interstate buses run by Chinese companies have attracted travelers in droves, and helped many Chinese immigrants who can't communicate in English to travel to far-flung parts of the country. But a recent fatal accident involving a New York-bound bus has prompted new calls for the bus industry to step up safety measures.

New York City is the largest hub for these Chinese-run charter buses. The immigrant transportation industry started as an alternative and more affordable means to shuttle Chinese workers to Chinese restaurants in different locations. As the Chinese bus routes expanded rapidly along the East coast and Midwest over the years, commuters including students, artists, budget travelers and immigrants nationwide also caught the cheap fare trend. Currently the Chinese buses travel from New York City to Albany, Boston, Chicago, Providence, Michigan, Washington, D.C. and even as far as Florida for as little as $12 to $20 one way.

...

Low costs don’t necessarily mean low conscience, some say. City Councilmember John Liu, chairperson of Council’s transportation committee, said there is no pattern showing charter buses run by the Chinese companies are more accident-prone than those run by big national bus companies. He warned that the public should not stereotype these vehicles. “If an accident happened to a Greyhound or Trailway bus, you won’t say the 'Port Authority Bus' crashed. Likewise, Chinatown is not a company and it’s absurd to say the 'Chinatown buses' are not safe,” Liu said.

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INTERCITY BUS SERVICE CHANGES FOLLOWING THE BUS REGULATORY REFORM ACT OF 1982

INTERCITY BUS SERVICE CHANGES FOLLOWING THE BUS REGULATORY REFORM ACT OF 1982
Accession Number:	00453096
Record Type:	Component

Abstract:	The Bus Regulatory Reform Act of 1982 (BRRA) increased entry and exit flexibility for regular-route intercity bus firms and created a process for preemption of burdensome state regulations, particularly those dealing with exit. Congress directed the Motor Carrier Ratemaking Study Commission to study the impacts of these changes. The results of that study regarding changes in bus service are presented. In the year following implementation of the BRRA, carriers filed to discontinue service to 2,154 points. Most of the points losing service had small populations; 80.7 percent had less than 2,500 persons and had been receiving a very low level of service. Revenue and cost data for a number of the route segments at issue indicated annual carrier losses of $7 million on variable costs and more than $13 million on a fully allocated cost basis. A number of routes did not have any revenue, indicating that few users would be affected by discontinuance. Against these service losses must be balanced the positive effects of increased competition resulting from 225 applications for regular route authority, of which 71 percent were for regular-route intercity service. The competitive pressures for new services and fare reductions between larger cities provide benefits such that the overall effect of increased entry and exit flexibility has been positive even though a small number of bus riders have experienced an absolute loss of service.
Supplemental Notes:	This paper appeared in Transportation Research Record N1012, Economic and Regulatory Issues in Intercity Bus and Other Transportation.
TRIS Files:	HRIS; UMTRIS
Pagination:	p. 38-46
Authors:	Fravel, F D

Chinatown bus chaos

Volume 77, Number 10 | August 08 - 14, 2007

Editorial

Chinatown bus chaos

Chinatown's private bus business is booming. That this industry has grown to its current level in a little under 10 years is amazing. The rates are cheap and if one is not too fussy these rides are just the ticket.

Yet, while the busy bus business is good news for Chinatown's economy over all, it also has brought a host of problems that are affecting Chinatown as well as the Lower East Side.

The buses increase traffic, pollution, noise, garbage and even violence, due to the fights that sometimes flare between rival operators in their competition for passengers. Police say it's hard to oversee these problems because the buses are so spread out. And the buses' picking up at the curb at scattered locations means traffic is being impacted in a haphazard, irrational way. Residents, in particular, are feeling the bus invasion's effects.

As The Villager reported last week, the city recently proposed a 30-day pilot program under which all the Chinatown interstate buses would be shunted toward the end of Pike St., with no more than seven dropping off or picking up at any one time. However, neighbors at Knickerbocker Village and the Rutgers Houses opposed the idea and so did Community Board 3.

What's drives the Chinatown van drivers?

The Villager - Volume 74, Number 44 | March 09 - 15, 2005
What's drives the Chinatown van drivers?

By Loretta Chao
...
As convenient as the service is for riders however, drivers say the work is extremely difficult and unrewarding. Each driver has to buy, insure, and sign their buses up with a company, which then gets a cut of their daily earnings. Zhou, for example, makes seven round trips everyday during the winter and gets to save less than $100.

"I have worked 365 days for four years now," said Zhou, who lives in Flushing with his wife and 3-year-old daughter. "Just think - I've never taken a vacation, not even for one day. I haven't even had time to get sick.

"It's just unbearably hard. I don't know English. When I go out I feel like I'm mute. Everything I learned in school is useless," he said.

And while customers are plentiful, the increasing number of vans has led to bitter and sometimes violent rivalry over the past six years. Police arrested the drivers involved in a string of murders as part of what they called a "bus war" in January 2003, but investigators said minor offenses like tire slashing and window breaking often went unreported. With some drivers working until 11 o'clock at night, they face other dangers as well.

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"The Return Of The Intercity Bus: The Decline and Revival of Scheduled Service to American Cities, 1960-2007"

“The Return of the Intercity Bus: The Decline and Recovery of Scheduled Service to
American Cities, 1960 – 2007” assessed the changing status of intercity bus service
throughout the United States during the past half-century. Drawing on data from more
than 5,000 arrivals and departures in a representative sample of American cities, it shows
that U.S. cities lost nearly one-third of their scheduled intercity service between 1960 and
1980 and more than 60 percent of the remaining services between 1980 and 2005.

