Victory For Chinatown Bus Haters: 2 YEP Tours Buses Seized For $11K In Unpaid Tickets

CHINATOWN, NY — For more than a decade, Chinatown and Lower East Side community leaders have been pushing city and state officials to crack down on the super-cheap bus companies known for evading local traffic laws and parking wherever they please.

Finally, in 2017, they're seeing some results.

State Sen. Daniel Squadron announced this week that on Jan. 11 — in the first enforcement action of its kind — the NYC Sheriff's Office seized two buses belonging to one particularly problematic bus company, YEP Tours, over $11,000 in unpaid parking tickets.

The seizures were possible thanks to the "intercity bus law," which Squadron wrote in 2012 in an effort to discourage bus companies from blatantly ignoring city rules.

"Now, four years later, we are delighted that this is finally working," Susan Stetzer, district manager for Community Board 3 (representing Chinatown and the Lower East Side), told Patch.

"We think the buses do serve the community, but they need to be regulated," Stetzer said.

YEP Tours did not respond to a request for comment.

The Massachusetts-based company owes hundreds of thousands of dollars for tickets issued to its buses, according to Squadron. Over the years, the owners of YEP Tours have repeatedly been denied the city permit they need to legally drop off and pick up passengers in Chinatown — but that hasn't done much to stop them.

See Related: Chinatown Bus Company 'YEP Tour' Says It's Here to Stay, Permit or No Permit

Community Board 3 members first worked with the city, and then with Squadron, to pass the intercity bus law. They've also worked with City Council Member Margaret Chin to pass city legislation to require buses to use permitted designated stops, Stetzer said.

"They bring pollution, noise and they block sidewalks," resident Brian O'Connell told Patch at a Community Board meeting in November. "I think they're just going to keep operating illegally."

YEP Tours is "one of the worst" bus services in terms of illegal operations, Stetzer said.

Because most YEP Tours buses are registered in Massachusetts, tickets and summonses issued in NYC can't be easily enforced, Stetzer explained.

The NYPD, the NYC Department of Finance, the NYC Department of Transportation and the Sheriff worked together to enforce the new legislation. Stetzer called Sheriff Joseph Fucito the "hero" of the situation for spending countless hours going through all the "technical errors" that made NYC-issued tickets useless in Massachussets.

“The recent crackdown on YEP Tours' illegal intercity bus operation has been a long time coming,” New York State Assembly Member Yuh-Line Niou said Tuesday. “Any business that disregards, in this case openly, regulations to protect safety and quality of life in our neighborhoods must face steep consequences."

Photo via Emma Culbert/SPaCE