Fung Wah Bus Transportation Inc. (Traditional Chinese: Simplified Chinese: ????????) is one of the first Chinatown bus lines in the US, running a bus service between Boston and New York City. It is operated from 1996 to 2015, except for a brief period in 2014 when it is closed for safety inspections.
Video Fung Wah Bus Transportation
Etimologi
The name Fung Wah comes from Cantonese pronunciation from Chinese name, which means "great wind."
Maps Fung Wah Bus Transportation
Route
Fung Wah used a fleet of more than two dozen buses to operate scheduled scheduled services between South Stations in Boston and Chinatown in Manhattan. Usually travels past Interstate 95 on his travel route.
History
Fung Wah was founded in New York City in 1996, as Fung Wah Transport Vans, Inc. , by Pei Lin Liang, who immigrated from Zhuhai, China in 1988. Before establishing the company, Liang had worked as a driver for Four Seas, a local dollar vanship that transported garment workers and Chinese restaurant from Sunset Park in Brooklyn to Chinatown in Manhattan. Fung Wah started as a direct competitor with Liang's former employer. The Chinese character of the company name is written in English as Fenghua Jieyun Gongsi and translated as Elegant Rapid Transit Company . The translations of "Fung Wah" from Canton include Chinese Wind .
In 1997, Liang borrowed $ 60,000 and bought four vans at the request of customers who wanted to visit their children on campus in Boston, and gradually developed into a low-cost intercity transit provider. As one of the first Chinatown bus lines, Fung Wah operates among the special locations on the roadside. In 2003, Fung Wah and competitors such as the Lucky Star Bus competed fiercely, with low prices and alleged crime connections at other competitors. Although initially operating outside of the city of Boston Chinatown, Fung Wah moved to South South Station bus terminal in 2004 due to traffic concerns from the Boston city government. Between 1997 and 2007, Chinatown buses like Fung Wah took 60% of the Greyhound Lines market share in the northeastern United States.
On June 15, 2009, Fung Wah expanded service to Rhode Island at the Kennedy Plaza bus station in downtown Providence, but stopped this route in 2010.
In February 2013, an investigative report aired on WBZ-TV Boston found a fractured frame on the Fung Wah bus. The Massachusetts authorities then ordered most of Fung Wah's fleets out of the way. In March 2013, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration declared Fung Wah "an imminent danger to public safety" and ordered it to stop all operations with its fleet at the time. On March 28, 2013, the US Department of Transportation ordered the company to immediately suspend all services. In September 2013, it was reported that both Fung Wah and Lucky Star lines (other "Chinatown bus" lines) had done a lot of work, training and purchasing in the hope that their bus lines would operate again. There will be a re-archiving for their operating license and possible restricted service delivery in Fall 2013.
On February 7, 2014, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration denied Fung Wah's request to continue operations, claiming the company was "unwilling or unable to comply" with federal intercity bus safety standards. Fung Wah's law firm, New York Freeman Lewis LLC, filed an appeal against the decision.
On December 18, 2014, it was announced that the bus line will continue service in early 2015. Fung Wah spent hundreds of thousands of dollars to improve bus safety between February 2013 and December 2014; In addition, it was revealed that the bus inspection is flawed. The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration will monitor Fung Wah tightly after the operation resumes.
However, in July 2015, before the resumption of service is scheduled to begin, the owner Peter Liang announces that the service will terminate permanently. The line was reportedly closed because it could not find a bus stop at Boston South Station. Alternatives, such as the Alewife station at the northern end of the Red Line subway in Cambridge, are reportedly given as an option but considered too far from the traditional operating locus near Chinatown in Boston.
Controversy
"Fare wars"
With lower fares than other buses and trains between New York City and Boston (as low as $ 10 during tariff war), Fung Wah is becoming popular with young people and other travelers on a limited budget. In early 2013, Massachusetts and the Federal authorities issued a series of security citations, declaring it to be "an impending danger to public safety", imposing operating restrictions, and ultimately ordering Fung Wah to stop all operations.
Bus Fung Wah has been involved in several safety-related incidents. In 2005, the company rated 74 federal security out of 100, 100 being the worst, and 75 or above considered risky unsafe and crashing. Ian Grossman of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration reported that Fung Wah's drivers were rated within 2 percent of the nation's worst racers by breach of the rules, and nine of 71 drivers Fung Wah were suspended after inspections between 2004 and 2006. However, travelers who are not discouraged.
- August 16, 2005: A bus heading for New York caught fire on Interstate 91 near Meriden, Connecticut. Although passengers later criticized drivers for being unhelpful and untrained in evacuating buses, all passengers were eventually evacuated and no injuries were reported.
- September 6, 2006: A bus rolled over in Auburn, Massachusetts and caused minor injuries to 34 passengers. Excessive speed is called a factor and bus companies are fined.
- January 3, 2007: In Framingham, Massachusetts, the bus heading to New York lost two rear wheels. No injuries were reported.
- February 14, 2007: New York-bound bus driver lost control in a winter storm and crashed into a guardrail at the Massachusetts Turnpike (I-90) in Allston, Massachusetts. No injuries were reported.
- March 23, 2007: A bus in New York is trapped on a concrete barrier in front of a toll gate on the Massachusetts highway on Route 128 in Weston, Massachusetts, as the bus drove over a cement line separator. The driver entered a special lane of the car and tried to change lanes. No one was hurt in the incident, but the bus was taken from the service and the passengers boarded another Fung Wah bus that came later.
- June 23, 2008: A passenger on a bus was attacked by an uncontrolled garbage truck at the corner of Bowery and Canal Street in Chinatown in New York. The impact force pushes the bus onto the sidewalk and into the bank. As a result of the accident, a sign attached to a lamppost fell, wounding a 57-year-old woman; the woman later died as a result of a heart attack. Some people, including two police officers, were treated for minor injuries. The State Department Transport Inspector found the dump truck, owned by CPQ Freight Systems, had eight mechanical problems including the wrong brakes that caused the accident.
- No collision incidents were reported to the Federal Carrier Safety Administration by the state for 24 months prior to 26 December 2011.
- February 25, 2013: The company pulled almost all its fleets off the road with 21 of the 28 buses after inspectors from the Massachusetts Department of Public Interest found some structural cracks in some buses. Companies reduce their services from every half hour to hour, and use the chartered bus instead of the fleet.
- February 26, 2013: As a result of structural damage discovered the day before, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) ordered Fung Wah to "immediately stop passenger service" indefinitely and to park the remaining seven buses.
- March 1, 2013: FMCSA officially canceled the docket carrier (MC 405969, USDOT 954187) and Fung Wah operating authority after Fung Wah blocked access to security records. Thus, Fung Wah can not rent a bus to fulfill the service.
Discrimination Claims
In January 2004, due to the company's policy of banning pets from buses, Bus Company Fung Wah refused to sell tickets to the blind couple who traveled with the guide dog, even when notified by the couple - and then by the police responded to the nuisance call - that the couple had the right for a bus ride with animal service. In conjunction with the Massachusetts Attorney General, the couple then filed a discriminatory lawsuit against the company, authorized by the Attorney General's office: "The Massachusetts law prohibits discrimination against the blind and requires businesses to allow animal services in their companies even when there is a" no pet policy "as long as the animal is controlled and does not cause undue burden." In July 2007, the Civilian Commission on Discrimination awarded $ 60,000 in damages, assessed the $ 10,000 fine paid to the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and ordered the company to take several steps to prevent future discrimination.
See also
References
External links
- Official website
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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