More on Edwards…
Prior to their purchase by Continental Trailways in 1969, they were a medium sized family run regional carrier, with some rather long routes, stretching from New York and Philadelphia, to Buffalo, Pittsburgh, and Cleveland, via a series of local highways, serving numerous cities and towns. They mostly served as a “feeder line” to Greyhound.
They did act as a “bridge line”, combining with Greyhound, between Elmira and Sunbury, to offer the shortest through route between Buffalo and Washington.
They, as well as all other pool partners with Greyhound, had to meet strict Greyhound standards back then, including type of equipment, ticketing, and driver training. While Edwards “home” livery was red and silver and white, the buses they placed in the Greyhound pool had to be blue and silver and white.
The reason Continental purchased Edwards, was because Edwards local routes paralleled most of the new Interstate 80, nicknamed the “Keystone Shortway” across Pennsylvania, and Continental assumed they would easily get rights to operate express trips over it, only making limited stops (initially Williamsport and Dubois, later adding Hazleton. This would give them a competitive advantage over Greyhound on the New York / Cleveland route, as it’s much shorter than the NJ/PA Turnpike route, as well as toll-free. It ended up backfiring on them, because when the road opened, Greyhound successfully filed for, and was awarded nonstop “closed door” rights as an operating convenience. And Edwards was stuck making its aforementioned stops, although they could have added nonstops, but there was not enough traffic for them to sustain that since Greyhound dominated the Great Lakes region.
Edwards acquired its first Eagles just prior to the purchase. I don’t know if they chose those because they were the only 40 footers on the market for another year, or perhaps Continental made some sort of “deal” with them as a prelude to the purchase.
As mentioned earlier, Greyhound required pool partners to match their equipment and standards. So Edwards continued using their GM coaches on the Greyhound pool run.
One day, someone in Williamsport decided to cut the Edwards GM in Williamsport on the northbound afternoon run, and put in one of their Eagles. When it reached Elmira, the Buffalo Greyhound driver looked at in in disbelief, and refused it. Greyhound requires their drivers to be trained and qualified in different types of equipment, which he wasn’t. He called his dispatcher, who told him to instead take the Greyhound connecting bus which originated in Philadelphia and Scranton, and normally laid over in Elmira. Greyhound also at that time required power steering, which the Eagles only offered as an option, and these didn’t have that.
Later on, Greyhound and Edwards worked out the problem, and Greyhound drivers drove them.