VENTURES; Chinatown to Boston On a $15 Van Ride VENTURES; Chinatown to Boston On a $15 Van Ride

February 18, 2001

VENTURES; Chinatown to Boston On a $15 Van Ride

By ALLISON FASS

It started with van service between Sunset Park, Brooklyn, and Chinatown. Now it has branched out to Boston: a van ride from Chinatown can cost as little as $15.

The entrepreneur behind it is Pei Lin Liang, an immigrant from China, who worked as a delivery man for a noodle shop before he opened Fung Wah Transport Vans in 1996.

To get to work in Chinatown from his home in Brooklyn, he used to be a passenger on an unlicensed transportation service. The experience helped Mr. Liang realize that there was a market for van service from Sunset Park to Chinatown.

Mr. Liang set up Fung Wah, at first with a trial period, for the many people who made that daily trip. He thought he could do a better job handling the business. Mr. Liang, who was a professional musician before he immigrated in 1988, also needed a way to support his family.

Mr. Liang says the people who use the van service -- between 139 Canal Street, near the Bowery, and 4207 Eighth Avenue, near 42nd Street in Brooklyn -- are almost all Chinese. They use the service, which costs $1.75 and runs consistently throughout the day, starting as early as 7 a.m. and running as late as 11:30 p.m.

In 1998, Mr. Liang expanded the van service to include trips from 139 Canal to 68 Beach Street in Boston's Chinatown, right in front of the Crown Royal Bakery, which Mr. Liang's brother-in-law owns.

Originally, Mr. Liang created the second route because many Chinese families had children studying in Boston. That service now has six departures from New York and six from Boston, every day. One-way trips are $25 and round trips $45. (The 4 p.m. and 7 p.m. trips from New York, and the 8 a.m. trip from Boston, though, are $15.) For comparison, a search on the Greyhound Web site found that a one-way adult fare from New York to Boston was $40, not including sales tax.

Mr. Liang estimates that the clientele on the New York-Boston route is 80 percent Chinese-Americans and includes many foreigners and students. They usually find out about Fung Wah through friends, but Fung Wah also advertises in two Chinese-language newspapers.

Mike Clarfeld, 23, a New York resident who recently rode a Fung Wah van round trip between New York and Boston with his friend Ed Domingo, recommends the Chinatown-Chinatown service and said he would use it again.

''You want to know my favorite part?'' Mr. Clarfeld asked. At 4 p.m., he said, the departure time the two men had opted for on a recent Friday, Mr. Domingo called Mr. Clarfeld's cell phone to say that he was stuck in traffic five blocks north of the Fung Wah Chinatown location.

''So,'' Mr. Clarfeld said, ''the woman who ran Fung Wah said: 'Where's your friend? We'll pick him up along the way.' ''

The only advice Mr. Clarfeld had was: ''Bring a book light if you want to read on the bus because it is dark in there.''

'Chinatown buses' make no-frills inroads in Las Vegas - Travel - LATimes.com

TOURS & CRUISES | LAS VEGAS & GRAND CANYON
'Chinatown buses' make no-frills inroads in Las Vegas

By Rosemary McClure, Times Staff Writer
May 17, 2007

They were an underground hit almost from the start.

The cut-rate transportation services called "Chinatown buses" originated about a decade ago in the Northeast. At first, they were an inexpensive way for Chinese restaurant workers to commute to jobs in nearby cities. Fares as low as $10 between New York and Boston were common.

Soon Chinese students began to hop aboard, and other students followed suit. Then savvy budget travelers noticed, and suddenly Greyhound was facing a new form of competition: low-overhead bus companies that thrived on a no-frills, shoestring approach to service.

Instead of picking up passengers at terminals, Chinatown buses picked them up - and deposited them - along curbsides; instead of maintaining ticket offices, they sold space online; instead of offering numerous routes, they offered only the most popular.

The bus lines, most of which are owned by Chinese immigrants, are common in the Northeast, but similar low-cost services also can be found in the West.

The online booking service GotoBus.com launched five years ago by Cambridge, Mass., businessman Jimmy Chen, handles reservations and helped put the low-cost bus trend on the road.

GotoBus.com now accounts for 1,000 scheduled departures a day throughout the country. Besides the low-cost players it now takes reservations for major sightseeing companies, such as Gray Line.

...

Riders can choose transportation alone, paying fares as low as $25 between Los Angeles and Las Vegas or $45 between Los Angeles and San Francisco. Or they can choose vacations that include accommodations, such as a two-day trip from Los Angeles to Ensenada, Mexico, for $95; or a three-day trip from L.A. to San Francisco and Yosemite for $120.

Prices and tour components fluctuate - the $99 Las Vegas-Grand Canyon itinerary described in the accompanying story, for instance, is now available from various companies for prices ranging from $114 to $127, but a different Vegas tour is available for $99 that includes two nights in Sin City.

GotoBus - Bus Station

a list of bus companies w/ station info

D.C. to New York for $10. Seriously. - Thrifty Travelers Discover a Gem in Chinatown Bus Lines

D.C. to New York for $10. Seriously. - Thrifty Travelers Discover a Gem in Chinatown Bus Lines
Washington Post - December 1, 2002
Author: Michael Barbaro, Washington Post Staff Writer

At 2:23 a.m., American University freshman Gene Fielden settles into a chair in the dank basement bus depot at 513 H St NW. He thinks he has found a way to kill time when the pow-pow-pow of a television movie erupts from a small set in the corner. Then the dialogue starts -- in Chinese.

"Easy listening, huh?" he yells, pointing to the speaker above his head.

Greyhound this is not.

