Coach USA

Coach USA LLC

Coach USA brandings used for directly controlled services (clockwise from top left): Standard, sightseeing, Megabus, and UK Bus (yellow school bus not shown).
Slogan	Driven to Be the Best!
Parent	Stagecoach Group
Founded	1995
Headquarters	160 Route 17 North Paramus, NJ 07652
Locale	United States
Service area	New York, Pittsburgh, and Chicago metropolitan areas, Southern Tier of New York, southern Wisconsin
Service type	Local, commuter, charter, contract, and yellow school bus service, Megabus
Routes	Northeast Division (excluding Megabus): 55 directly owned 43 under contract North Central Division (excluding Megabus and school buses): 9 directly owned 4 under contract Megabus.com: 11 directly owned 1 under contract
Operator	Various Coach USA companies, see Divisions below
Chief executive	Dale Moser
Web site	Coach USA

Coach USA LLC is a holding company for various American transportation service providers providing scheduled intercity bus service, local and commuter bus transit, city sightseeing, tour, yellow school bus, and charter bus service. It is owned by the Scottish transport company Stagecoach Group.

History

Coach USA traces its history back to 1922 as Lackawanna Bus and later Consolidated Bus Lines, a small outfit operating local service in Bergen County, New Jersey and later along the Jersey Shore and throughout the New York metropolitan area founded by Jim and Denis Gallagher.^[1] Community Coach, today the headquarters of Coach USA, began operations in 1958 under Denis's brother, John. The latter took over the operations of Consolidated Bus Lines, using the operating authority of another company that the Gallagher family had purchased in Paramus, New Jersey three years prior; through other acquisitions by the Gallagher family, six of these companies would become subsidiaries of Coach USA at its inception in 1995, when Frank Gallagher sold the firms to Notre Capital Ventures.

At its inception, Coach USA consisted of six companies: Suburban Trails, Community Coach, Leisure Line, and Adventure Trails in New Jersey, Gray Line of San Francisco, and Arrow Stage Line in Arizona (not to be confused with unaffiliated Arrow Stage Lines).^[2][3] Listing on the NASDAQ in 1996 under ticker TOUR, and later switching to the New York Stock Exchange under stock ticker CYI, Coach USA, under the leadership of Richard Kristinik, would expand quickly, acquiring companies throughout the United States in the next three years to expand to over 5,000 buses and many more taxicabs, as its acquisitions also included yellow cab firms throughout the United States. During this time, the Gallagher family would start another company, Student Transportation of America, based in the area of its Coast Cities operation.^[1]

In 1998, Kristinik retired, and Larry King succeeded him.^[4] Stagecoach Group would purchase Coach USA in mid-1999 for $1.88 billion USD.^[5]

Under Stagecoach ownership and the helm of Frank Gallagher, the owner of its predecessors,^[3] Coach USA sought to continue expansion, but the company, hit hard by the loss of charter business after the September 11, 2001 attacks,^[2] caused Stagecoach to crash to a loss of over ₤524 million, at which point Stagecoach, having lost over 70 percent of its investment and now under the leadership of its founder, Brian Souter, after the downturn cost the previous CEO of Stagecoach his job, announced that all of the taxicab operations and most of Coach USA's subsidiaries were for sale, as Stagecoach sought to focus mostly on operations in the northeast, where Coach USA today maintains subsidized transit operations and scheduled service.^[6][7]

Retrenching, Stagecoach sold its companies in New England to Peter Pan Bus Lines.^[8] Companies in the Southwest, West, and Rocky Mountain regions were sold to Kohlberg Kravis Roberts to form Coach America,^[9] and companies in the southeastern United States were sold to Lincolnshire Management, rebranded as American Coach Lines (which was merged with Coach America in 2006),^[10][11] all at heavy losses. The contract transit division was flipped to competitor First Transit.^[12] As a result of the sale of most of Coach USA's operations, the company's headquarters were relocated from Texas to the Community Coach garage in Paramus, New Jersey.

Coach USA's operations today consist primarily of scheduled services in New York metropolitan area and Chicago metropolitan area, with a number of charter operations near Pittsburgh and scheduled operations in the Southern Tier of New York and southern Wisconsin.

