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| Volume 17, Issue 2 | Summer 2005 |
Public Transits Feeding Interstate Bus LinesGreyhound Lines dropped several of its routes almost a year ago. There have been many changes occurring in the new routes and, many times, lost service to communities. Jefferson Lines and Greyhound Lines are now working with local public transits to restore some of the routes and service lost. Both North and South Dakota DOT's are encouraging the public transits in their states to work with the interstate bus systems to connect our communities with nationwide destinations. In South Dakota, Aberdeen Ride Line shuttles passengers to and from Summit Corner to meet Jefferson Lines on I-29. River Cities Transit (RCT) of Pierre started as a ticket agent and served as Jefferson Lines depot in Pierre 3 years ago.
Because these changes were made so fast, it took Greyhound several months to realize they didn't want public transits in their system. Their concern was interstate bus systems are required to carry $5 million liability insurance by the Federal Motor Carriers Safety Administration (FMCSA) and most public transits carry much less. We argued to some extent that we didn't need the higher insurance because we don't leave our service area, and we don't cross state lines. That didn't work so Greyhound took all feeder routes off their Trip's system. Aberdeen and Pierre, for example, don't show up on the system as having bus service or a destination that can be reached. This is happening in Iowa and Arkansas and possibly many other states. On June 21, a meeting was held in Washington, D.C., with members of the general council of Department of Transportation (DOT), FMCSA and Federal Transit Administration (FTA). Those in attendance included Greyhound Vice President of Industry Relations Gregory Alexander, Greyhound Government Affairs Representative Ted Knappen, Jefferson Lines President Charlie Zelle, Community Transportation Association of America (CTAA) Executive Director Dale Marsico, Chris Zeilinger of CTAA, Staff from the Arkansas Senate office, River Cities Transit Executive Director Ron Baumgart and joining by phone were members of the Iowa DOT. The main focus of the meeting was to determine some kind of an exemption granted by FMCSA to public transits that receive federal transit dollars. To qualify for the exemption, public transits could not leave their service area to provide the feeder service to the interstate bus lines, and they would have to meet the minimum insurance requirements of the state they operate in. If that can be accomplished, Greyhound feels they are covered and will not be liable for the feeder part of the trip. This would allow all feeder routes to be added back into the Trip's system so trip origination or final destinations on the feeder routes can be found and tickets could be purchased for the whole trip including the part served by the public transit. They plan to have another meeting within three weeks to finalize an agreement that will hopefully end this problem. Many area transits are looking into becoming feeder routes. It will be nice to have this cleared up as soon as possible so any new destinations can be added at start up time and not turn into nightmares like Aberdeen, Pierre and other public transits are experiencing. 
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In this issue...
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Because of changes in schedules last year, Jefferson Lines needed to cut two hours time off its route between Sioux Falls and Rapid City. This forced Jefferson Lines to stay on I-90, bypassing many communities including Pierre. Pierre felt it couldn't afford to loose the bus service so August 18, 2004, RCT started running a shuttle to Vivian, S.D., twice a day, seven days a week. Jefferson Lines, through a contractual agreement with Greyhound, started using their Trip's computer system. Through the Trip's system you could purchase a ticket to anywhere the interstate bus companies went in the United States and Canada. Aberdeen and Pierre were added to the system, so passengers from any location could check on a computer or go to any bus ticket agent and get a ticket to Aberdeen or Pierre because we were part of the interstate system.