South Windsor's Post Road Stage/Collins Bus Co. Celebrates 100 Years of Doing Business

Here’s a list of some significant events that took place in 1912:

• New Mexico and Arizona became the 47th and 48th states in the U.S;

• The Titanic sank;

• Some 356,000 cars and 22,000 buses were built;

• L.L. Bean and the Oreo cookie were injected into the stream of U.S. commerce.

And during that year, against that backdrop, Collins Bus Service opened for business in South Windsor when its founder, John Alden Collins, saw kids walking miles to and from school.

Collins’ initial fleet, for lack of a better term, “consisted of a two-horse sleigh in the winter and a horse drawn wagon in the fair weather,” according to the business’ website.

A century later, more than 100 people gathered Sunday at the Rotary Pavillion at Nevers Park to celebrate Post Road Stages/Collins Bus Service’s 100 years of doing business.

The fleet has grown from its modest beginnings to 50 coaches, which provide transit, tour and charter services throughout the state and the region.

It is, according to its website, the oldest bus service under the same family ownership in continuous operation in the United States.

The business survived in no small part due to its ability to adapt to the changing needs of its customers.

For the first 50 years or so, Collins Bus Company’s core business was busing school children. It then acquired a Stafford Bus Company, which was renamed Post Road Stages in 1958.

The charter business, having quadrupled in size from 1960 to 1980, now constitutes the largest part of the operation. It no longer provides school bus services.

“It’s kind of unbelievable that the company has lasted,” said Priscilla Snow, John Alden Collins’ granddaughter who also co-owns the company with her son Bruce Snow, her grandson Jeffrey Myers, and her nephew Todd Collins.

Various dignitaries stepped up to the podium to extol the virtues of the long-running company that has its terminal on Strong Road.

“There is no way of estimating to some degree of accuracy the millions of passengers and millions of miles … bringing people safely to their destinations, events and occasions,” former South Windsor Mayor John Mitchell, the event’s emcee, said.

“What a great legacy, what a great family tradition,” U.S. Rep. John Larson said. “South Windsor stands prouder and taller today in recognizing [Post Road Stages/Collins Bus Service].”

State Sen. Gary LeBeau and state Rep. Bill Aman both provided proclamations from the state legislature to Snow.

“What a great day, what a great company,” LeBeau said. “It’s amazing for a company to go for so long and be that consistent.”

Mayor Tom Delnicki said that while he was incredibly proud of the company that used to bus him to and from school, he did have one problem with it: the buses always showed up, no matter what the weather.

“There were never any snow days in South Windsor,” Delnicki quipped before turning serious. “I can’t picture South Windsor without Collins.”