But for Fielden, and for many others who have found their way to Washington-New York Express Tours' bus stop in Chinatown, or to its competitor Dragon Expressway & Travel Inc. a block away, this late-night trip isn't about tidy terminals, frequent departures or reclining seats. It's about price. To be exact, $10 for a one-way ticket from Washington to New York. Round trip? $15.

Largely under the radar, a new transportation link has taken hold between cities up and down the East Coast: Chinatown-to-Chinatown buses, which originally targeted immigrant Chinese restaurant workers. Dragon and Washington-New York Express Tours, joined by a handful of other tiny lines, are now waging an elbows-out battle for dominance in the niche market. At least four motor-coach companies run routes to New York's Chinatown -- from the District as well as from Boston, Philadelphia, Richmond and Baltimore -- in a competition that, in Manhattan at least, has even broken into violence over parking spaces and potential passengers.

In Chinatown, a $10 Trip Means War

Man Shot Dead In Chinatown Was Involved In Bus Rivalry

By WILLIAM K. RASHBAUM
Published: May 11, 2003

The operator of a Chinatown bus company competing with others in a bitter battle for riders was shot and killed on Friday night on a street near his home, and detectives yesterday were investigating whether the slaying was related to the unusual feud, police officials said.

The gunman, whom the police described as an Asian man in his 20's wearing a waist-length black jacket and a white baseball cap, was apparently waiting for the victim, De Jian Chen, 27, outside Mr. Chen's home on Henry Street, the police said. About 9:15 p.m., as Mr. Chen climbed out of a friend's white Lexus at Forsythe and Henry Streets, the gunman opened fire with a .45-caliber pistol, the police said.

But he missed his mark, and Mr. Chen ran down Henry Street and around the corner onto Market Street, the police said. The gunman followed, catching up with Mr. Chen in front of 32 Market Street and firing again, this time hitting him three times in the back and once in the arm. Mr. Chen collapsed and was pronounced dead about 30 minutes later at New York University Downtown Hospital, the police said.

The police and a business associate of the victim, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, provided different accounts of his relationship to the bus company. The police said Mr. Chen worked for the company, Dragon Coach U.S.A., at 87 East Broadway, and had an ownership interest in another bus company. The associate said Mr. Chen was an owner of Dragon Coach U.S.A. and ran buses from New York City to Philadelphia, Washington and Richmond, Va., and played a lesser role in a company that ran buses to Atlanta.

Over the last year, several Chinatown bus lines that offer low fares to Philadelphia, Washington, Boston and other destinations have competed so fiercely for riders that fistfights have broken out between rival employees, and neighbors have complained of ganglike violence.

Last year, the police and prosecutors investigated certain companies and people associated with them, according to a law enforcement official, but no charges were filed. Last May, Mr. Chen was arrested and charged with first-degree assault; he was accused by the police of deliberately driving his bus into a man affiliated with a rival company. That case is pending.

Discount Bus Companies Tangle Over Territory - New York Times

September 7, 2006
Discount Bus Companies Tangle Over Territory
By THOMAS J. LUECK

The number of competitors to Greyhound Lines with inexpensive fares has soared in recent years, expanding well beyond the no-frills buses based in Chinatown in Manhattan and setting off fierce battles for riders. In fact, in the booming world of discount travel, there is apparently no room for two Hasidic-owned companies on the same route.

A dispute between the two bus companies that are vying for riders from New York to Washington, Vamoose and Washington Deluxe, has landed in court. As a result, some customers have been confused in recent days by Vamoose's Web site, which first said the company was temporarily out of business, then said it was running again, but with fewer stops.

The Vamoose-Washington Deluxe dispute, in which Washington Deluxe says that Vamoose trespassed on its route, is a small scuffle in a more tumultuous struggle that has transformed travel in the Northeast. Involved are more than 30 discount lines that pick up people curbside.

The lines, whose fares are much lower than the cost of air or train tickets and have led to discounts by Greyhound, the nation's largest carrier, have won over thousands of devoted customers. But the industry's short history also includes accidents, regular breakdowns, lawsuits and even violence.

The discount bus lines began springing up in Chinatown in the late 1990's with a handful of operators picking up passengers on haphazard schedules. The new lines had an advantage over more established bus companies because they did not pay for space or employees at the Port Authority Bus Terminal or other bus stations.

Vamoose daily bus service between New York NY, Arlington VA

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Dragon Deluxe Chinatown Bus - New York, Washington DC Baltimore Albany Woodbury Outlets

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Tony Coach - Chinatown Bus affordable bus service New York Washington DC NYC

Welcome to Tony Coach Travel Bus Tony Coach provides affordable and reliable transportation between New York and Washington DC. eTickets are emailed to you in real-time when your payment is collected. Please present a valid ID of the customer name and a printout of order confirmation (eTickets) at boarding.

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SSRN-The Road from Welfare to Work: Informal Transportation and the Urban Poor by Nicole Garnett

The Road from Welfare to Work: Informal Transportation and the Urban Poor

NICOLE STELLE GARNETT
Notre Dame Law School

Harvard Journal on Legislation, Vol. 38, No. 73, 2001

Abstract:
Individuals struggling to move from welfare to work face numerous obstacles. This Article addresses one of those obstacles: lack of transportation. Without reliable transportation, many welfare recipients are unable to find and maintain jobs located out of the reach of traditional forms of public transportation. Professor Garnett argues that lawmakers should remove restrictions on informal van or jitney services, allowing entrepreneurs to provide low-cost transportation to their communities. This reform would not only help people get to work, but it could also provide jobs for low-income people.

