On the East Coast, Chinese Buses Give Greyhound a Run
A bus pulled out of South Station terminal on a Friday morning and headed for New York City. Its windshield was cracked, its speedometer motionless. Orange peel graced its seat trays, and its safety warnings consisted of a single sign: "Watch your step."
The driver said not a word until he stopped the bus outside Cheng's Driving School in New York City's Chinatown. Then, as passengers gathered their bags, he stood up and screamed, "No parking here! You get out!"
The bus, according to the lettering near its luggage compartment, was owned by "Kristine Travel" and operated by "Lucky River," though the sign on its side said "Travel Pack" and its ticket agents called the company "Lucky Star." Its price for the trip from Boston to New York -- 187 miles in 4? hours -- was $15.
That may seem an impossibly low fare, yet another carrier on the Boston to New York run has lately started charging $15, too. The name on the side of its buses is Greyhound.
Greyhound Lines Inc. is a $1 billion company owned by Laidlaw International Inc., a $4.6 billion company. The only national bus network, "big dog" was racing along America's highways even before Clark Gable and Claudette Colbert hopped on a Greyhound in 1934's "It Happened One Night." But today, a dozen or so Chinese-owned bus lines are giving the dog a run for its money.
Immigrant enterprises don't often go head-to-head with huge corporations at critical moments in vital sectors. But partly by using tactics borrowed from discount airlines and online ticket brokers, that's what these little companies are doing to Greyhound. Just as Laidlaw, its parent since 1999, climbs out of bankruptcy, Chinatown buses have sucked Greyhound into a wounding war over its most-traveled runs, from New York to Washington, Philadelphia and Boston.
Two faces of the new Chinese immigration have met along the way: entrepreneurs who don't mind long hours or street fights; and computer engineers who build Web sites. Together, they have broken out of their neighborhoods and gone hunting for customers in what, with few exceptions, have been private Greyhound preserves.
"If Greyhound wasn't a giant, maybe they could beat us," Shui Ming Zheng says through an interpreter. "But because they are a giant, they cannot."
Mr. Zheng, 49 years old, has been in the U.S. 14 years and drives the Washington run himself as part owner of Eastern Travel & Tour Inc. A year ago, Eastern took on David Wong, 38, as a new partner. He has gelled hair, fluent English and an MBA from Indiana State University.
"Common sense tells me that if JetBlue profits on a $79 fare to Buffalo, we can profit on a $15 fare to D.C.," says Mr. Wong, who handles management. "We copied the airline concept to a bus line." Greyhound, he adds, "really feels the pain."
'Under Attack'
On the Northeast routes that deliver a third of its revenue, Greyhound isn't about to roll over. Conceding that the Chinese lines have reignited bus travel, it has slashed fares to claim new riders for itself.
Greyhound's chief operating officer, Jack Haugsland, says, "We will alter our pricing to protect our market share." In the past year, Greyhound has done more: It sued, trying to bump two Chinese lines out of action by charging they weren't licensed properly, and pushed for a federal investigation of a dozen others.
"The industry is under attack," says Peter Pantuso, who heads the American Bus Association, a lobbying group. Of its 950 members, Greyhound is by far the largest. "People wonder, how can you charge half the price of an established carrier?"
Easily. Eastern Travel, for instance, says its cost for a round-trip to Washington from New York is $700. The driver gets $140. A full busload of 61 passengers, paying $35 each, brings in $2,135.
The first Chinatown buses appeared on Northeastern curbsides about eight years ago, ferrying Chinese workers to restaurant jobs in nearby cities. Chinese students caught on, then other students followed. The business was an underground hit.
But in 2000, as recounted in a New York conspiracy indictment, competition among Chinese bus lines turned nasty. Several people who worked for Farwell Tours, an operator on the Washington run, are accused of brutalizing a rival, D.C. Express. Two people are awaiting trial; the others are at large. Wrecking its buses and threatening ticket agents, they tried to get D.C. Express to either raise its rock-bottom prices or get out of the business, the Manhattan district attorney alleges.
In May 2002, after D.C. Express sold out to another line, a Farwell bus backed into the new owner, crushing his pelvis. The indictment names the driver as Di Jian Chen. Mr. Chen won't be going on trial: He was shot dead on a Chinatown street in May 2003. His murder remains unsolved.
