Roll Call: Still Struggling Motorcoach Industry Seeks More Federal Aid
Still Struggling Motorcoach Industry Seeks More Federal Aid
Roll Call
Jessica Wehrman
March 8, 2022
The motorcoach industry, which saw a smaller slice of COVID-19 relief than other transportation modes, says it is still struggling to return to pre-pandemic ridership and needs more federal help.
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While the American Bus Association Foundation said in a report released Monday its members saw a 76.7 percent decline in passenger trips during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic, a second study by DePaul University strikes a more hopeful tone, predicting a sustained recovery through the summer for the intercity bus segment of the industry, assuming no major shifts in the pandemic.
The ABA Foundation survey, which tracked the decline in commuter, charter and intercity bus service between 2019 and 2020, found that the 535 million passenger trips made by the industry in 2019 fell to 124 million in 2020. Industry employment, meanwhile, fell from 80,000 in 2019 to 49,500 in 2020.
