Covid Relief Could Leave Bus Companies Behind

The $1.9 trillion pandemic relief proposal that Democrats are pushing through Congress would touch many parts of the U.S. economy hurt by Covid-19, including those that move it. It proposes $30 billion in relief for public transit agencies, $1.5 billion for Amtrak, $8 billion for airports and $15 billion for airline workers — all on top of tens of billions of dollars of industry aid that the last two pandemic relief packages included.

But one transportation sector is almost entirely left off the American Rescue Plan Act’s life raft: the motorcoach business. Along with the Greyhound and Peter Pan buses that are familiar sights on U.S. interstates, the industry encompasses nearly 3,000 carriers that provide charter trips, sightseeing tours, scheduled commuter stops, intercity connections and other varieties of bus-based travel. Before Covid-19, these buses carried 575 million passengers annually, pulling in $15.4 billion in revenue, according to data from the American Bus Association. With office workers hunkered down at home, tourism on ice and infection fears pushing travelers away from shared modes, private bus businesses have been hit hard by the pandemic, with an estimated 83% of the industry’s 88,800 full-time workers unemployed. But they have received little attention from lawmakers to date.