The violence has since ebbed. Yet some Chinese lines, in search of more healthful opportunities, have moved the fight uptown.
"I'm getting Americans to take my bus," says Eastern's Mr. Zheng, meaning anyone not Chinese. He still works in Chinatown, but his partner, Mr. Wong, has moved to 34th Street. Eastern now scoops up travelers near Pennsylvania Station. "The subway is right there," he says. "Everybody comes to us."
The Web is helping. The site most Chinese lines use is IvyMedia.com, launched in 2002 by Jimmy Chen, who came to America from Shanghai for a computer-science doctorate.
"Our model is Expedia," he says. Like the Internet travel service, he offers tickets for several carriers, and sells no more than the empty seats left in inventory. Though Greyhound also sells online, it doesn't limit the number of seats. If it oversells a route, it keeps reserve buses and drivers to absorb overflow passengers. Mr. Chen sees that "wasteful" policy as the big dog's jugular.
An immigrant conquest of the bus business wouldn't be a first. In 1914, a company started carrying Scandinavian miners -- not waiters -- to Minnesota's iron ranges in modified Hupmobiles. That line evolved into Greyhound. By 1980, its revenue topped $1 billion.
Then came deregulation of the bus industry, a long strike and a bankruptcy in 1990. In 2001, two years after Greyhound merged with Laidlaw, a transportation holding company, it filed for bankruptcy, too. Laidlaw emerged from bankruptcy in 2003. In that year, Bert Powell, an analyst at BMO Nesbitt Burns, pronounced Greyhound, now based in Dallas, Laidlaw's "weakest-performing segment."
Terror fears drove insurance rates up and riders away. Greyhound's results dipped into the red -- by $23 million in the first nine months of 2004. Last June, Greyhound charted a course correction: It ended service to 260 Western towns, with more cuts to come. It bet its future on short runs -- exactly the ones the Chinese lines are out to snatch.
Greyhound's countermoves began in 2003 on Chinese turf in New York. It offered a shuttle from Chinatown to the Port Authority. Ignored by riders, it was quickly dropped. But Greyhound and the bus industry had higher hopes -- in the form of a federal investigation.
"We asked, 'Can you please check this out?' " says Mr. Pantuso of the American Bus Association, which doubted that the Chinese companies were complying with federal insurance and licensing rules. The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration formed a task force to look closely. Its head, Annette Sandberg, told the industry in a speech last September: "We'll either bring these carriers into compliance or shut them down."
The investigators ran into language mix-ups, and a muddle of company names and cross ownerships. Hiring an agent fluent in three Chinese dialects, they began picking through the records of 14 companies.
Last fall, they visited the Chinatown offices of Dragon Coach Inc. The line's owner, Edward Ho, made available a copy of his federal compliance review: It lists two "acute" violations -- an insurance lapse and a failure to send drivers for drug tests. Mr. Ho put his house in order fast. Dragon Coach scored a federal rating of "satisfactory."
That was the pattern. "Every time we confronted one of these carriers, they did what was necessary to become authorized," says Jim Lewis, a spokesman for the safety administration, a part of the Department of Transportation. The task force has now wound down, but the industry's lobbying group argues that it didn't dig deep enough. Its head, Mr. Pantuso, says, "The feds need to be more aggressive."
Defending its most-traveled corridor, Greyhound already has been: In Massachusetts federal court in last year, it sued two Chinese challengers on the Boston-New York run. With a local partner, Peter Pan Lines Inc., it charged Fung Wah Transportation Inc. and Kristine Travel & Tours Inc. were operating without the proper licenses for scheduled service.
Not even a giant line can "tolerate unauthorized operators cherry-picking business on its busiest routes," Gregory Alexander, a Greyhound vice president, declared in an affidavit. "I wish it were otherwise, but Greyhound's buses are rarely full." Pei Lin Liang, Fung Wah's president, said in his own affidavit that "our buses are packed regularly." The "true purpose" of the suit, he said, was "to drive Fung Wah out of business."
Greyhound and Peter Pan did seek injunctions to close down Kristine and Fung Wah. The court denied them. The Chinese lines soon cleared up the problems with their licenses, and the suit was dismissed. The struggle for Boston, however, didn't end there.
