He was trying to make a flight out of Ft. Lauderdale to Colombia. The bus service offered a "first class coach" trip from Gainesville to Miami for $20. He took the trip; he won't ever do that again.
Alberto Arcieri, a 65-year-old retired Gainesville resident, bought a GatorBus ticket to Miami for May 14. He had also bought a ticket from the Aires airline.
The bus was supposed to arrive in Miami at 8:30 p.m. It didn't get there until 1:30 a.m., Arcieri said.
"Everything from that trip was awful," Arcieri said. "We arrived there at 1:30 in the morning. I had to be at the airport by 2 in the afternoon, but I felt so sick that I had to cancel."
The bus company responded to his complaints of breakdowns and lack of air conditioning with an e-mail saying that mechanical breakdowns are common in the transportation business.
The company gave Arcieri a refund for the $20 he spent, but he wanted to be paid back for missing his flight.
Previously, Arcieri's wife, Marla, and his daughter, Lina, had taken GatorBus to Miami before taking a flight to Colombia. When they returned to Miami, they found an e-mail sent two days before the bus was supposed to take them home to Gainesville. The e-mail explained, "Due to high demand for private bus charters GatorBus will not be providing service for the month of April."
Buses carrying more than nine passengers must register with the Department of Transportation, a department official said. Although the GatorBus website lists its name as GatorBus, LLC, no transportation services were listed as GatorBus in the DOT's Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration database. The GatorBus website said it is a subsidiary of the Empire Coach Lines, which did have a listing in the department's safety database.
Empire Coach Lines, of Orlando, operates 12 buses.
Nine have been inspected with four total violations in the past two years.
The violations ranged from inoperative brake systems to a cracked bus frame.
The DOT database recommended the bus service be inspected.
GatorBus representatives did not respond to repeated requests for comment.
