Bus Stop : PUC Rules Are Questioned as Unlicensed Operator Is Collared

As he had each workday morning for nine years, Pliny (Mac) Barnes pulled out of Redlands on Oct. 10 with a busload of about 40 Inland Empire commuters bound for jobs in Los Angeles.

Each passenger had paid a fee to ride Barnes’ bus, which they believe is more comfortable, friendly and timely than other commercial services, such as Greyhound Corp. or the Southern California Rapid Transit District.

What they did not know was that Barnes, a First Interstate Bank vice president in Los Angeles whose service is a sideline, lacked a state permit to operate the bus.

That day, as the bus barreled down the San Bernardino Freeway commuter lane through El Monte, an RTD inspector noticed that it did not have the necessary identification numbers and reported it to the state Public Utilities Commission.

After an investigation, Barnes, 48, was charged with running a commercial bus service without a PUC permit. Barnes has pleaded not guilty because he contends that he is not making a profit and that he cannot afford the fees. The trial is set to begin April 5 in Ontario Municipal Court. If convicted, the misdemeanor charge carries a maximum penalty of six months in jail and a $1,000 fine.

PUC regulations require anyone who carries more than 16 passengers on a commercial bus to pay a $500 fee and 1% of gross revenues to the state, PUC spokesman Vahak Petrossian said. Barnes’ passengers, averaging between 30 and 35 daily, pay as much as $132 a month, or $6.50 a day, depending on where they board.

Barnes said he has fixed operating expenses of $3,200 a month, including insurance, gas, parking and monthly payments on the bus of $1,515.43. He said that his business fluctuates and that he has lost as much as $1,000 a month and as little as $50 a month.

“I just took out a $6,000 loan to make sure I keep the operation going,” he said.

The Barnes case has sparked a move to have the PUC change some of its regulations for such car-pooling operations. Although acknowledging that the case has prompted a review of the commission’s rules, a PUC spokesman said it is unlikely that charges against Barnes will be withdrawn.

“We are enforcing the law as it is written,” said George Kataoka, head of the PUC compliance and enforcement branch in San Francisco.

Barnes, who said he has a Class II license to drive a large bus, started the shuttle service in 1978 with a 12-seat van as a neighborhood operation because of the 2-hour commute. “I have to get to work and I thought I would take a few people with me,” he said. “I never intended it to be a money-making deal. . . . It was at best a break-even proposition.”

But it mushroomed over the years to a much bigger enterprise. Last July, he yielded to increasing demands for his service and bought a 47-seat bus for $64,000. On its side is written “Ground Link: The Commuters’ Connection” in large silver letters against a blue background.

His route begins at a gas station in Redlands, where passengers board the bus at 5 a.m. Other pickups are in San Bernardino, Ontario and Pomona. By 6:45 a.m., the bus begins letting off its passengers in Los Angeles, usually within a short walk of their jobs. Barnes parks his bus in a downtown lot near his bank.

On some Fridays, he treats his passengers to doughnuts and coffee in the morning, and passengers treat themselves to cheese and wine for the ride home, he said.

Despite his legal problems, Barnes said he intends to keep shuttling his passengers until the case is resolved. “Maybe I am naive,” Barnes said.

His passengers say they are grateful to Barnes because he gets them to work in less than half the time that RTD can.

“It is clean, fast, and you don’t worry about not knowing other people on the bus--it is a family-like experience,” said Tom Reed, 34, of Chino, an electrical engineer at Security Pacific Bank in Los Angeles. “It sure beats driving,” he added. “No stress.”

“It is a wonderful solution to my problem,” added Marilyn Hague, who lives in Banning, about 80 miles east of her administrative secretary job in Los Angeles. “There is a Greyhound bus that leaves Banning at around 3:30 a.m., but that would be impossible to make.”

The PUC’s strict adherence to the letter of the law has drawn harsh criticism from Barnes’ passengers as well as other sympathizers, including Assemblyman Bill Leonard (R-Redlands) and the South Coast Air Quality Management District.

“We are sympathetic to his cause, and our staff is looking into it,” AQMD spokesman Tom Eichhorn said. “He seems to be the model of what we are trying to accomplish in encouraging ride sharing.”

“To form a car pool is commendable and should not be something that hauls one into court,” Leonard agreed. “I get very upset when PUC bureaucrats go after someone trying to perform a service that we all say needs to be done.”

Leonard said he drafting legislation to amend PUC regulations to help Barnes and others like him. He said there is a “slim chance” of getting the legislation passed before Barnes’ trial begins under an “urgency statute” that would take effect immediately.

Would the PUC withdraw the charges?

“I doubt that would happen,” said Paul Trahan, assistant director of the PUC’s transportation division. “In fact, the chances are less than slim unless pressure is brought from powers higher up.”

The problem, Trahan said, is that Barnes was simply operating out of compliance. “Here we have a guy for any reason could plow into a school bus some day and then people would ask, ‘Did he have PUC approval to operate that bus?’ ” Trahan said.

Nonetheless, he said the PUC has begun a study to determine whether its regulations can be changed to better accommodate commuter bus service operators like Barnes. But he does not expect to see any changes in the laws until sometime next year.