Passenger Bus, Rail and Motorcoach Industry News

Many Savannah residents argued the one-square-mile historic district is becoming too congested with tour vehicles.

Double-deck tour bus service offers a way to experience the city with a hop-on and hop-off model, letting visitors tour sites at their own pace.

A Star Tag Inc. bus driver lost control of his vehicle near New York City on the way to a casino on Wednesday, sending 24 people to the hospital.

Jim Maust, who drove for Perkiomen Motorcoach for 11 years, wrote about his on-the-job adventures in “From the Driver’s Seat,” released about a month ago.

Support will enable the Council to award 25 additional gift cards, each with a $50 value, to motorcoach operators who enroll in the Coach Vendor Parts Program this year.

In the most recent accident in Upstate New York, more than a dozen people were injured. Within the last two weeks, one person was killed and 30 were injured in a crash involving a bus and a tractor-trailer, and another collision led to the death of two people and injured dozens more.

Calls for more efficient passenger loading and unloading, metered parking spaces where buses can wait for customers and a permit system to better manage and enforce tour bus parking and loading.

At lowest levels since the CVSA's commercial vehicle safety enforcement campaign, Roadcheck began in 1988. Inspections of passenger vehicles found a compliance rate of 91.3 percent in 2011 versus 91.0 percent in 2010. The motorcoach driver compliance rate was 97.4 percent; in 2010 it was 96.4 percent.

A tour bus, operated by New Oriental Tours, rear-ended a tractor-trailer on the Pennsylvania turnpike while traveling from Kentucky to New Jersey. Dozens of passengers were hospitalized.

Yasushi Mikuni, the driver of a tour bus that crashed in Utah and killed three Japanese tourists last year, pleaded guilty to reduced charges. Mikuni, who escaped the accident with minor injuries, was driving for Canyon Transportation Inc.