The text below is in Russian and English.
В марте 2013 года все было
как обычно. Китайские автобусы между Нью Йорком и Вашингтоном ходили по расписанию как и последние 10 лет.
В начале июня 2013 года поездка на китайском автобусе вызвала удивление — он опоздал из Нью-Йорка на 2 часа.
Обычно опаздывал на 30 -45 мин.
Во время второй
поездки в середине июня я также понял, что произошло - СМЕНА ВЛАСТИ НА КИТАЙСКИХ
АВТОБУСАХ.
А вот что пишет об этом известный британский журнал "Экономист".
Chinatown buses
Driving
them out of business
Regulators nobble cheap travel
Aug 17th 2013 | WASHINGTON, DC.
· FRUGAL travellers in
America’s north-east have heard the stories. There was the bus that rolled over
from going too fast. There was the one that, somehow, lost its rear wheels. A
few others burst into flames. Yet potential passengers still gather near the Chinese
gate in Washington, DC to catch a cheap ride to New York. A one-way ticket
costs around $20, against a whopping $150 on the train. It is far from
luxurious, but you can watch films on your iPad or flirt with the other young
travellers.
For some 15 years
“Chinatown bus” lines have shuttled thrifty folk between east-coast cities for
a fraction of the price of name-brand carriers. Chinese immigrants were first
to hop aboard, followed by college students and other cash-strapped Americans.
Теперь опять мои личные впечатления!!!
Блог о поездке на
китайском автобусе между Вашингтоном и Нью -Йорком.
Это был
проходящий автобус. Он следовал из
Ричмонда и опоздал на 1,5 часа.
При посадке не нашлось мест для 7 пассажиров ( 5
очень приличных жителей Вашингтона и 2
молодых людей восточного типа, купивших билеты по интернету:).
У всех был жутко растерянный вид и они пошли ждать
следующий автобус в оффис:). Интересно, дождутся ли они следующего автобуса и
ВООБЩЕ СМОГУТ ЛИ ПОПАСТЬ В НЬЮ ЙОРК хотя
бы к вечеру:).
Было много других неприятностей во время поездок на китайских автобусах между Нью Йорком и Вашингтоном и между Вашингтоном и Ричмондом, но это в другом блоге!!!
А вот что пишет об этом журнал "Экономист".
There have been—how can one put
this?—hiccups. Fierce competition for passengers in New York led to the “bus
wars” of 2004, in which coaches were torched, drivers were assaulted and a few
people were murdered. (A decapitated torso also made an appearance.) But things
soon settled down, and more established companies such as Greyhound and Peter
Pan set up discount lines of their own. Kerbside
pick-up reduced overhead costs, but some suspected that the upstart companies
were also cutting corners on safety. Each high-profile accident brought calls
for investigations. At the behest of Charles Schumer, a senator from New York,
the National Transportation Safety Board published a study in 2011 that
declared kerbside carriers seven times more likely to be involved in lethal
accidents than traditional bus lines.
The report, trumpeted by politicians and the press, was a travesty of statistics, but regulators scented blood. The crackdown began last year when federal officials, citing safety, shut down 26 companies involved in the Chinatown bus business. More was to come.
Unlucky star In March this year they withdrew the licence of Fung Wah, the longest-running Chinatown bus service. Two other lines, Ming An and Lucky Star, soon followed it off the road. The long list of violations committed by these carriers ranged from inoperative horns to cracked frames. Lucky Star was said to have dispatched one bus with a four-foot by two-foot hole in its floor. Fung Wah had been cited for more than 200 violations over the past two years. Its drivers ranked near the bottom in terms of experience and training.
Each carrier posed an imminent threat to public safety, claimed the feds. But out on the road companies like Fung Wah and Lucky Star were surprisingly safe. Each had been involved in only one crash (with no injuries) in the past two years. That compares favourably with the coaches of Greyhound and Peter Pan, which log more miles and crash more often. The traditional carriers seem to burst into flames more often, too. Driving is never totally safe, but buses are generally safer than cars.
The big boys are gleefully filling the market gap in New York. YO!, a new line jointly operated by Greyhound and Peter Pan, is now the only bus that runs from Chinatown to Boston. The name is derived from a Chinese word that means “to protect”. YO! is keen to protect customers from harm. Or could it be, wags wonder, that incumbents like being protected from pesky new competitors?
The report, trumpeted by politicians and the press, was a travesty of statistics, but regulators scented blood. The crackdown began last year when federal officials, citing safety, shut down 26 companies involved in the Chinatown bus business. More was to come.
Unlucky star In March this year they withdrew the licence of Fung Wah, the longest-running Chinatown bus service. Two other lines, Ming An and Lucky Star, soon followed it off the road. The long list of violations committed by these carriers ranged from inoperative horns to cracked frames. Lucky Star was said to have dispatched one bus with a four-foot by two-foot hole in its floor. Fung Wah had been cited for more than 200 violations over the past two years. Its drivers ranked near the bottom in terms of experience and training.
Each carrier posed an imminent threat to public safety, claimed the feds. But out on the road companies like Fung Wah and Lucky Star were surprisingly safe. Each had been involved in only one crash (with no injuries) in the past two years. That compares favourably with the coaches of Greyhound and Peter Pan, which log more miles and crash more often. The traditional carriers seem to burst into flames more often, too. Driving is never totally safe, but buses are generally safer than cars.
The big boys are gleefully filling the market gap in New York. YO!, a new line jointly operated by Greyhound and Peter Pan, is now the only bus that runs from Chinatown to Boston. The name is derived from a Chinese word that means “to protect”. YO! is keen to protect customers from harm. Or could it be, wags wonder, that incumbents like being protected from pesky new competitors?
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