Divisions

Coach USA, which once had six divisions (New England (now owned by Peter Pan), Northeast, North Central, Southeast (now under the American Coach Lines brand of Coach America), South Central (now owned by Coach America), and West (now owned by Coach America)), now operates all of its operations in two divisions, Northeast and North Central.^[13][14]:

• Northeast: Based in Paramus, New Jersey, this division consists of Coach USA companies based in the New York metropolitan area and the Southern Tier of New York State.
  • Community Coach (headquarters of Northeast Division and Coach USA)
  • Twin America LLC (operator of Gray Line New York Sightseeing, joint venture with New York Airport Service)
  • Olympia Trails (also includes Red & Tan in Hudson County, ONE/Independent Bus, and Megabus Northeast)
  • Rockland Coaches (also includes dedicated Transport of Rockland operations)
  • Short Line Bus (also includes Chenango Valley Bus Lines)
  • Suburban Trails (also includes Cape Transit)
• North Central: Based in Des Plaines, Illinois, this division consists of Coach USA companies based near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and Chicago, Illinois.
  • Butler Motor Transit (also includes Coach USA Erie and Gad-About Tours)
  • Keeshin Charter Service (Coach USA Chicago and Megabus USA (Midwest operations))
  • Central Cab Company (also includes Country Road Tours, Mountaineer Coach, and Park Tours)
  • Lenzner Coach Lines
  • Tri State/United Limo
  • Sam Van Galder, Inc.
  • Wisconsin Coach Lines

Megabus

Main article: Megabus (North America)

In the midwestern and northeastern United States, Megabus, a no-frills intercity bus service, consists of two networks of services based out of Chicago, New York City, Philadelphia, and Washington, DC, servicing cities in the Midwest from a hub in Chicago and in the Northeast from a hub in New York City. Megabus also operated from a hub in Los Angeles to points in California, Arizona, and Las Vegas, Nevada (contracting with Coach America to provide the service), but because of insufficient ridership, service in the western United States was withdrawn on June 22, 2008 after only 10 months.

See also

• Coach America - owner of former Coach USA West, South Central, and Southeast Divisions
• Peter Pan Bus Lines - owner of former Coach USA New England Division
• Student Transportation of America - another company founded by the Gallagher family

References

1. ^ ^{a b} "Coast Cities Bus History". http://www.coastcitiesbus.com/history.html. Retrieved 2009-10-03. 
2. ^ ^{a b} "Coach USA from Answers.com". http://www.answers.com/topic/coach-usa?cat=biz-fin. Retrieved 2008-06-21. 
3. ^ ^{a b} "Bid to make Coach USA King of the Road (The Independent)". The Sunday Herald. June 18, 2000. http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4156/is_20000618/ai_n13948856/pg_1?tag=artBody;col1. Retrieved 2008-06-21. 
4. ^ "Coach USA, Inc. Names Larry King Chairman and Chief Executive Officer (Business Wire)". Business Wire. 1998-11-15. http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0EIN/is_1998_Nov_4/ai_53168429. Retrieved 2008-06-21. 
5. ^ "Stagecoach pays pounds 1.21bn for largest US bus operator (The Independent)". 1999-06-15. http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4158/is_19990615/ai_n14228677. Retrieved 2008-06-21. ^{[dead link]}
6. ^ Kemp, Kenny (2002-12-01). "Stagecoach's US ambitions come at a price (The Sunday Herald)". The Sunday Herald. http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4156/is_20021201/ai_n12580119. Retrieved 2008-06-21. 
7. ^ "Coach USA up for sale after write-down drives Stagecoach into pounds (The Independent)". 2002-12-15. http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4158/is_20021205/ai_n12661365. Retrieved 2008-06-21. ^{[dead link]}
8. ^ "Rhode Island's Bonanza Bus among Five Lines Sold to Peter Pan (Providence Journal/Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News)". Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News. December 2002. http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_hb5553/is_200212/ai_n21708127. Retrieved 2008-06-21. ^{[dead link]}
9. ^ "Stagecoach Group agrees terms for the sale of the West and South Central regions of Coach USA". 2003-06-06. http://www.stagecoachgroup.com/scg/media/press/pr2003/2003-06-06/. Retrieved 2008-06-22. 
10. ^ "Stagecoach to sell Coach USA unit for $48m (The Independent)". 2003-07-25. http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4158/is_20030725/ai_n12706081?tag=content;col1. Retrieved 2008-06-21. ^{[dead link]}
11. ^ "Lincolnshire Management Inc. sells American Coach Lines, Inc.". 2006-05-11. http://www.loeb.com/lincolnshiremanagementincsellsamerican/. Retrieved 2008-07-12. 
12. ^ "Stagecoach Group sells Coach USA Transit Division (Stagecoach Group press release)". 2003-05-22. http://www.stagecoachgroup.com/scg/media/press/pr2003/2003-05-22/. Retrieved 2008-06-21. 
13. ^ "Stagecoach Fan Club Home Page". Archived from the original on 2009-07-24. http://web.archive.org/web/20090724123347/http://geocities.com/MotorCity/Downs/8661/. Retrieved 2008-06-21. 
14. ^ "Coach USA Contacts". http://www.coachusa.com/contactsalesoffice.asp. Retrieved 2008-06-21. 

External links

• Coach USA
• Megabus USA
• Coach USA on Yahoo! Groups