BROOKLYN, N.Y. A report published by The New York Times has focused new and national attention on a documented shortcoming of federal safety regulators and a point of widespread frustration within the motorcoach industry.

The issue? The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administrations ongoing failure to aggressively and effectively enforce its cease-operations orders.

The Times reported late last month that in the months following a bus crash on Interstate 95 that killed 15 people in the Bronx, federal officials were so concerned about the operation of the bus company, World Wide Travel, that they revoked its operating authority.

But the disciplinary action seems to have had little practical effect.

The owner, Michael Shub, continues to book passengers on buses through two other companies he owns and that share the same address in Brooklyn that World Wide Travel used, the Times said.

The shutdown company's buses are also still on the road; they were simply shifted to Shub's other bus operations, according to state officials.

World Wide Travel was ordered to cease operations in June after the FMCSA uncovered serious safety violations. The agency cited the companys failure to improve after the crash on March 12, in which one of its charter coaches returning from the Mohegan Sun casino in Connecticut went out of control on I-95.

The driver, Ophadell Williams, was indicted in the Bronx on manslaughter and other charges (see Sept. 15 Bus & Motorcoach News). The company was closed for "allowing its drivers to violate hours-of-service rules," Bill Mosley, a spokesman for the U.S. Department of Transportation, told the Times.

GAO investigation

The problem of shuttered bus companies that reappear under different names was the subject of an investigation in 2009 by the Government Accountability Office, after a bus accident in 2008 killed 17 people in Sherman, Texas.

That inquiry showed that the bus operator was a renamed version of a company that had been ordered closed two months earlier. (See Sept. 1, 2008 Bus & Motorcoach News.)

The government investigation also found that at least 9 percent of all the companies that had their operating certificates rescinded for safety reasons had reincarnated by using different names.

Shub continues to provide scheduled bus service between Nassau County and Manhattan on Long Island Transit, and between New York and two Boston suburbs on World Wide Bus.

And all but one of the buses from World Wide Travel's fleet were transferred this summer to a company, Great Escapes, said Nicholas Cantiello, a spokesman for the New York State Department of Motor Vehicles. Great Escapes was owned by Shub, according to state records. That company provides buses and drivers for Shub's two other companies.

A lawyer for Shub said, however, that the state records were out of date and that the company was owned by Mark Fayer. "Mr. Shub hasn't been involved with Great Escapes in quite some time," said the lawyer, Eric Brodie, who also represents Fayer.

Brodie told the Times he could not say exactly when the company changed hands or how Fayer came to own Great Escapes. But in 2004, Fayer was listed as a dispatch supervisor of World Wide Travel on bussolutions.com, an industry directory and database, according to information provided by the company.

"I don't know about the previous relationship or what his role was at World Wide Travel," Brodie said of Fayer. "All I know for sure is he is the sole owner of Great Escapes right now."

FMCSA follow-up

The FMCSA also investigated Great Escapes and downgraded its safety rating to conditional; it is currently conducting a follow-up safety investigation of Great Escapes to "ensure it is operating in full compliance with federal safety standards," Mosley of the USDOT told the Times in an e-mail.

In the days after the casino bus accident, Sen. Charles E. Schumer and Rep. Nydia M. Velzquez asked the National Transportation Safety Board to examine whether there was enough oversight of curbside bus lines to ensure passenger safety, citing World Wide Travels previous accidents and poor safety ranking. The board is planning to release that study this month.

"There are some very convoluted and obfuscated relationships that occur: business relationships, operational arrangements, and some are very legal," the safety board's chairman, Deborah Hersman, said of the industry in an interview with the Times. "But that doesn't mean it's easy to follow and easy to understand, and it doesn't mean they're a good idea even if they're legal."

After the bus crash in Texas, the FMCSA started cross-checking new bus applicant ownership records against those of companies ordered out of business to make sure sanctioned bus companies were not reappearing. But the process did not extend to comparing ownership of existing companies.

Peter Pantuso, president of the American Bus Association, told the Times that World Wide Travel's ABA membership was suspended after the accident, but that the group was surprised to learn of the other companies that appeared to be linked to World Wide Travel. He said the association would also suspend the memberships of those companies.

"The question is, are they supposed to be out of service, and if they are, why is it that a company that looks similar to them is still running?" he asked.

Brodie said the USDOT was "certainly aware that there is a relationship between World Wide Travel and Great Escapes.

"World Wide Travel was shut down," he said. "Great Escapes was not."

Long-term problem

Motorcoach operators that give short shrift to safety compliance and use the savings derived from failing to properly maintain buses and assure they have safe drivers on the road have severely undercut legitimate operators and have inflicted damage on the industry and its reputation for more than 30 years.

The failure of the FMCSA to aggressively monitor and enforce its cease-operations orders has been a festering sore point with the industry for years.

The federal agency relies heavily on state police agencies to take buses off the road if they stop one federal regulators have ordered out of service.

But past investigations have shown that states are inconsistent in their enforcement efforts and they often are not aware the FMCSA has ordered a company off the road.

Critics note that the FMCSA doles out tens of millions of dollars annually to state safety enforcement agencies, giving it leverage to mandate that states step up their enforcement, as well as communications, efforts.

There also are those who say it is the height of naiveté to assume, as it appears safety regulators do, that motorcoaches, managers, drivers and owners will just go away after a company is issued a shutdown order.

"The fact of the matter is this is how people make their living, and to simply assume they will not continue to make their living in the bus and motorcoach industry because they received a letter of revocation has simply proven false time and again," said one critic.

"Perhaps the FMCSA should consider aggressive rehabilitation prior to revocation of authority," this individual suggested.

Becoming a bad apple

And then there is the issue of why some operators become noncompliant in the first place.

One well-connected industry executive said his experience has shown that there is a "very real safety and compliance knowledge gap" among operators.

"They do not generally start out as rogues or slimeballs," he said. "However, once you combine the knowledge gap with the realities of making coach payments and payroll, combined with a lack of enforcement, you can see some real scoundrels evolve."