Orange Belt Stages
Encyclopedia
Orange Belt Stages is a bus company based in Visalia
Visalia, California
Visalia is a Central California city situated in the heart of California’s agricultural San Joaquin Valley, approximately southeast of San Francisco and north of Los Angeles...

, California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...

. OBS was incorporated on November 30, 1935, and offers charters anywhere in the U.S. and Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

, as well as scheduled runs in California and to Las Vegas
Las Vegas, Nevada
Las Vegas is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Nevada and is also the county seat of Clark County, Nevada. Las Vegas is an internationally renowned major resort city for gambling, shopping, and fine dining. The city bills itself as The Entertainment Capital of the World, and is famous...

, Nevada
Nevada
Nevada is a state in the western, mountain west, and southwestern regions of the United States. With an area of and a population of about 2.7 million, it is the 7th-largest and 35th-most populous state. Over two-thirds of Nevada's people live in the Las Vegas metropolitan area, which contains its...

.

History

The company had its beginning in 1916, when Cyril Haworth began a taxi
Taxicab
A taxicab, also taxi or cab, is a type of vehicle for hire with a driver, used by a single passenger or small group of passengers, often for a non-shared ride. A taxicab conveys passengers between locations of their choice...

 service in Kern County, California. Cyril "Pop" Haworth had 3 sons, two of whom ran the company. Thoburn (T.S.) ran the Visalia branch while Bryan ran the Bakersfield
Bakersfield, California
Bakersfield is a city near the southern end of the San Joaquin Valley in Kern County, California. It is roughly equidistant between Fresno and Los Angeles, to the north and south respectively....

 branch until he was bought out in the mid 1970s. T.S.' son Michael has run the company from Visalia since 1980. The headquarters is in Visalia with branches in Fresno and Bakersfield.

The name Orange Belt Stages came from the route along the foothills of the Sierra Nevada mountains, where lush groves of orange
Orange (fruit)
An orange—specifically, the sweet orange—is the citrus Citrus × sinensis and its fruit. It is the most commonly grown tree fruit in the world....

s are found.

Connections

OBS buses connects with Greyhound
Greyhound Lines
Greyhound Lines, Inc., based in Dallas, Texas, is an intercity common carrier of passengers by bus serving over 3,700 destinations in the United States, Canada and Mexico, operating under the well-known logo of a leaping greyhound. It was founded in Hibbing, Minnesota, USA, in 1914 and...

 at various points, particularly Fresno
Fresno, California
Fresno is a city in central California, United States, the county seat of Fresno County. As of the 2010 census, the city's population was 510,365, making it the fifth largest city in California, the largest inland city in California, and the 34th largest in the nation...

, Bakersfield and Goshen
Goshen, California
Goshen is a census-designated place in Visalia, Tulare County, California, United States. The population was 3,006 at the 2010 census, up from 2,394 at the 2000 census...

 (just west of Visalia).

OBS buses also connect with Amtrak
Amtrak
The National Railroad Passenger Corporation, doing business as Amtrak , is a government-owned corporation that was organized on May 1, 1971, to provide intercity passenger train service in the United States. "Amtrak" is a portmanteau of the words "America" and "track". It is headquartered at Union...

 trains in Paso Robles
Paso Robles, California
Paso Robles is a city in San Luis Obispo County, California, United States. Paso Robles is the fastest growing city in San Luis Obispo County: Its population at the 2000 census was 24,297; in 2010 it recorded some 29,793 residentsLocated on the Salinas River north of San Luis Obispo, California,...

, Merced
Merced, California
Merced is a city in, and the county seat of, Merced County, California in the San Joaquin Valley of Northern California. As of the 2010 census, the city had a population of 78,958. Incorporated in 1889, Merced is a charter city that operates under a council-manager government...

 and Bakersfield and are considered part of the Amtrak Thruway Motorcoach
Amtrak Thruway Motorcoach
Thruway Motorcoach is Amtrak's system of Amtrak-owned intercity coaches, locally contracted transit buses, through-ticketed local bus routes and taxi services to connect Amtrak train stations to areas not served by its railroads...

system.

OBS also owns Orange Belt Adventures, a travel agency offering tours and charters.

External links and references

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
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