Political Quotes

“The purposes of this bill are to establish a direct grant program to help improve the system-wide security of over-the-road bus operations, and to authorize the Secretary of Transportation to conduct a security assessment of over-the-road bus operations. Over-the-road buses, or motorcoaches, operate in both commuter and intercity operations. The motorcoach industry, which includes regularly scheduled point-to-point service and chartered tour operations, carried more than 774 million passengers in the United States in 2000. According to the Bureau of Transportation Statistics, the intercity bus transportation industry serves 5000 locations nationwide, many of which are rural communities that might not have other modes of intercity transportation available to the public. Of the 4,000 bus companies operating in this country, 90 percent operate fewer than 25 buses. There are worrisome precedents for security breaches on buses. For example, in the Middle East, terrorists have used buses to cause mass casualties in a number of crowded cities. In the United States, Greyhound drivers and passengers were the targets of a least 4 serious assaults last year, one killing 7 passengers and another injuring 33 passengers, and at least 3 other serious security breaches.”