Curbside Pickup
The city's Chinatown is a short walk from South Station, Greyhound's base. Waiting at curbsides, Chinese buses enticed its passengers away. In spring 2003, the lure grew: a new company, Lucky Star, appeared with a $10 fare to New York. The others matched it, and turned Chinatown into a travel hub.
"There'd be hundreds of people," says John Meaney, a chief inspector for the city of Boston. "Suitcases everywhere." This congestion broke traffic laws. Last summer, Boston police went on a ticketing spree, and in September, after Lucky Star and Kristine merged, the Chinese lines were moved off the street and into South Station.
Brian Cristy, head of the state office that oversees the terminal, thinks everybody wins. "If people can't get on Fung Wah, now there's a Greyhound bus and a Peter Pan bus," he says.
Greyhound says business is improving. It set its lowest New York-Boston fare at $15 last year; at times it has been more than twice that. Now ridership (900,000 in 2003) is up. Because of the route cuts in the West, its national ridership (22 million in 2003) is down. That is exactly the kind of efficiency Greyhound says it wants: with more passengers on more profitable routes, its overall revenue per mile is up. "Greyhound," says its spokeswoman, Lynn Brown, "has no objection to competition so long as it is on a level playing field."
Nobody counts overall ridership on the Chinese lines, but they aren't packed any longer. As the Chinese operators see it, the game in South Station isn't on the level at all.
Inside the station, monitors display schedules for Greyhound and Peter Pan. Chinese lines go unlisted, which the station manager blames on "old equipment."
Greyhound and Peter Pan park their buses at the head of the departure hall. Now that the two Chinese lines pay a terminal fee, they also charge $15. But due to space limits, station management says, they must share one parking bay at the hall's far end.
This leads to squabbling as Lucky Star and Fung Wah jockey for one space. And to yelling -- "New York City here! Hello! New York City!" -- as agents try to snag customers. "In Chinatown, we took passengers from Greyhound," Monique Chow, a Lucky Star agent, said during a shouting break one day. "Now they take from us."
In South Station, perhaps. But lately, another Chinese line has sprouted. It's called Boston Deluxe, and it doesn't stop in South Station or in Chinatown -- Boston's or New York's. On a Friday at noon, one of its buses swooped in for a pick-up in midtown Manhattan.
"Next block! Next block!" the driver screamed, rolling past a bunch of passengers who chased him to a loading zone. After a four-hour drive at high speed, he left them in Boston on the doorstep of the First Church of Christ, Scientist.
"Where rich people live," says Jack Ho, owner of Boston Deluxe, explaining his choice of stops. "All we do is American business."
At 28, Mr. Ho has had a painful education in the realities of the Chinatown bus: Di Jian Chen, before being murdered in 2003, was his partner. Today, Mr. Ho has become a student of Greyhound.
He knows that in 1998 it got federal approval for a revenue-sharing deal with Peter Pan, ending an earlier Boston price war. Mr. Ho wonders if Greyhound might try to do even more for him.
"I want to force Greyhound to buy me out," he said with a smile over a plate of dim sum in New York. "Unless they buy me, Greyhound has no chance. Before that, I'm like all American people. I just want to make a buck."
