A curious incident happened recently in New York city: when the city stopped running its bus routes X25, X29, X90, and QM22 a private company took its place. Transport Azumah started running private charter buses on these exact routes. The result was that the customers were happy, the city didn’t have to run buses along these routes anymore, and everything seemed to be working out. And then the city served Joel Azumah, the owner of Transport Azumah, with a restraining order.
It seems their reasoning is that he runs an “unauthorized bus line” and that “safety” is their number one priority. Azumah claims this is a farce, since his buses are inspected by the NY state DOT every 6 months and carry the necessary liability insurance. So who is right?
Well it seems that support for this action has come from labor unions “concerned about privatization” (all city workers being part of the union, with all private workers being outside it), so we will see what happens. Safety should come first, but as far as we can tell there have been no incidences, complaints nor any other reason to assume the buses to be unsafe.
We don’t know any more details, but if the MTA is strapped for cash (the V and W subway lines were discontinued as well) then it makes sense to allow private charter buses to transport customers to their locations. In fact, even if the MTA is not strapped for cash, private charter buses should be allowed to transport customers to their locations. If passengers choose the private buses over the MTA, well, so be it.
It seems Transport Azumah has abided by the city’s ordinance. Their facebook page hasn’t been updated since April and their website does not seem to be active. A sad state of affairs for entrepreneurship in the Big Apple.
