The U.S. Surface Transportation Board has tentatively approved the sales of Fox Bus Lines of Massachusetts and Badger Bus Transportation Group of Wisconsin. The board is an independent federal agency responsible for the economic regulation of surface transportation modes.
Fox Bus
Fox Bus Lines does business as Silver Fox Coaches and operates 30 vehicles with 51 drivers, according to the board’s notification in the Federal Register. It would be acquired by National Express Transit Corporation, a Delaware corporation owned by a publicly held British corporation, National Express Group PLC.
National Express reported that its current U.S. affiliates include Aristocrat Limousine and Bus Inc., New Jersey; Beck Bus Transportation Corp., Illinois; Chicagoland Coach Lines LLC, Illinois; Durham School Services, L.P., which operates in several states; New Dawn Transit LLC, New York; Petermann Ltd., Ohio; Petermann Northeast LLC, Ohio and Pennsylvania; Petermann STSA LLC, Kansas; Quality Bus Service LLC, New York; Queen City Transportation LLC, Ohio; Free Enterprise System/Royal LLC, Illinois and Indiana; Trans Express, New York; Trinity Inc., Michigan; Trinity Student Delivery LLC, Ohio; and White Plains Bus Company Inc., d/b/a Suburban Paratransit Service, New York.
Badger Bus
Badger Bus Transportation Group operates Badger Coaches, which operates 71 vehicles with 96 drivers, according to the federal docket. It proposes to be acquired by Transportation Demand Management Holdings LLC of Texas, which owns and controls Transportation Demand Management, LLC (TDM), which is organized under the laws of Washington.
“TDM is a passenger motor carrier that conducts business as Starline Luxury Coaches, Wheatland Express, Starline Transportation and A&A Motorcoach, and utilizes approximately 99 passenger-carrying vehicles and 119 drivers,” the filing states.
“The majority equity and voting membership interest in Holdings is owned and held by CVG Group LLC (CVG), which is organized under the laws of Texas. The membership interests of CVG are held evenly by Michael T. Gibson and Willard L. Jackson. A non-controlling equity membership interest in Holdings is directly and indirectly held by Gladys Gillis, the chief executive officer of Holdings.”
Gillis is the outgoing chairman of the United Motorcoach Association.
Tentative approval
Public comment periods were opened for both transactions. The Surface Transportation Board voted to find that each “acquisition as proposed in the application is consistent with the public interest and should be tentatively approved and authorized. If any opposing comments are timely filed, these findings will be deemed vacated, and, unless a final decision can be made on the record as developed, a procedural schedule will be adopted to reconsider the application.”