华人巴士搅动美国客运市场
一个星期五的早晨，一辆巴士从波士顿South Station开出，向纽约驶去。这辆车的挡风玻璃裂了缝，里程表停滞不转，车座上散落著橘子皮，安全警示音也只剩下了一种声音：“小心脚下。”
最终，这辆车在纽约唐人街的程氏驾校(Cheng's Driving School)前停了下来，此前司机没说一句话。随后，当乘客起身拎行李的时候，他站起来嚷道：“这儿不能停车，快点儿下！”
从车身侧面行李箱旁边喷印的字样看来，这辆汽车属Kristine Travel所有，由Lucky River公司运营，但车的一侧标有“Travel Pack”的字样，售票员说的公司名是“Lucky Star”。从波士顿到纽约的里程是187公里，要开4个半小时，车票售价为15美元。
这样的票价低得让人难以置信，但另外一家巴士公司从波士顿到纽约的票价也下调到了15美元。这家公司的巴士车身上标明的公司名是灰狗(Greyhound)。
Greyhound Lines Inc.是一家拥有10亿美元资本的巴士公司，归资本为46亿美元的Laidlaw International Inc.所有。它是美国唯一一家全国性的公共汽车公司。1934年，影片《一夜风流》(It Happened One Night)中有克拉克?盖博(Clark Gable)和克劳德特?科尔伯特(Claudette Colbert)在灰狗公司的车上邂逅的镜头，但在此前，灰狗巴士就已经驰骋在美国的高速公路上。然而如今，有十来家华人开设的巴士公司正在从灰狗那里切分蛋糕。
外国移民开设的企业通常不会在关键行业上与大公司展开针锋相对的竞争，但这些小的巴士公司对灰狗却是毫不客气，它们从折扣航空公司和网上票务经纪人那里借鉴了一些经验。Laidlaw在1999年收购了灰狗，就在Laidlaw逃离破产边缘的时候，唐人街的巴士公司与灰狗在热点线路上展开了一场你死我活的大战，这些线路包括从纽约到华盛顿、费城和波士顿。
参与这一行业的有两类新型华人移民，一类是那些不介意长途跋涉或街头争霸的创业者，另一类是从事网站建设的电脑工程师。他们不满足于从左邻右舍寻找乘客，开始从灰狗巴士公司那里挖掘客户。
“如果灰狗不是一家大公司，与我们还有一拼，”郑水明(Shui Ming Zheng, 音译)通过翻译告诉我们说，“但它是一家大公司，因而打不过我们。”
49岁的郑水明到美国14年了，是Eastern Travel & Tour Inc.的合伙人，他亲自担任华盛顿一线的司机。一年前，38岁的David Wong加入了该公司，成了新的合伙人。他头发硬硬的，讲一口流利的英语，拥有印第安纳州立大学(Indiana State University)的MBA学位。
Wong说：“常识告诉我，如果到布法罗的机票售价79美元能够让JetBlue盈利，我们到华盛顿特区的车票只卖15美元也能盈利。我们将航空线路上的经营理念应用到了汽车线路上，让灰狗真切感受到了切肤之痛。”他负责公司的管理。
在带来三分之一收入的东北部线路中，灰狗并不打算进行大的变动。该公司承认华人开设的线路重新点燃了人们乘坐巴士旅行的热情，因此它决定削减费用以吸引新的乘客。
灰狗巴士的首席运营长杰克?哈斯兰(Jack Haugsland)表示：“我们将通过调整定价的方式保护市场占有率。”去年，灰狗公司下了更多功夫，它起诉两家华人巴士公司没有正当的营业执照，试图将这两家公司挤出市场，还敦促联邦政府对另外十几家巴士公司进行调查。
“巴士行业正遭受冲击。”游说机构美国巴士协会(American Bus Association)的负责人彼得?潘图索(Peter Pantuso)说。在协会的950家成员中，灰狗是最大的一家。“人们奇怪，它们的收费只有老牌巴士公司的一半，这怎么可能呢？”
但的确很容易。例如，Eastern Travel公司说，从华盛顿到纽约往返一趟的成本是700美元，支付给司机140美元。一辆车最大载客量是61人，每人支付35美元，就得到2,135美元。
大约八年前，首批唐人街巴士出现在美国东北部地区的人行道旁，运送在附近城市餐厅里打工的华人，并逐渐吸引来大批中国学生，其他学生随后也闻风而至。这样的巴士属于“黑车”，但非常火爆。