Low-cost service between Philadelphia, New York | Philadelphia Inquirer | 03/26/2008

Posted on Wed, Mar. 26, 2008

Low-cost service between Philadelphia, New York

Tom Belden

Inquirer Staff Writer

Perhaps there's no such thing as a free lunch, but a new Philadelphia-to-New York bus service may come close May 30 when it begins offering free or even $1 seats for a few lucky riders.

Megabus.com, a two-year-old division of Coach USA, of Chicago, intends to unveil plans today for a new service like ones it already operates in Chicago, Los Angeles and abroad. It could compete with existing low-cost bus lines in Philadelphia's Chinatown, and it capitalizes on Web-based booking systems and fuel-efficient vehicles to push down costs even in the face of ever-rising diesel prices.

Megabus says it will offer eight round-trips a day, with Philadelphia stops on John F. Kennedy Boulevard near 30th Street Station and at Fifth and Market Streets, near the Independence Visitor Center. The only New York stop is at Penn Station, at Eighth Avenue between 32d and 33d Streets.

All seats on Megabuses will be free the first week. Thereafter, they will cost from $1 to $14 each way, said Dale Moser, president of Coach USA L.L.C., a national operator of charter and scheduled bus services, based in Paramus, N.J.

...

Megabus.com will begin similar express service May 30 between New York and six other cities: Atlantic City, Baltimore, Boston, Buffalo, Toronto and Washington. The company will operate like a hub-and-spoke airline, with all routes nonstop to and from New York. There are no plans to add other routes from Philadelphia, Moser said.

Lucky River Transportation Inc

Established in 2003, Lucky River Transportation Inc offers competitive fare to customers traveling between Boston and New York City. Since then, Lucky Star evolved from a family style operation business into a corporation which maintains its fleet of more than 20 luxury motor coaches from the state of the art maintenance facility. "We are serious about our service because we strive to provide a professional, dependable and safe environment to our passengers."

- Lucky Star Management Team

Ratings signal warning for fast-growing Fung Wah - The Boston Globe

Ratings signal warning for fast-growing Fung Wah
Bus line officials say they are addressing problems

By Donovan Slack and Mac Daniel, Globe Staff | September 4, 2005

A major discount bus carrier that shuttles passengers between Boston and New York rates significantly worse than the national average on two of three federal safety rankings, but state regulators say the bus line is safe.

Fung Wah Bus Transportation Inc., which had one of its buses burst into flames two weeks ago on a Connecticut highway just moments after passengers escaped, said it has run into some safety issues because it has been growing so fast, but it is now fixing any problems.

The company has risk ratings on driver safety and safety management that are close to the point that could trigger a federal investigation.

Fung Wah has a driver risk rating of 73. On the scale, 100 is the worst; 75 or above is considered at risk of being unsafe and can lead to an investigation.

Lucky River Transportation Corp., another low-cost carrier that runs the same Boston-New York route, has a driver risk rating of 74, according to ratings issued in July by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration. Boston-based Kristine Travel & Tours Inc., another lower-cost carrier that used to run between Boston and New York under the name Travel Pack, had a driver risk rating of 97, one of the worst in the country.

It is not under investigation, federal officials say.

On the driver risk rating, the national average is 24. Among the higher-priced competitors, Greyhound scored 22, and Peter Pan Bus Lines rated 58.

The ratings, which are updated monthly and cover the previous 30 months, are based on drivers' records, including the number of traffic tickets and the number of times their logs show they spent too much time behind the wheel.

A score of 80 means that about 80 percent of carriers had better driver-safety records.

Ms Transit ; Jitneys Attracting Riders, Rivals on Paterson-to-N.Y. Commute

Posted on: Wednesday, 23 May 2007, 15:00 CDT

By DAVID A. MICHAELS, STAFF WRITER

A minibus company that began as an informal service catering to immigrants in Passaic County now carries more commuters between Paterson and New York than NJ Transit.

While critics have scoffed at the worn-out appearance of some minibuses, riders praise the Spanish Transportation company for its inexpensive and frequent service.

Even state transportation officials acknowledged that Spanish Transportation has evolved into an essential commuter service for a growing region that demands more mass transit than the state can supply.

"Our elected officials have realized the services we provide to the cities are a necessity," said Norberto Curitomai, the founder and president of Spanish Transportation. "We provide a quality public transportation, at lower rates that is maybe not provided by New Jersey Transit."

...

Curitomai's drivers make express trips in about 45 minutes compared with an hour or more on NJ Transit's long, winding circuits. His buses carry an estimated 30,000 daily passenger trips, Curitomai said.

Yet his success hasn't hurt NJ Transit's Paterson business. The state agency's revenue grew 18 percent between 2002 and 2006.

Source: The Bergen Record

Reason Foundation: Surface Transportation Innovations

Low-Cost Bus Lines: Shaking Up Inter-City Travel

One of the justifications offered for U.S. taxpayers to subsidize Amtrak is the idea that lower-income people (students, immigrants, the retired, etc.) need an affordable alternative to using the airlines for inter-city travel. That's always rung hollow with me, since we've had nationwide Greyhound bus service since long before Amtrak. But Greyhound has been losing money for a number of years, and its annual passenger count has been declining since 2000—in part due to the growth of low-cost airlines.

But this decade has also witnessed a proliferation of new inter-city bus companies. So far, none is of national scope, but their niche markets are growing. And they seem to be following in the footsteps of low-cost air carriers, by thinking outside the box to cut costs dramatically.

...

In the northeast, several companies offer bus service between Chinatowns in various cities. The largest of these seems to be Chinatown Bus (Chinatown-bus.com), connecting Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, and Washington. Fares vary, with "typical" one-way fares ranging from $12 New York-Philadelphia to $20 New York-DC. Another bus company, Vamoose, offers express service between Manhattan and two DC suburbs—Bethesda, MD and Arlington, VA for $25.

