Time to save the Red Buses again

In 1999, in the midst of a huge outcry over the removal of Glacier National Park’s Red Buses from service, I was asked by the National Trust for Historic Preservation and the National Park Service to help determine whether the beloved Red Bus fleet could somehow be saved.

These iconic vehicles, that had carried visitors over the Going-to-the-Sun Road since 1936, had been removed from service due to structural failures that proved to be caused by modifications to the frames of the buses over the 66 years of operation and years of poor maintenance.

Together with Dennis Schewcke, of Ford Motor Company, and Larry Hegg, then the chief mechanic for Glacier Park Incorporated, we arrived at a strategy to renovate the buses that was realized with Ford’s generous support. The buses were returned to service in 2002 with great fanfare.

Last week, we discovered that the National Park Service had submitted a concession contract for bid without public notice or information to justify the decision in which it specified that 18 of the historic buses are to be removed from service.

Since the buses were rebuilt from the ground up only a decade ago and have been maintained to the high standards warranted for such historic vehicles, this decision cannot be justified. The Park Service claims that the matter is closed, the contract will not be modified, nor the bidding process delayed to address the issue. Incredibly, they also will not reveal the details leading to their decision.

I encourage all who have enjoyed touring Glacier in the Red Buses (or who have just enjoyed seeing them there) ask the Park Service to keep all of them for our enjoyment and that of our children and grandchildren as was intended when Ford paid for the renovation.

Let’s not allow more than half of these national treasures to be lost. Without your action, we and visitors from throughout the world will be denied the opportunity to tour Glacier as it really ought to be seen.  

Please send your comments to Kym Hall, Glacier National Park acting superintendent, at kym_hall@nps.gov or to Jennifer Parker, chief of concessions for the Intermountain Region of the National Park Service, at jennifer_parker@nps.gov. Let’s save the Red Buses again.

Bruce Austin lives in Nye.