但在2000年，正如纽约一份共谋起诉书提到的，华人巴士线路之间陷入了恶性竞争。华盛顿线路的运营商Farwell Tours的几名工作人员被控恶意对待竞争对手D.C. Express。这两人正在等待审判，其他人仍然逍遥法外。根据曼哈顿区律师的指控，他们破坏了对手的汽车并威胁售票员，试图让D.C. Express要么提升票价，要么离开巴士行业。
2002年5月，D.C. Express被出售给另外一家巴士公司后，一辆Farewell的巴士在倒车时撞上了D.C. Express的新老板，导致其骨盆骨折。诉状中所写的司机名叫陈迪建(Di Jian Chen, 音译)。但陈迪建不会出庭受审了，他2003年5月在唐人街被射杀身亡，至今仍未找到凶手。
从此以后，暴力活动日渐平息，但一些华人巴士公司为寻找更多的好机会，将竞争转移到了商业中心区之外。
Eastern的郑水明说：“我正在努力让美国人乘坐我的巴士。”他所指的是除华人以外的其他人。他仍在唐人街工作，但他的合伙人Wong搬到了34街。Eastern现在在宾夕法尼亚站附近招揽乘客。他说：“地铁就在附近，人人都来坐我们的车。”
网路也助了这些公司一臂之力。华人巴士线路使用最多的网站是IvyMedia.com，是2002年Jimmy Chen设立的，他从上海来到美国攻读电脑博士学位。
他说：“Expedia是我们的榜样。”像其他网上旅行服务一样，他出售几家运营商的车票，并只出售剩余的有座车票。尽管灰狗巴士也在网上售票，但该公司不限制出售的座位数。如果票卖出多了，该公司再启用备用的车辆运载多出来的乘客。在Chen看来，这是一种“浪费”。
移民在巴士领域的成功并非前无古人。1914年，一家公司开始运送斯堪的纳维亚的矿工（不是服务员）到Hupmobiles的明尼苏达铁矿区。这家公司后来演变成了灰狗巴士。到1980年，该公司收入突破了10亿美元。
之后公司又经历了巴士行业的解除管制，以及1990年的员工长期罢工和公司的破产。2001年，在灰狗与交通控股公司Laidlaw合并两年后，Laidlaw也提交了破产申请。2003年，Laidlaw摆脱了破产的威胁，同年，BMO Nesbitt Burns分析师伯特?鲍威尔(Bert Powell)声称，现今总部位于达拉斯的灰狗公司是Laidlaw旗下“表现最差的部门。”
对恐怖袭击的担忧抬高了保险费率，同时也赶走了乘客。灰狗巴士在2004年前9个月中的业绩也出现了2,300万美元的亏损。去年6月，灰狗公司在260家西部村镇停止运营，而且还将取消更多线路。该公司将未来的赌注押在短途线路上，而这正是华人巴士公司极力抢夺的。
灰狗2003年开始对纽约的华人竞争对手展开反击。该公司开通了一路从唐人街到港务局(Port Authority)的往返巴士，但这条线路却未能受到乘客的青睐，因此不久便夭折了。然而，灰狗和整个巴士行业却将更高的期望寄托在联邦调查上。
“我们问，能否对这些公司进行调查？”美国巴士协会的潘图索说。该协会怀疑华人巴士公司未遵守联邦保险和经营许可规定。Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration组成了一个工作组进行深入调查。其负责人安妮特?桑德伯格(Annette Sandberg)在去年9月的一次演讲中对全行业说：“我们将让这些公司规范化，否则就将其取缔。”
调查者陷入了五花八门的语言、乱七八糟的公司名称和交叉所有权的混乱中。他们聘请了一名精通三种中国方言的翻译，开始从14家公司中挑毛病。
去年秋天，他们造访了Dragon Coach Inc.在唐人街的办公室。该公司所有者Edward Ho出示了对其是否遵守联邦规定的评估报告，其中列出了两项“严重的”违规行为，一次是保险失效，还有一次是未让司机接受毒品检验。Ho事先将办公室收拾得十分整洁。Dragon Coach给该公司的联邦评级是“满意”。
这就是华人巴士公司的模式。美国运输部(Department of Transportation)安全管理局的发言人吉姆?路易斯(Jim Lewis)说：“每次我们面对这些公司时，他们总能让一切都符合规定。”工作组的任务基本结束了，但美国巴士协会声称其工作深度不够，协会负责人潘图索说：“联邦政府机构应该更积极深入。”
为了捍卫目前客运量最大的线路，灰狗巴士已经采取了积极的举动，它去年在麻塞诸塞州联邦法院起诉两家从事波士顿到纽约线路客运服务的华人巴士公司。另外，该公司还与当地的合伙企业Peter Pan Lines Inc.联合起诉Fung Wah Transportation Inc.和Kristine Travel & Tours Inc.，指控它们从事定期巴士服务没有合法营业执照。