Private companies are even moving into urban markets. Spanish Transportation Corporation of Paterson, NJ now runs 130 commuter buses into Manhattan each day, on three different routes. The company has grown from a van service with 14 vans in 1993 to a sizeable enterprise today. The buses are branded Express Service. And Las Vegas now boasts a new door-to-door service among hotels and casinos on the Strip—at just $2.50 per ride. Called Arrow, it is offered by Vegas.com, a travel and booking company. Also offered is a $10 daily pass offering unlimited use of Arrow and the private Las Vegas monorail. Arrow competes with the regional transportation authority's double-decker Deuce buses.

In Chinatown, a $10 Trip Means War

February 21, 2004

In Chinatown, a $10 Trip Means War; Weary Owners Struggle to Stay Afloat in Cutthroat Competition

By MICHAEL LUO

The economics are hard to fathom, Pei Lin Liang, the owner of Fung Wah Bus Transportation, admits. At a time when a cab ride from Midtown to Chinatown might cost close to $10, how can a four-hour, 215-mile journey to Boston aboard Fung Wah or any of its competitors cost the same?

Mr. Liang, 41, a gaunt chain-smoker who regularly staggers through 15-hour work days, offers his explanation through a translator. It is ''business by suicide,'' he says.

Budget travelers up and down the Northeast know Fung Wah as the original ''Chinatown bus.'' The company was the first to start running vans and buses between Boston and New York at bargain rates, becoming something of a cult phenomenon. Today, it is just one of many players in the hypercompetitive Chinatown bus industry. With companies locked in a price war, rates have plummeted on Fung Wah's route, reaching a new low last spring at $10 for a one-way trip to Boston. Yes, $10.

Polonez Tour, Inc.

WELCOME TO OUR WEBSITE

Polonez Tour Service, Inc specializes in bus tours with a Polish and English tour guides to many places around the United States of America. For more then 20 years we have served our clients abroad and in the USA. For many year our company has introduce different types of tours and with our qualify tour guides and drives, for many years we are chosen as number one for those who travel with us.

NYC24: All Aboard

Polonez Hits the Road

When Jan Bielen and a group of his friends overslept and were late for a bus tour to the Niagara Falls more than 20 years ago, they did not complain and panic. They rented a van and went on their own.
The idea of taking people on trips was born and Bielen started his business in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, and called it Polonez Tour Service.

Two years had passed and Bielen's business was booming. His small company offered short trips in the tri-state area and regular trips to and from the local airports. Bielen served mainly Polish people, tourists or immigrants, who did not speak English and needed help to travel.

But in 1982 everything took a different turn. Poland was under martial law and LOT (Polish Airlines) suspended their flights from Warsaw to New York. “We had to take people from New York to Montreal, Canada, so they could fly to Poland,” Bielen says.

Suddenly the 14-person vans were too small and Bielen had to buy minibuses to accommodate more customers.

China Bus Bargain

In Manhattan's Chinatown, the tiny but growing Fung Wah Transport Van office nestles under the shadow of a Buddhist Temple. The office workers mostly speak Cantonese, with a sprinkling of English. Still, the service is gaining popularity not only with Chinese immigrants, but also among Japanese, Korean, and English-speaking travelers looking for a bargain.

Ten times a day, Fung Wah's white vans ferry about 10 to 15 passengers between the Lower East Side and a bakery in downtown Boston's tiny Chinatown. Round-trip travel can be as cheap as $25 for passengers who can make it to Boston and back on the same day.

Ling, a worker at the van's headquarters who uses only one name, said the service started when second-generation Chinese-Americans began attending college in other cities. The China Bus, as Fung Wah's vans are affectionately known, made it easy for parents who didn't speak much English to take Chinese grocery care packages to their children studying at Harvard or Boston University.

...

But although the services may seem informal or haphazard, they are actually subject to strict regulations.

In 1999, Congress passed a law forcing the vans, called camionetas or guaguas in Spanish speaking areas, to undergo more stringent safety tests. Now the vans' brakes and steering are tested twice a year, instead of once a year like regular cars.

NYC24: All Aboard

all aboard

By Franziska Bruner and Iwona K. Hoffman

You're an immigrant in New York, you can't speak English, and you need to see your sister in Boston. How do you get there?
Subway signs are in English, you don't have a credit card to order your Greyhound ticket by phone, and you're nervous about traveling alone. Then someone in the neighborhood tells you about the local van service where they speak your language, and will even pick you up at home. Problem solved.

All over New York, enterprising immigrants are hatching van services that take new Americans from one ethnic enclave to another, often with lower prices than the big commercial bus lines, and less hassle.

Fung Wah Transport Van shuttles Chinese from New York's Chinatown to Boston's Chinatown, 10 times a day. Gonzalez Bus Line runs between Washington Heights' Dominican barrio and Providence, Rhode Island's south side, home to a growing Dominican community. And La Cubana buses take Cubans from all over the city to Little Havana in Miami.

The services are so popular mainly because they feel safe and familiar to immigrants, said Alberto Pulido, a Latino Studies professor in the American Civilization department at Brown University.

Video - Breaking News Videos from CNN.com

Mexico City finds a green side 2:12
Hoping to repair its tarnished reputation, Mexico City finds new ways to go green. CNN's Harris Whitbeck reports

34 hurt in troubled Fung Wah bus line's latest crash - The Boston Globe

34 hurt in troubled bus line's latest episode
Fung Wah driver cited for speeding in rollover

By David Abel and Kristen Green, Globe Staff and Globe Correspondent | September 6, 2006

AUBURN -- Thirty-four people were injured yesterday after a speeding Boston-bound Fung Wah bus rolled over on an Interstate 290 offramp, State Police said.

