WBZ reports Lucky Star, which provides bus service between South Station and New York's Chinatown, shut down Wednesday night after some bad inspections.
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WBZ reports Lucky Star, which provides bus service between South Station and New York's Chinatown, shut down Wednesday night after some bad inspections.
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Comments
They're not so lucky anymore.
By Boston_res
Thu, 06/06/2013 - 1:29am
.
The end of the the Rival to the Original
By RhoninFire
Thu, 06/06/2013 - 3:14am
With the end of Lucky Star, I can't imagine chinatown busses existing much longer. The two original Chinatown Buses avoided being crushed in the early phase by rising from an area the established players wasn't looking. By establishing that size, I assumed that they would eventually face issues like complex regulations combined with a language barrier, but would eventually adapt and clean up by virtue of reaching that size (and maybe they did, the news reporting of bus crashes ended in 2007 - and World Wide Bus crash operated as a Chinatown bus line, but not one of the Chinese-American founded/owned companies)
I have to say, this is a ending with a whimper. From what I read around 26 Chinatown Bus companies shut down in one round last year. Now Fung Wah (the original bus line) dead and Lucky Star (the rival) about to be dead. Along with two larger companies sold to Megabus (I guess that's a slightly better ending than the rest). "Chinatown Bus" as in being founded, run and owned by Chinese families is probably no more. All the lines will be own and operated by roughly Peter Pan, Greyhound, and Megabus (at least the multinational entry will survive to give competition).
Very unspecific
By Jeff B
Thu, 06/06/2013 - 7:08am
What did they actually fail? I've taken numerous bus lines to NYC and Lucky Star has probably given me the least issues over the years. Bolt is the only one that's actually broken down on me
Nothing was failed in terms
By anon
Thu, 06/06/2013 - 9:18am
Nothing was failed in terms of safety or equipment maintenance. They were shut down because of paperwork violations. Hopefully it will only be temporary.
A bit more serious than failing to file paperwork
By adamg
Thu, 06/06/2013 - 3:13pm
Here's the federal order:
this is a bit confusing
By aldos
Thu, 06/06/2013 - 3:37pm
The quote states that there are "six motor coaches owned by Lucky Star", but then goes on to say that they have 21 motor coaches. Are the remaining buses not owned by Lucky Star? Also, what constitutes "over 10" of 21? 11? 20? Why not just give the number?
You can check the company
By anon
Thu, 06/06/2013 - 3:47pm
You can check the company snapshot on the SAFER page linked elsewhere in the comments. The snapshot lists 20 power units for Lucky Star where a power unit is defined as "Identifies the number of Trucks, Tractors, Hazardous Material Tank Trucks, Motor Coaches, School Buses, Mini-Bus/Vans and Limousines owned, term leased or trip leased by the motor carrier."
Feature not bug
By Matthew
Thu, 06/06/2013 - 3:48pm
People pay money to ride glass bottom boat. Lucky Star provides hole in floor for free!
Yeah
By anon
Thu, 06/06/2013 - 5:22pm
how many buses have TWO bathrooms? It's a perk.
You can check the SAFER
By anon
Thu, 06/06/2013 - 9:40am
You can check the SAFER Website or the SaferBus app for more information on passenger carriers. From there, you can see other data such as the monthly SMS results.
The website: http://safer.fmcsa.dot.gov
Info on the app: https://www.fmcsa.dot.gov/safety-security/saferbus...
Cheap Rides About to End
By BostonUrbEx
Thu, 06/06/2013 - 8:52am
It seems we won't have many lines left, pretty soon. Goodbye cheap seats to NYC?
Competition
By anon
Thu, 06/06/2013 - 8:54am
There are still plenty of other companies. BoltBus, Go Buses, Yo!, to go along with the major 3.
Bolt Bus and Yo! are both
By anon
Thu, 06/06/2013 - 9:16am
Bolt Bus and Yo! are both co-owned by Peter Pan and Greyhound. If Lucky Star doesn't resume service, I wouldn't be surprised if another carrier like Academy Lines decides to enter the Boston-New York market. Lucky Star just bought a bunch of new buses though, I bet they will work with the DPU and the Feds to put together a plan to resume service (unlike Fung Wah, who refused to release their maintenance records)
If indeed Lucky Star is
By Jofus
Thu, 06/06/2013 - 7:14pm
If indeed Lucky Star is getting new buses, then I suspect the company will be allowed to resume operating, but only with the new buses.
Fung Wah refused to release their maintenance records?
By anon
Fri, 06/07/2013 - 3:00pm
That's not surprising, because lots of businesses/companies who're into some illegal and/or shady stuff have done precisely that. If that really be the case with Fung Wah, that's damaging evidence that they've had plenty to hide and aren't trustworthy.
greyhound is the Sidney Crosby of buses
By anon
Thu, 06/06/2013 - 10:39am
They cry and moan about the competition, lobbying rule changes and other schemes to get their competition out of business so they can have a monopoly again. They operate Bolt Bus, so that isn't competition. I remember the prices to NY before chinatown, over 10 years ago and they were higher than now, what other transportation has gone down in price over a decade? That will end now that greyhound has lobbied their competition from business. This is the classic version of US capitalism, big corporations use money and power to stifle competition.
How sneaky of them to lobby
By Scratchie
Thu, 06/06/2013 - 3:26pm
How sneaky of them to lobby their competition not to maintain their fleet.
Maintanence
By RhoninFire
Thu, 06/06/2013 - 5:23pm
It could be a case of both. The reports of actual accidents has stopped after the string of publicity after 2008 despite popular perception of continued fatality. In fact, the only fatality (and the commonly cited reason in media to greater government enforcement) I found was World Wide Bus which is not owned by Chinese-Americans. Meanwhile, the anon is not lying that Greyhound are lobbying the government. The respective union (Amalgamated Transit Union to be exact) also been lobbying. My gut says their motivation is more about fighting competition by using government than genuine concern of the lost customers.
At the same time, enforcement would work if there's nothing to be cited (though one can nitpick, but AdamG's quote with its examples at least sounds serious - but then again, when was the last serious crash?). There's a reasonable argument that the government enforcement is motivated by such lobbying, but the findings are legitimate. Or both companies have regulations issues, only to enforce more on one group than the other. Or some other mixture of motivation and findings.
THe point of inspections is
By anon
Fri, 06/07/2013 - 12:45pm
THe point of inspections is to catch the failures before they prove fatal. The lack of accidents since the publicity in 1998 is thanks to regulation/inpsection, not in spite of it.
By that logic
By anon
Fri, 06/07/2013 - 2:04pm
Why is MegafailBus still around? They've killed far more people than the other bus lines put together.
Lucky Star buses, like Lucky Star's singer
By Will LaTulippe
Thu, 06/06/2013 - 3:08pm
Are both old and worn down.
First Lucky Star, next Roy Rogers on 84
By EM Painter
Thu, 06/06/2013 - 11:14pm
The only place Lucky Star would stop, probably gave free bad burgers to the driver.
Oof!
By Scratchie
Fri, 06/07/2013 - 12:38pm
Actually, I think that Roy Rogers closed a few months ago?
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