Orange Belt Stages bus cuts routes

Company no longer in Porterville

Orange Belt Stages bus company is reducing services, including all out of Porterville.

The company announced Monday its Visalia-porterville-bakersfield-bar-stow to Las Vegas service will end Aug. 31, as well as all in-country routes.

Mike Haworth, the president and general manager of Orange Belt Stages, said intermediate stops also ending include Farmersville, Exeter, Lindsay, Strathmore, Terra Bella, Ducor, Tehachapi, Mojave and Boron.

At this point, Haworth said the cancellation is permanent.

“We wish that weren’t the case, but the residents simply are not warranting continued service,” Haworth said.

Haworth said the primary reason for cancelling service is declining ridership and revenue in combination with increased operational costs.

Haworth said national and local intercity bus ridership has dropped substantially in recent years, in part due to cheaper gas prices, which he said promotes increased personal car use, and diluted ridership with city and county transit systems.

“The State of California Air Resources Board Diesel Vehicles Regulations are adding big operational costs and other increasing expenses continue to raise the costs of operation,” Haworth said.

Haworth said Amtrak and Greyhound Lines, Inc. have service to some cancelled cities. In addition, Haworth said local transit agencies, including Visalia City Coach (VCC), Tulare County Area Transit (TCAT), Porterville Transit (Colt) and Golden Empire Transit (GET) provide service to many of these cities.

Haworth said Orange Belt Stages will continue to operate daily schedule service between Visalia, Hanford, Paso Robles, San Luis Obispo and Santa Maria, as well as other intermediate points. This service, Haworth said, runs in connection with Amtrak service.

Haworth said the last Orange Belt Stages return trip from Las Vegas will take place Sept. 1.

Haworth said he believes Los Angeles is the closest place to get transportation to Las Vegas.

Richard Tree, manager of the city’s transit center, said the cancellation is unfortunate.

“That is the only service that I know of that links Porterville to Bakersfield,” Tree said, adding, “I’m surprised that they are going to be stopping service.”

Tree said without having what he calls “an intercity route between Porterville and Bakersfield,” residents are going to be left with either having a family member or someone else drive them to their destination.

“It is going to be more of an expensive trip,” Tree said.

As far as Porterville Transit, Tree said servicing the South Tulare County and all the way down to Bakersfield has been discussed before, but noted that there are no plans in the near future to have service.

“I think as we study the area and if we get more calls from the community asking for that service then we will look at it a little more closely,” Tree said.

Tree said on a daily basis, fewer than six people in the city used Orange Belt for transportation and noted that it is about the same number in other cities such as Visalia.

“I think it is going to affect quite a few people,” Tree said.

Orange Belt Stages has been offering bus service in the county for more than four decades and once was the only service between Porterville and Lindsay or Visalia.

Tulare County Transit now offers bus services through much of the county, including Springville, Terra Bella, Poplar, Strathmore, Lindsay and other south county stops.