Fung Wah Bus

Welcome to Fung Wah Bus, The largest (Chinatown Bus) bus service provider between New York and Boston, serving the New York Chinatown to Boston route for more than 10 years. Fung Wah Bus is licensed and permitted by Federal Highway Administration.

Fung Wah Bus is Chinatown's first Bus company to provide low cost transportation between New York Chinatown and Boston Chinatown. Fung Wah Bus is located at the heart of New York Chinatown between Bowery Street and Canal Street.

SafeStat

SafeStat, short for Motor Carrier Safety Status Measurement System, is an automated data-driven system that calculates the safety fitness on motor carriers.

What is SafeStat?

SafeStat is a data-driven analysis system that determines the current relative safety status of individual motor carriers.

SafeStat was developed at the Volpe Center for the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA).

Data used are maintained and managed at the Federal level by the FMCSA.

Universe Bus

Universe Bus Line is a premier provider of motorcoach services in the Northeastern United States.
They offers daily bus service between New York(156 E. Broadway) and Philadelphia.

New York(156 E Broadway) <--> Philladelphia
One way $12.00, Round Trip $24.00
Duration:about 2 hours
New York:156 East Broadway
Philadephia:Frankford Transportation Ctr. or 2801 Cottman Ave.

New York City Chinatown > Directory > Regional Chinatown Bus Information

List of low-cost bus lines, and other transportation options to-and-from NYC.

NOTE: Standard disclaimers apply; this website/webpage is provided to you "as is" with no warranties of any kind either express, or implied. While all effort was made to ensure the accuracy of the information on this webpage, the author does not accept any responsibility, or liability for any omissions, or errors. Please verify all information before you make any decisions.

The upscale bus in DC

The DC2NY luxury bus provides daily roundtrip express travel from two convenient downtown locations in Washington, DC to New York City`s Penn Station.

BoltBus -

BOLT Bus

Boltbus starts D.C. to New York City service - Washington Business Journal:

Tuesday, March 4, 2008 - 9:15 AM EST
Boltbus starts D.C. to New York City service
Washington Business Journal - by Erin Killian Staff Reporter

A new bus service is launching between D.C. and New York City.

Secaucus, N.J.-based Boltbus, a division of Greyhound Lines Inc., said tickets went on sale Monday for the service that will start March 27.

Boltbus will run between Metro Center at 11th and G streets NW and two stops in New York City -- near Penn Station at 33rd Street and 7th Avenue and in south Manhattan at 6th Avenue and Canal Street.

Boltbus will compete with the Washington Deluxe, Apex Bus, Vamoose Express and DC2NY, a service that started in July 2007 between Dupont Circle and Penn Station in New York with a stop at the McPherson Square Metro station.

DC2NY launched in July and marketed the service by offering free water and high-speed wireless Internet service onboard.

Boltbus is not only also offering wireless, but it is also using a first-come first-serve incentive to sign up riders.

The company said one-way tickets start at $1 plus a 50 cent booking fee and become more expensive as the bus gets full. Also, Boltbus is offering a free one-way ticket for every eight round trips purchased.

Tickets for each bus company vary, but are typically between $30 and $40 round trip, which is significantly cheaper than Amtrak's cost of about $140 and up for a round-trip ticket.

The buses tend to attract travelers and students who are looking for an affordable way to get between the cities.

Boltbus said it will offer eight trips daily, starting at 7:30 a.m. from D.C. to New York.

GotoBus - Philadelphia (Chinatown Bus)

Cheap but not so reliable transportation New York City, Washington DC, and various other locations.

Blacksburg Transit

Local bus transportation including schedules, delays and events.

NPR : In Chile, Commuters Sue City over Transit System

World
In Chile, Commuters Sue City over Transit System
by Julie McCarthy

All Things Considered, October 8, 2007 · Cities around the world have been trying to lure commuters out of their cars and onto mass transit with the aim of making urban life cleaner and greener. While a state-of-the art system installed in Chile has reduced pollution in the city of Santiago, a bungled adjustment has also left millions of passengers reeling - and hundreds of others suing the government.
The new system may be generating less pollution, but it is also generating mountains of complaints. What was once a 40-minute trip can now take 2 hours. As a result, commuters report losing their jobs for being late, or being forced to change jobs because routes have changed.
So troubled is Santiago's new mass transit system, known as Transantiago, that President Michele Bachelet made an unusual admission just days after its disastrous roll-out.

M.T.A. Says Mayor's Plan to Ease Traffic Will Cost $767 Million to Accomplish - New York Times

October 8, 2007
M.T.A. Says Mayor's Plan to Ease Traffic Will Cost $767 Million to Accomplish
By ROBERT D. McFADDEN

Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg's plan to ease traffic congestion by charging motorists who drive into the busiest parts of Manhattan would cost hundreds of millions of dollars for new bus and subway services and mass transit improvements to accommodate tens of thousands of new riders, transportation officials say.

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority, in a report to a commission created to evaluate the mayor's plan, estimated that expanded transit service and capital improvements for city and suburban riders who would give up their cars to get into Manhattan over the next five years would cost $767 million.

The total, the authority said, comprised $284 million in 2008 and 2009 for 367 new city and suburban buses, 46 new subway cars and many station renovations and service enhancements; $163 million for other subway and bus improvements from 2010 to 2012, and $320 million for two new bus terminals in Queens and Staten Island.

Eastside News | Climb on board the Microsoft bus | Seattle Times Newspaper

Climb on board the Microsoft bus

By Amy Roe

Seattle Times Eastside bureau

The bus stops here, and after 13 years of driving to work at Microsoft, Jeff Sylvester was finally on it.

