BusTalk

[Mr. Linsky]

WHERE DID GREEN BUS LINES GO?

While I’ve been away from Green Bus Lines of Jamaica, New York for nearly fifty years, and any interest that my family held in the company was turned over to them by the mid sixties, I still keep tabs on the operation and continue to write of its early history (call it a love affair that has never ended!).

Over the eighty two years of continuous operation in south western Queens County the company racked up impressive milestones including the acquisition of a number of other private operators along the way while posting record breaking passenger receipts.

However, Green Line’s absorption into MTA Bus (a division of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority) earlier this year has to be counted as its most striking departure from the business that it knew best, and closed the books on what was a well respected institution.

It might appear that the company disappeared from the radar scope but, in reality, it still remains a viable entity with its fingers in a number of pies.

To construct its new business model, the stockholders of Green Bus Lines, Triboro Coach Corporation and Jamaica Central Railway, Inc. (DBA Jamaica Buses) met in late March of this year to create a new entity called ‘GTJ REIT’, Inc. (Green-Triboro-Jamaica Real Estate Investment Trust).

After conversion, the holders of stock in Green Line received 1,117.429975 shares of the new company’s common issue with Triboro owners at 2,997.964137 and Jamaica interests 195.001987.

I would have to imagine that GTJ REIT’s most important role will be in the collection and investment of rents derived from long term leases with the MTA on its former depots throughout Queens and Brooklyn.

Other income may include a transportation advertising concern and what may still be an active school bus operation on Long Island and in Westchester (although I stand corrected on these facts).

Offices for the new GTJ REIT, Inc. are now located on Merrick Road in Lynbrook New York.

Information source; The American Stock Transfer Company.

Mr. Linsky
“The Green Hornet”
Green Bus Lines, Inc., Jamaica & Arverne, NY

[Hart Bus]

A Real Estate Investment Trust is an entity that is required to pass along 95% of its net profits to its shareholders in order to receive certain tax treatments.

I did a fast search on a stock website and no information came up for the GTJ REIT, Inc. Therefore I can only conclude that it is a privately held organization, probably owned by the same Cooper Group interests.

[GBL Rebel]