Suburban Express is a bus service that provides transport services to students at six universities in the American Midwest, primarily to and from the Chicago area. Airport shuttles are operated under the name "Illini Shuttle". The company contracts buses from other carriers, and is based in Champaign, Illinois.
In the 1980s, Suburban Express broke the bus monopoly that Greyhound had between Champaign and Chicago, leading to a price war that cut student fares by more than half.
Since 1994, it has filed at least 200 lawsuits over alleged violations of its terms of service, leading students to criticize the bus service online. Techdirt describes Suburban Express as "the comically awful bussing company", and Ken White of Popehat states that it is "remarkable that Suburban Express has survived given how absolutely awful its reputation has become".
Video Suburban Express
History
Suburban Express began operating in late 1983. At that time, scheduled bus service between Champaign and the Chicago area in Illinois was a monopoly operated by Greyhound Lines, and reinforced by exclusive ticket sales through the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC). Between November and December 1983, Greyhound Lines suffered a nationwide strike by its drivers. For the Thanksgiving break during the Greyhound strike, Dennis Toeppen, then a 19-year-old student at UIUC, and later Suburban Express' founder, chartered 6 buses, sold tickets through a local travel agent, spent $600 on advertising, and undercut Greyhound's fares by $4 to $8. The Thanksgiving 1983 service carried nearly 300 students.
In January 1984, and then named Western Trails Transportation, the company announced regular weekly and holiday service. UIUC's travel center, saying it relied on commissions from Greyhound and feared losing revenues, initially refused to sell competing tickets, despite their lower price. The travel center also briefly offered its own competing charter service.
In 1984, a fare war between the company and Greyhound cut prices between Champaign and Chicago by more than fifty percent. Reacting to new competition, Greyhound lowered its prices from around $36 to $14.75 and filed two complaints with the Illinois Commerce Commission. In February 1985, the company, by then called Suburban Express, charged Greyhound with predatory pricing, claiming the $14.75 price was below Greyhound's costs and designed to drive competitors out of business. According to Suburban Express' lawyer, after the Department of Justice sent a letter to Greyhound, the bus service raised their rate by $3.
Suburban Express expanded its service to Eastern Illinois University in 1985, and to Illinois State University in 1989. In 2002, the company introduced self-service ticket kiosks in the Champaign area. The company's Illini Shuttle began service connecting UIUC to Chicago's Midway and O'Hare airports in October 2004. Service to the University of Iowa began during the 2006-2007 academic year.
Maps Suburban Express
Transportation services
As of September 2015, Suburban Express offers weekly service to Chicago-area locations from four universities: UIUC, Illinois State University, Purdue University, and the University of Iowa. The company's Illini Shuttle runs daily from Champaign to O'Hare International Airport and the suburbs. According to the company, it hires only non-smoking drivers, has free Wi-Fi on most buses, and in the year prior to April 2013 carried around 100,000 passengers, on up to 75 buses a day.
Business practices, lawsuits, and controversies
Suburban Express' business, legal, and media practices have been the topic of numerous media discussions since early 2013. At that time, the company's terms of service said passengers would be charged a $100 convenience fee for using an "invalid, altered or duplicate ticket" and $500 for "disruptive behavior". In April 2013, the company sought $500 payment from a passenger whom they alleged engaged in disruptive behavior on a bus, leading to an active social media discussion. The passenger was upset by the driver's words and actions, and an account of the situation was widely seen on Facebook and in a college newspaper.
The case led to discussion on the UIUC subreddit, a threat by the company to sue the subreddit's moderator over false and libelous comments, a Freedom of Information Act request by the company to UIUC, and a page on the company's website directed at the complaining passenger.
Suburban Express also maintains a "page of shame" where the company posts the name, email, phone number, and address of customers, many of them University of Illinois students, whom the company claims have "dishonored payments" or are "fare cheaters".
Suburban Express initiated 209 lawsuits between April 1994 and April 2013, of which most were small claims cases alleging terms of service violations by customers, while four were against competitors. A group of 126 lawsuits were filed in Ford County, Illinois in early 2013. Students complained that the company's choice of Ford County (30 miles from UIUC), made them ineligible for free legal aid from UIUC. In explaining its small claims actions, Suburban Express stated that some students broke the company's rules by "printing out multiple copies of the tickets and allowing others to use them," or "using tickets on the incorrect dates, or altering the dates listed on the printed copy." Some students asked why Suburban Express chose not to refuse invalid tickets during boarding. Suburban Express said processing during loading would be "too slow." After a backlash from UIUC students, 116 of the suits were withdrawn from Ford County, and later, 20 suits were changed to permit refiling in another venue. Suburban Express indicated it would switch its litigation to Champaign County, so that students would have access to free UIUC legal aid. The company also eliminated convenience fees from the terms of service in response to complaints.
Owner Toeppen was arrested for cyberharassment against two customers, alleging he posted lewd statements about them on Reddit. A judge subsequently found him not guilty, although Toeppen continues a lawsuit against the customer.
In December 2017, Suburban Express posted adverts containing the benefits it provides to passengers. One benefit listed was "you won't feel like you're in China when you're on our buses". This drew criticism for what many perceived as an anti-Chinese bias. The situation was exacerbated when the company sent out an email which blamed their remarks on the University of Illinois for accepting international students.
The company has a long history of controversy surrounding its interactions with Asian students, dating back to 2013.
On April 23, 2018 Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan filed a lawsuit against Suburban Express in the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit citing violations of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, Right to privacy and illegal contract terms. In addition to the controversies noted above, Madigan alleged that an image on the Suburban Express website showing two Asian persons with their heads tilted down and the author stating "Bowing Not Required", as well as posters in the Chinese, Japanese, and Korean languages stating "Go Home" and the website, were violations of state and federal law for attacking customers based on national origin. Suburban Express was also alleged to have banned persons from historically Jewish zip codes from purchasing tickets, and made comments in business emails disparaging Jewish communities and individuals, which Madigan charged was illegally anti-Semitic; and also allegedly released personal confidential information of customers. Suburban Express agreed to operate under a temorary restraining order as of April 28, 2018, extended every 28 days. The restraining order required Suburban Express to take down personally identifying information from their website and lawsuits, notify customers whose information had been made public, stop retaliating against customers who have left negative reviews, and remove language that banned negative reviews. The restraining order was extended twice, through July 20 2018, when AG Madigan asked for it to be turned into a preliminary injunction. On July 19, 2018, Toeppen's lawyer filed a motion to withdraw as counsel, stating the lawyer and Toeppen "have reached an impasse", also indicating Toeppen has not paid and is unable to pay for legal services. Additionally, Allerton, Toeppen's bus company that acts as a charter for Suburban Express, has sought compensation from its insurance carrier, Manufacturers Alliance Insurance Company (MAICO), to pay for the lawsuit. MAICO rejected the claim and sued Toeppen and Allerton to get judgment on the claim. AG Lisa Madigan is also named in the suit to represent the people of Illinois, as the coverage is being requested for the suit that she brought to Suburban Express.
References
External links
- Suburban Express
- Illini Shuttle
Source of the article : Wikipedia
0 Comments