"I've been a driver forever and I decided to finally give up the car," said Sylvester, who took Microsoft's new Connector service to work from his home on Seattle's Capitol Hill.

The free service debuted Monday with about 1,000 people on board. They filled nearly every seat on each of the five routes, serving Seattle, Bothell, Mill Creek, Issaquah and Sammamish.

The upscale bus in DC -- Home Page

Welcome to DC2NY -- The Ultimate Bus Travel Experience
The DC2NY luxury bus provides daily roundtrip express travel from two convenient downtown locations in Washington, DC to New York City`s Penn Station.

LimoLiner - Quality Travel Time Between New York and Boston. Compare to Amtrak Acela and shuttle flights.

LimoLiner whisks you in style between the Hilton Back Bay to the Hilton New York in as little as 4 hours for $79.

New Bus Shelters Let You Plan Your Shopping and TV-Watching but Not Your Trip - City Room - Metro - New York Times Blog

August 10, 2007, 12:07 pm
New Bus Shelters Let You Plan Your Shopping and TV-Watching but Not Your Trip

By David W. Dunlap

In the department of missing transit information, the absence of route maps and trip tips at a few of the new bus-stop shelters being installed by Cemusa scarcely rises to the level of outrage.

But mild indignation may be in order, since the same shelters seem to have a full complement of advertising.

On the Avenue of the Americas at 56th Street, for example, riders cannot find out what lines serve the stop, where the buses go after they leave the stop or how to pay their fare, which is no small question for an out-of-towner. They can, however, learn about Verizon’s new BlackBerry 8830 World Edition for $199.99 (after rebate) or contemplate how delicious a Corona Extra or Corona Light might taste about now, just as long as they “relax responsibly.”

Twelve blocks south on the avenue, the shelter is silent on the question of whether riders can expect an M5 or an M6 or an M7 to pull up. Instead it, it lets them know that Glenn Close is starring in “Damages” on the FX network. Oh, yes, and that Verizon BlackBerry. Only $199.99. (After rebate.)

Is this another case of a corporate takeover of the public realm without the full benefit that was promised to the public? Not quite. Cemusa, the Spanish company that won a citywide street-furniture franchise last year, is not to blame.

City Limits - JOURNEY TO THE GOLDEN MOUNTAIN

JOURNEY TO THE GOLDEN MOUNTAIN
They come by plane, by boat, by shipping container: Chinese immigrants, smuggled into New York by a thriving underground network. Every year, thousands still risk border patrols, vicious "snakeheads" and criminal kingpins, to seek their fortune on the streets of the city. > By Amy Zimmer

City Limits MAGAZINE
January 2004

He lives in Chinatown and wears a white t-shirt draping down to the knees of his baggy jeans. But Kevin, who's 13, still remembers vividly one particular moment when he was a toddler in Fuzhou. His father bought him a dog, then left for New York.
...

Migrants rarely find jobs outside of the restaurant, garment and construction industries--fields that are presently suffering. Kwong observes that U.S. employers who hire Fuzhounese for sub-minimum wages are a critical link in keeping the smuggling system going--without those jobs, migrants would have no way of paying back the smuggling fees. "Because of the pressure of having to pay the debts back as soon as possible, they are willing to get low pay and much more willing to tolerate abusive conditions," he says. As Fuzhounese migration has risen over the past decade, wages in these industries have fallen. Indeed, Fuzhounese have effectively displaced many Cantonese workers from the Chinatown labor market, pushing them to seek work elsewhere. At the Mohegan Sun casino in Connecticut, 25 percent of the workers are now Chinese, most of them Cantonese

Chinatown bus lines - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Chinatown bus lines
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

GotoBus - History Chinatown Bus

Brief History of Chinatown Bus

Community Gazettes - Brief History of Chinatown Bus

Brief History of Chinatown Bus
by Robert Mills
October 8, 2004
N/A

Brief History of Chinatown Bus

A Crash in Pennsylvania, and a Cloud Over Mott Street - New York Times

June 10, 2007
Chinatown
A Crash in Pennsylvania, and a Cloud Over Mott Street
By FIONA NG

Whenever huge calamities strike abroad - the tsunami in Asia in 2004, say - New Yorkers know that in their ethnically mixed city there is probably an enclave directly linked to the tragedy. This pattern applies to smaller events, too, like a recent bus crash in Pennsylvania that echoed loudly throughout Chinatown.

At 3:30 a.m. May 20, a bus carrying 36 passengers from Chicago to New York went out of control on Interstate 80 in Clearfield County, Pa. The bus zigzagged across the highway and ended up on its side on the road's embankment, leaving 2 people dead and 32 others injured. The cause of the accident is under investigation.

IEEE Spectrum: How to Keep 18 Million People Moving

How to Keep 18 Million People Moving
By Erico Guizzo
São Paulo operates the world's most complex bus system

It's a warm Tuesday night in São Paulo, and as on most nights during rush hour here, a swarm of cars clogs every centimeter of Rebouças Avenue, slowing traffic to a crawl. But inside bus 7598, Carlos Soares holds on firmly to keep his balance as the jolting vehicle whizzes past the congestion. The bus he's on is one of thousands in this city that run in special lanes that cars are forbidden to use. Convoying one after the other, the buses form a kind of virtual train on tires.

"Look at their faces," says Soares, a 20-year-old video producer, pointing at the drivers stuck nearby. "They're mad because the buses took one of their lanes. But for us on the bus-we love it."

...

