Orange Belt Stages was a bus company based in

Visalia, California Visalia ( ) is a city in the agricultural San Joaquin Valley of California. The population was 141,384 as per the 2020 census. Visalia is the fifth-largest city in the San Joaquin Valley, the 42nd most populous in California, and 192nd in ...

, affiliated with the

Trailways Transportation System The Trailways Transportation System is an American network of approximately 70 independent bus companies that have entered into a brand licensing agreement. The company is headquartered in Fairfax, Virginia. History The predecessor to Trailw ...

. The company was incorporated on November 30, 1935, and operated scheduled service in California as well as charter services. The company ceased operations in 2020 as a result of the

impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on tourism The COVID-19 pandemic has impacted the tourism industry due to the resulting travel restrictions as well as slump in demand among travelers. The tourism industry has been massively affected by the spread of coronavirus, as many countries have i ...

History

The company had its beginning in 1916, when Cyril Haworth began a

taxi A taxi, also known as a taxicab or simply a 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 choic ...

service in

Kern County Kern County is a county located in the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 census, the population was 909,235. Its county seat is Bakersfield. Kern County comprises the Bakersfield, California, Metropolitan statistical area. The county sp ...

, California, serving oil field workers in McKittrick, Taft, and Bakersfield. Pickwick Stage Lines leased its Bakersfield–

Paso Robles Paso Robles ( ), officially El Paso de Robles (Spanish for "The Pass of Oaks"), is a city in San Luis Obispo County, California, United States. Located on the Salinas River approximately north of San Luis Obispo, the city is known for its hot ...

route to Haworth in 1930, who was later granted the right to purchase the

Delano Delano or DeLano may refer to: Places in the United States * Delano, California * Delano, Wichita, Kansas, a neighborhood in Wichita and former community before merging with Wichita * Delano, Minnesota * Delano, Nevada * Delano, Pennsylvania * De ...

– Exeter route (via Ducor, Porterville, and

Terra Bella SkySat is a constellation of sub-meter resolution Earth observation satellites owned by Planet Labs, providing imagery, high-definition video and analytics services. Planet acquired the satellites with their purchase of Terra Bella (formerly ...

) and to start an Exeter– Hanford route (via Visalia) in 1933. The company was incorporated on November 30, 1935. Cyril "Pop" Haworth had three sons; two assumed control of the company as partners in 1943: Thoburn (T.S.) and Bryan (B.W.). Cyril retired in 1952 but continued to drive buses. By 1955, OBS was serving routes totaling . Thoburn ran the Visalia branch while Bryan ran the Bakersfield branch until he was bought out in the mid 1970s. Thoburn's son Michael has run the company from Visalia since 1985. The headquarters was 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

oranges An orange is a fruit of various citrus species in the family Rutaceae (see list of plants known as orange); it primarily refers to ''Citrus'' × ''sinensis'', which is also called sweet orange, to distinguish it from the related ''Citrus × ...

are found. In May 1969 a bus carrying a group of Girl Scouts from Universal Studios back to Bakersfield crashed and killed 3 young girls and injured many more. The company owned Orange Belt Adventures, a travel agency offering tours and charters. Orange Belt previously ran a route from Visalia to Las Vegas; the route was cancelled in 2017. Orange Belt Stages operated scheduled routes as part of both the

and the

Amtrak Thruway Amtrak Thruway is a system of through-ticketed transportation services to connect passengers with areas not served by Amtrak trains. In most cases these are dedicated motorcoach routes, but can also be non-dedicated intercity bus services, transi ...

system. The company ceased operations in 2020 as a result of the

References

External links

* * {{Valley Transit Intercity bus companies of the United States Bus transportation in California Bus transportation in Nevada Transport companies established in 1935 Companies based in Tulare County, California 1935 establishments in California Transportation companies based in California Trailways Transportation System