March of 2020 was a busy time at Croswell. We were gearing up for the busiest year in our 99-year history as our area’s premier motorcoach and tour company. We were also making plans to celebrate our 100-year Anniversary in 2021. Area High School Seniors were full of anticipation for their Senior Trips to New York City, Washington DC and Orlando. Local School Districts were preparing to send hundreds of middle schoolers to Washington DC to experience all that our nation’s capital has to offer! The Harlem Globetrotters were out on tour with six of our buses, March Madness was just around the corner, church conferences were scheduled in all parts of the country and of course, our Croswell Tour customers were booked on tours to Texas, Branson and for a special treat, to watch the Cincinnati Reds play the New York Yankees at Yankee Stadium! It was a great time of excitement and anticipation at Croswell!

Then on March 11 it all came to a startling and abrupt halt. Our 30-bus fleet of 54 passenger motorcoaches as well as 25 mini-buses were sheltered in place overnight where they have remained idle since that time. More than 3 million dollars in revenue was lost overnight with no guarantee of when we can resume service. Without notice we had to furlough 87 employees, men and women who have supported us and our common goals for years. Our employees are the heart and soul of this business and represent the very best of what it means to work hard, enjoy fellow employees, and always put forth their best effort for the customers they serve. We have weathered the storm many times during the last 99 years, but no time has been more challenging or threatening to the future of our company than we face today.

Our story begins in 1921 when R.S. Croswell and his wife, Jesse Love, founded Croswell Bus Line in Williamsburg, Ohio. The first service provided was line runs between Portsmouth and Cincinnati. This service provided a means of transportation for workers and military personnel to get from rural Ohio to the city of Cincinnati and beyond. In 1954, Robert (Bob) Croswell, Jr. with his wife Marion, took over the business from his father and Croswell charter service became the focal point of the business. Croswell charter buses provided transportation to ball games, church outings, and longer trips to Washington DC, New York City, Chicago and more. John Croswell along with his brother Scott, joined the company in 1982. They managed to grow the fleet from six buses to our current fleet of 55. In 1984, Susan (Croswell) Maham joined the team and established Croswell Tours, providing quality motorcoach tour packages across the United States for groups, schools and individuals. In 2019 John Robert Croswell came onboard as our Director of Operations and Safety, completing our 4th generation in our family business.

On Tuesday, May 13 Croswell participated in the Motorcoaches Rolling for Awareness Rally in Washington DC. We traveled to Washington along with hundreds of other bus companies from across our nation to showcase how our big buses and small businesses move America! We asked for the support of Members of Congress who have stood with bus owners and employees in their districts. We hope we have encouraged them to keep fighting for us!

#99YearsStrong: Rolling through a Pandemic