灰狗巴士副总裁葛列格里?亚历山大(Gregory Alexander)在一份书面陈述中宣称，既便是一家巴士巨头公司也无法容忍未经批准的运营商在自己客运量最大的线路上抢生意。Fung Wah总裁裴林良(Pei Lin Liang,音译)在书面陈述中说：“我们也不希望发生这样的事情，但灰狗的巴士很少能坐得满。我们的车里往往挤满了人。”他说，这桩诉讼的“真正意图”是“将Fung Wah逐出这个行业。”
灰狗和Peter Pan的确在寻求让法院颁布禁令，关闭Kristine和Fung Wah，但法庭驳回了它们的要求。这些华人公司很快就解决了营业执照的问题，该诉讼被驳回了。然而，对波士顿的争夺却并未到此为止。
波士顿的唐人街距离灰狗公司的本部──South Station只几步之遥。华人巴士公司的汽车就在人行道旁等候，从而把乘客吸引了过去。2003年春，这种吸引力更强了：新公司Lucky Star推出了到纽约10美元的票价。其他公司竞相降价，俨然将唐人街变成了一个运输中心。
波士顿警长约翰?明尼(John Meaney)说：“常常会有数百人聚集在这里，行李箱遍地都是。”这种拥堵状况违反了交通法。去年夏天，波士顿警方开展了一系列的处罚行动，9月，在Lucky Star和Kristine合并后，华人巴士公司不再在街道上招揽生意，而是把车停进了South Station。
对车站进行监督的州办公室负责人布赖恩?克力斯帝(Brian Cristy)认为大家都是赢家。他说：“如果人们坐不上Fung Wah的车，现在还有灰狗和Peter Pan的车可坐。”
灰狗表示，业务状况在好转。去年，公司纽约至波士顿的巴士票价最低达到了15美元，有时票价也会涨到这一水平的两倍以上，现在，公司这一线路的乘客数量有所上升（2003年时是90万人次）。由于西部线路减少，公司在全美的乘客数量下降了（2003年为2,200万人次）。而这正是灰狗想要实现的效率：有利可图的线路上有更多乘客，公司总体每英里收入上升。该公司发言人林恩?布朗(Lynn Brown)说：“只要是公平的竞争，灰狗就不会反对。”
华人巴士线路的总体乘客数量没有人统计，但它们也不再那么拥挤了。在华人运营商看来，South Station的游戏规则根本就不公平。
在这个车站里，萤幕上显示的是灰狗和Peter Pan的时刻表。而华人公司的线路没有显示，而车站经理将此归咎于“设备陈旧”。
灰狗和Peter Pan的巴士停在候车大厅前面。现在两家华人公司要支付停车费，但每张票仍然卖15美元。而车站管理层表示，由于地方有限，它们必须在候车大厅最末端共用一个停车位。
Lucky Star和Fung Wah的司机常常因为争夺这一个停车位而发生冲突。为了拉来乘客，它们的售票员大声喊著“纽约！喂，有去纽约的吗！”Lucky Star一名售票员Monique Chow在稍事休息时称：“在唐人街，我们抢了灰狗的客户，现在是它们抢我们的。”
在South Station，或许是这样。但最近，另一家华人巴士公司开始崭露头角。这家公司名为Boston Deluxe，它没有把车停在波士顿的South Station或纽约唐人街。一个周五的中午，该公司一辆巴士突然驶入了曼哈顿中心区准备载客。
“下一个街区！到下一个街区！”司机尖声喊道，一群乘客正追著他的车向装卸区跑去。经过了四个小时的高速驾驶后，他把乘客放在了波士顿First Church of Christ, Scientist的门前。
Boston Deluxe所有者Jack Ho在解释巴士停靠的位置时说：“我们要把车停在有钱人聚居的地方。我们做的就是美国人的生意。”
唐人街巴士的现实情况曾给了28岁的Ho一个沉痛的教训。2003年被谋杀的陈迪建生前曾是他的合伙人。如今他开始研究灰狗的举措。
他知道，在1998年，灰狗与Peter Pan分享收入的协议获得了联邦政府的批准，从而结束了此前的波士顿价格大战。Ho想知道灰狗是否也有意和他进行更进一步的合作。
Ho望著面前的一盘点心，微笑著说：“我希望能迫使灰狗收购我的公司。除了买下我的公司，它别无选择。而在此之前，我像其他所有的美国人一样，只想赚一点钱。”
