Take the bus, slide into your seat and leave gas woes behind: small bus lines offer a convenient way to see the state, transport parcels.

• Author: Lavrakas, Dimitra
• Position: TRANSPORTATION

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Sit back in your seat and watch the scenery fly by instead of gripping the wheel and dodging RVs with the small bus lines of Alaska.

Once known as the Homer Stage Line, until bought this May by Alecia Vaughn, now rechristened, The Stage Line. Vaughn worked for the Homer Stage Line for four years before purchasing it, said general manager Carl Collins.

TIGHTENING UP OPERATIONS

Losing money by not charging enough to cover expenses, had left the company vulnerable, said Collins.

"In Homer, everybody's a friend and there were too many deals. There's no room for that in this business, you have to charge what you have to charge," he said.

Collins said there was "sticker shock" in town when they finally set the prices. Now, he feels the company is doing well.

There are three vans on the road at all times, he said, and another is set aside just in case anything happens. The company employs six to eight drivers.

As in every other business that uses oil, fuels prices are "killing" them, he said, and he forecasted a rise in the 20 percent fuel-surcharge to 30 percent.

The Stage Line also carries freight and packages: "If a forklift can lift it, and there's a forklift at the other end, then we can carry it," Collins said.

He also said the company has an expediter in Anchorage who picks up parcels all day for transport to destinations that the bus line serves.

From Anchorage, the vans head south to Girdwood, Kenai, Soldotna, Ninilchik, Clam Gulch, Sterling, Cooper Landing, Moose Pass, Seward and Homer. Whittier is served once a month when the Alaska Marine Highway System's ferry, the M/V Kennecott, docks. For a round-trip ticket to Homer, as of press time, was $120 and one-way, $65.

Like most small companies in Alaska, the Stage Line does best during the summer tourist season.

"We're the only bus line that covers all of the Kenai Peninsula," Collins said.

BEYOND THE BORDER

Jack Porch, who's been general manager "on and off for 10 years" at Alaska Direct Bus Lines, said the transportation company's reputation is built on the fact that it runs year-round, on-time and on a fixed route. That's saying something in a state where the saying is usually, "Hurry up and wait."

And Alaska Direct has been guided by the same owner, Kathleen Lafgren, for 15 years. Porch believes those are the qualities that make Alaska Direct such a stable business.

As with The Stage Line, it carries...