With 26 391 buses, 1908 lines, 34 transfer stations, and 146.5 kilometers of dedicated busways, São Paulo operates what is currently the world’s most complex bus system. Extending from bustling downtown avenues to narrow neighborhood streets, this sprawling network of lines is the basis of public transportation here. One in every five paulistanos—as residents of São Paulo are called—hops on a bus every day to go to work, school, or other destinations. Daily bus ridership in the metropolitan area is some 10.5 million passengers. With such people-moving capacity, the entire population of Belgium could ride on São Paulo’s buses over the course of a single day.

WE ACT Website: Program Initiatives

West Harlem Environmental Action, Inc. (WE ACT) is a non-profit, community-based, environmental justice organization dedicated to building community power to fight environmental racism and improve environmental health, protection and policy in communities of color.

WE ACT accomplishes its mission through community organizing, education and training, advocacy and research, and public policy development.

Since 1988, WE ACT has worked with citizen groups, youth, community residents, environmentalists, local/state/federal governments, and educational & medical institutions.
WE ACT, a vigorous advocate for and a significant monitor of the Northern Manhattan environment, is a non-profit, incorporated, community-based organization that was staffed in October 1994. WE ACT's mission is to inform, educate, train and mobilize the predominately African-American and Latino residents of Northern Manhattan on issues that impact their quality of life -- air, water and indoor pollution, toxins, land use and open space, waterfront development and usage, sanitation, transportation, historic preservation, regulatory enforcement, and citizen participation in public policy making.

Don't clog loop, say Co-op City residents - Bronx - NY Daily News

New bus route sparks ire
Don't clog loop, say Co-op City residents
BY BILL EGBERT
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER
Monday, April 2nd 2007, 2:35 PM

As the MTA rolls out plans for a new rapid-transit bus route for the Bronx, people living at one end of the line are saying, "Not so fast."

The proposed new express route for the Bx12 bus would run from Broadway and 207th St. in Manhattan, along Fordham Road and Pelham Parkway, to terminate at Asch Loop in Co-op city.

But Co-op City residents say the idea of ending the route at Asch is loopy.

"This is not about improving service to Co-op City," said Arthur Taub, a Co-op City transit advocate leading the charge against the proposal. "They're not giving us anything but headaches."

NY1: High-Tech Tracking System Could Ease Bus Travel

NY1 Exclusive: High-Tech Tracking System Could Ease Bus Travel
January 23, 2007

Chances are you've had to wait and wait for a city bus some time - and chances are you've seen a bunch of buses show up at the same time. In the following NY1 exclusive, transit reporter Bobby Cuza reports on a new high-tech system that could take the guesswork out of waiting for a city bus.

Peek inside the buses lined up in the 26th Street depot in Manhattan and here's what you'll find: Newly-installed tracking technology that lets dispatchers see exactly where a bus is, right down to the block.

And soon, you'll be able to as well.

"When this is fully implemented, it's going to change the way we do business," says New York City Transit Project Manager Robert Walsh. "I mean, you're going to be able to start at work, on your computer, to look at the bus stop - or start at home, whichever way you're going - and look and see what time the bus is actually going to be at your bus stop."

Discount Bus Companies Tangle Over Territory - New York Times

September 7, 2006
Discount Bus Companies Tangle Over Territory
By THOMAS J. LUECK

LATimes - Villaraigosa promotes the use of public transit, but he doesn't spend much time on the city's bus and subway system.

Mayor rides the SUV, not the MTA
Villaraigosa promotes the use of public transit, but he doesn't spend much time on the city's bus and subway system.
By Duke Helfand, Times Staff Writer
November 14, 2006
From the moment he took office nearly 18 months ago, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa made traffic gridlock a cause celebre - exhorting Angelenos to help solve the problem by forsaking their cars whenever possible.
"You've got to use public transit," Villaraigosa said just last week while unveiling an automated signal system to help unclog busy intersections. "You can't keep on pointing to someone else and saying it's their responsibility."
But Villaraigosa's own travel habits don't match his public pronouncements.
The mayor rarely, if ever, takes the bus or the train to work. Instead, he rides around town in a GMC Yukon chauffeured by a Los Angeles police officer who doubles as a bodyguard.
Unlike many others in Los Angeles, Villaraigosa has easy access to public transportation.

New York City Chinatown > Directory > Regional Chinatown Bus Information

List of Chinatown buses, and other intercity bus services.

LA Times - Court oversight of L.A. transit services lifted

Court oversight of L.A. transit services lifted

A federal judge says the MTA has complied with a 10-year-old order to improve service.

By Jean Guccione, Times Staff Writer
October 26, 2006

Saying that Los Angeles County transit officials have "substantially complied" with their promise to improve bus service for poor and minority riders, a federal judge Wednesday ended a decade of court oversight of the nation's third-largest public transportation system.

5 Bus Routes Picked for High-Speed Runs - New York Times

October 24, 2006

5 Bus Routes Picked for High-Speed Runs

By WILLIAM NEUMANFive bus routes, one in each borough, will be part of a pilot program that will use special lanes, computer-controlled stoplights and other means to speed bus travel, in an effort to change the prevailing image of tortoiselike service.According to people briefed on the program, which involves state and city agencies, the list was made final over the summer and includes the route on First and Second Avenues in Manhattan. That route, with an average of 61,000 passengers each weekday, is considered by transit officials to be the most heavily used urban bus route in the nation....

megabus.com - low cost, daily, express bus service in the US

bus operating to/from chicago

Murder and Vice on the Lower East Side

Murder and Vice on the Lower East Side
The Past, Present and Future of the 'Chinatown Buses'
By Cyrus Farivar
Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism

Class of 2005
March 21, 2005
Advisor: Joe Nocera