METRO Magazine's GM James Blue presented Robert and Stephen Brown of Brown Coach in Amsterdam, N.Y. with the 2015 Motorcoach Operator of the Year award at the UMA Expo at Travel Exchange in New Orleans this week.

Robert, who serves as president of Brown Coach, got his start in the school bus business prior to serving in Vietnam, and returned to eventually open his own school bus operation in 1976. In 1980, an opportunity arose to purchase a nine motorcoach chater business and thus was born Brown Coach.

Together, the Browns have built Brown Coach, and its affiliate Upstate Transit of Saratoga LLC, which the brothers purchased in 2005, into a fleet of 49 vehicles, providing charter, commuter and tour services, focusing primarily on the northeastern U.S. and eastern Canadian provinces. It has also maintained its 225-vehicle school bus businesses and operates Brown Tours, which offers motorcoach tours to destinations all over the country. The company has offices in Schenectady, Saratoga Springs and as well as its headquarters in Amsterdam, N.Y.

In addition to its successful businesses, both Robert and Stephen are actively involved in the industries they are part of, including in the motorcoach sector, the International Motorcoach Group, the United Motorcoach Association, the American Bus Association and Bus Association of New York.