From Coast to Coast

Continental Trailways, one of the biggest U.S. bus lines, also has a big weakness: its routes are chiefly between Denver and Chicago and the Gulf. It has only one route to the West Coast (to Los Angeles), and none at all to the East. To get its passengers there, it has to turn them over to competitors.

Last week Continental's President Maurice E. (for Edwin) Moore announced a plan to bolster his bus line at both ends and in the middle. Through a stock swap deal, he would take over the 14,000-mile American Buslines, which has routes from Salt Lake City to San Francisco, and from Chicago and St. Louis to New York. The 'deal, still to be approved by the I.C.C. and American stockholders, would bring Continental's wholly owned bus system up to 46,974 route miles, close to Greyhound, the world's biggest.*

By similar deals, Moore has built Continental to its present size in only nine years. After graduating from high school in Jackson, Tenn., he took a job as ticket agent for a midwestern bus line, soon worked his way up to traffic manager. In 1943, after a stint with another bus line, Moore organized Lone Star Coaches, and with a borrowed $2,500,000 bought out Bowen Motor Coaches of Fort Worth, second largest independent in the South. With Lone Star serving most of the Army camps in Texas, business boomed during the war; Moore expanded into Colorado and New Mexico.

Four years ago, Moore, now 41, entered the first big deal to put him all over the map: he merged with a Southwest bus line owned by Texas Tycoon Clint Murchison (TIME, July 21, 1947) and with another line, owned by the Santa Fe Railroad, which had routes in a dozen Midwest and Western states. (Murchison still owns 26% of Continental; the Santa Fe and Moore's original group own the rest.)

While gobbling up other lines through stock swaps and outright purchases, Moore spent approximately $6.5 million on new equipment, built his bus fleet to 1,013 and his work force to 3,223. At nine major terminals, he installed restaurants to serve meals at cost. To make bus travel easier, he pioneered through bus service over long distances; a Continental passenger can travel from Dallas to Los Angeles, for example, without changing. Last year, on a gross of $30 million, Continental netted $1,500,000.

If & when the deal with American goes through, says Moore, the through-service idea can be expanded, and by eliminating duplications the two companies should save $700,000 in operating costs every year. Says Moore: "We'll feed business to American, and they'll feed business to us. It's a natural."

* Greyhound is far bigger in total route miles, with 97,044, and its wholly owned and operated routes total 50,943 miles.

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