The battle between feuding double-decker tour bus companies is heating up — with new claims that drivers at one of the companies are treated so poorly, that they abandon the gigantic vehicles in the middle of Times Square.
That’s according to TopView — sued last month for allegedly trying to honk out a smaller competitor — which filed a blistering counterclaim Monday calling the claims against it “false” and an effort by the other tour bus company “to distract from their own record of misconduct.”
Aurora Tourism Services “have been violating regulations requirements so as to avoid fair competition, while providing an inferior service to consumers and negatively impacting the hop on hop off bus industry reputation,” TopView claims.
An Aurora driver was even “observed publicly complaining about unpaid wages and abandoning [the company’s] bus in the middle of Times Square in protest,” according to the Manhattan Supreme Court filing.
Aurora — also known as Iconic Tours — constantly runs afoul of the law by not registering their buses with proper agencies, operating vehicles without permits or license plates and storing their buses overnight on public streets, Top View’s filing claims.
The company also accuses Aurora of using unlicensed ticket sellers to dupe tourists, making unauthorized bus stops and picking fights with traffic agents, according to the court documents.
Claims TopView previously made in federal court that Aurora workers deliberately don similar uniforms as theirs and trick customers into believing they are the much larger operator are also included in the new filing.
But since Aurora filed its own salacious suit against TopView in October — accusing the competitor of beating up its workers and harassing its customers with weed smoke and megaphones — a slew of new, documented claims of illegality are now in the public record.
TopView, which operates a fleet of over 40 buses, claims to have documented nearly 100 instances where an Aurora bus was missing a vehicle license plate on the front of the bus, according to a 39-page spreadsheet submitted as part of their filing.
Tourist buses must also affix a license plate from the city Department of Worker and Consumer Protection to the front of their vehicles at all times, but TopView claims in that same spreadsheet that they’ve documented 389 instances of Aurora buses missing the required plates while in operation.
Also in the spreadsheet are claims that Aurora, who has operated a fleet of four double-decker buses since 2022, uses unauthorized bus stops that are not part of their Department of Transportation permitted stops.
“On numerous occasions,” the filing reads, Aurora has “operated at least two different buses with the same license plate at the same time, and/or operated a bus with an illegal license plate, in violation [sic] DOT, DMV, and insurance laws and regulations.”
TopView also claims that Aurora ticket sellers are hawking tickets without their required DWCP license displayed, and that they dupe customers into thinking they are boarding a TopView bus, according to the filing.
“This filing demonstrates our unwavering commitment to defending our rights and holding Aurora accountable for their actions,” said Asen Kostadinov, of TopView, in a statement to The Post.
A rep for Aurora disputed TopView’s claim that one of their workers had abandoned a bus, saying the company’s filing failed to mention that the vehicle had suffered a mechanical failure and broken down at an approved stop and did not impede traffic.
Aurora’s attorney, Brandon Walters, said the company is “compliant with all applicable regulations,” and utilizes a compliance firm to that effect.
“Aurora denies any allegation that it operates in an unauthorized or illegal manner,” Walters told The Post.
The Aurora rep said that “front stickers or plates are sometimes missing because they are stolen” and that the company “has not been able to identify the vandals.”
Walters also sent The Post images of six DWCP ticket seller licenses, as well as their DWCP and DOT permits for tour bus operations, in addition to 10 DOT sightseeing bus stop permits.
Aurora is allowed to utilize several other stops that are currently under review by the DOT, he added.
“Aurora’s compliance with applicable regulations is a matter of public record,” Walters said. “No one should be a vigilante enforcer of the New York City Administrative Code.”
DCWP, the agency largely tasked with regulating tourist buses, declined to comment on the allegations because of an ongoing investigation, but a spokesperson told The Post that DCWP has issued Aurora two violations over the past two years for vehicle issues.
This post was originally published on here
