Rollsigns from Blue Bird Coach Lines
Olean and North Tonawanda, New York
MCI-BLUE BIRD COACH LINES, INC.
P.O.NO.P-51676
5/25/88 TRANSIGN
Blue Bird Coach Lines originated in 1915 as Blue Bird Taxicab Company, founded by Joseph Magnano. He later got into the transit bus
business and charter coach business during the late 1920s and 1940s. In 1963, as Blue Bird's charter and tour coach business grew, the
company got into regular route intercity business as well, acquiring the Buffalo-East Aurora-Olean, Buffalo-Hamburg-Salamanca-Bradford,
and Olean-Bradford-Salamanca routes from Greyhound. In 1967, Blue Bird acquired the operating assets and rights of Chautauqua Transit
Company, whose regular route service extended from Jamestown to Westfield, NY. As a result, Blue Bird extended its east west route to
Jamestown as well. At about the same time, interchange service agreements were reached with Hudson Transit Lines on connecting and
pool service between Olean, Elmira, Binghamton, and New York, a service that continues today. In 1973, Blue Bird acquired Seaway Coach
Lines, adding service between Erie and Scranton. This service was a franchise run and only lasted a few years before eventually being
discontinued. In addition to its charter, tour and regular line service, Blue Bird Coach Lines also operated a sizeable fleet of school buses,
which served school districts in Olean and nearby communities as well as a number of other communities along Blue Bird's highway routes.
Blue Bird operated out of two facilities based in Noth Tonawanda and Olean in western New York. The final expansion of the route network
came in 1981 when Blue Bird began operating daily line service between Jamestown, Olean, Perry, Geneseo and Rochester, with the
Jamestown round trip operating daily, and a Rochester-Olean trip operating every day except Saturday. For a time, service was also extended
to Syracuse. In 1991, Blue Bird ended all line run service except for the Buffalo-Olean route, which was restructured to service the Walden
Galleria shopping mall and Greater Buffalo-Niagara International Airport. Their former Olean-Salamanca-Jamestown route was acquired
by Imperial Coach Lines, a startup operator. Imperial Coach Lines later became Empire Transit lines, and became part of Coach USA
Western New York. Along with Niagara Scenic Bus Lines, Coach USA also acquired all remaining services from the Magnano family in 1994.
Retired Dove Charters MCI 102-A3
coach #9947, formerly Blue Bird Coach
Lines #9947, and still displaying
the rollsign shown above, is seen as
discovered in a scrap yard in eastern
Kentucky on November 29, 2019.
(Photo by Peter Huffman.
Used with permission.)
This mylar destination sign was removed from Dove Charters MCI 102-A3 highway
coach #9947, which was formerly Blue Bird Coach Lines #9947. The sign is dated
May 25, 1988 and has 159 exposures. Its sign tag is shown below.
(This sign was graciously donated to Rollsign Gallery by Peter Huffman. Thank you!)