WILMINGTON, Del. The motorcoach industrys largest and best-known bus broker, Bus Bank, has filed for Charter 11 bankruptcy protection, owing dozens of bus operators across the U.S. hundreds of thousands of dollars.

The filing -- in U.S. Bankruptcy Court here -- came late last month.

Bus Banks voluntary bankruptcy petition, filed under its legal corporate name, Global Charter Services Ltd., shed little light on the extent of its overall financial plight, noting only that the company had liabilities of between $1 million and $10 million. Its assets are somewhere in the same range.

However, the filing did identify its 20-largest creditors and all but four or five appear to be motorcoach operators who are owed between $40,000 and $86,000 each.

A number of well-known operators are on the list, including DeCamp Bus Lines of Montclair, N.J.; Wertz Motor Coaches of Marcus Hook, Pa.; Saddle River Tours of Wallington, N.J.; Cavallo Bus Lines of Gillispie, Ill., and Indianapolis, and Gray Line of Denver. These companies are owed between $41,000 and $71,000 each.

In addition, Coach USA Investment Co. of Chicago is owed more than $1 million for money apparently lent to Bus Bank.

Operators who were contacted by Bus Bank the day before the bankruptcy filing reported they had been told the company has new management, and that Bus Bank founder and CEO William Maulsby was no longer in charge.

Calls to Bus Bank were not returned.

During the past decade, Bus Bank grew to be the coach industrys largest bus broker. Through aggressive marketing and sales tactics, and with the investment of Lancer Insurance, it emerged as an industry fixture.

During its maturation it achieved significant highs, winning a UMA Vision Award at the 2002 UMA Motorcoach Expo, as well as a number of lows, including public criticism of its business practices by operators, and a battering by a member of the National Transportation Safety Board who said Bus Bank should have been held partially responsible for the Hurricane Rita bus fire that killed 23 nursing home residents. (See March 1 and March 15, 2007, Bus & Motorcoach News.)

"We are disappointed by this development," said Lancer Insurance Co. President David P. Delaney Jr., who sits on the board of Bus Bank.

"The difficult economy in recent years has clearly had a significant impact on Bus Bank's financial condition. We invested in Bus Bank because we believed it could benefit our policyholders by giving them access to a new source of revenue.

"In this economic environment, in particular, the company clearly faces significant challenges, but we believe Bus Bank's new management team has a realistic plan which we hope the court and fellow creditors will support," Delaney said.

One operator, who is owed more than $80,000 by Bus Bank, said he was neither "terribly surprised nor shocked" by the bankruptcy filing, and he expressed confidence he will eventually be paid.

"I think I will. Absolutely," he said.

The operator, who asked that he not be identified, said he had been working with Bus Bank for four years and had been receiving payments right along. His latest payment came "last week," he said.

However, he does not plan to accept future jobs from Bus Bank while he remains owed such a large chunk of money.

A corporation, such as Bus Bank, may file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy court protection when it is unable to pay its creditors or service its debt. In Chapter 11, in most instances, the debtor remains in control of the business while it reorganizes its operations and financial structure subject to the oversight and jurisdiction of the bankruptcy court.