Chariot Bus Line background

(This was originally published in September 2012 when I was working for The Malakoff News.)

By Michael V. Hannigan

ATHENS – The Chariot bus line is set to start carrying passengers Monday, Sept. 17, with trips from Athens to Tyler, and back, twice a day.

The buses will leave from Athens Central Transfer (Heritage Square) at 6 a.m. and 11 a.m., making stops in Murchison, Brownsboro, Chandler, and Tyler Pounds Field Airport (on request) along the way before hitting the Tyler Central Bus Transfer. The buses will also go through the hospital district, using Tyler Transit bus stops.

The process will reverse, with the buses taking the same route from Tyler to Athens at 1 p.m. and 5:40 p.m.

Cost is $5 per trip, although there are weekly and monthly rates available. Call 877-776-4335 for more details.

The best part of this business might be, well, that it isn’t really a business. It is a non-profit church outreach.

“The heart of it is as a ministry, not as a bus line,” said Helen Thornton, who is the vice chairman of the East Texas Transportation and Steering Committee (EasTexConnects) and one of the bus line’s founders.

She is not, however, a member of the church at the center of this enterprise. That would be Gates Community Church in Athens, which is led by the Rev. Alan Coleman.

Coleman is a young, charismatic black man. Thornton is an older, more sedate white woman.

As Coleman says, “Those two don’t usually run together,” and then he laughs and adds, “but God did this.”

What both believe God did is put them together to help give Athens residents a better alternative when it comes to jobs and schools.

Coleman explained that for 12 years as pastor, he watched young families move away because they couldn’t make a living in the city.

“When they’d do that, many of them would leave their mothers here, and their grandparents,” he said, “leaving no one to help the elderly.”

He also watched students struggle with inadequate cars or expensive dormitories when trying to attend college in Tyler.

“I just thought there had to be a better way,” he said.

So Coleman and his church started searching for answers, and not just inside the sanctuary. No, the pastor put his business degree from Baylor University to work and came up with some outside-the-church-walls thinking. The snow cone stand outside the church that teaches students responsibility and helps provide school supplies, and helping some of his church members get CDL licenses are examples.

There was still the same problems, however.

“Once we started looking at it, we started noticing it wasn’t only our church,” Coleman said. “We thought maybe we could take the others (to Tyler) when we take ours. That’s why we started purchasing the buses.”

The buses are three full-sized buses the church owns and has been operating on a lease basis to other churches, providing both the bus and driver.

“We were really stepping out on faith, with not knowing the transportation business and regulations,” he said.

That’s when Thornton entered the picture in June. Coleman was looking for help from state officials and was directed to an EasTexConnects meeting where he was told to contact Thornton. He did, and it has been a whirlwind ride ever since.

Thornton was the perfect partner for the project. She is someone with years of experience in transportation, and someone who has wanted a regular, round trip Athens-to-Tyler route for seven years. She just didn’t have the resources.

“Rev. Coleman has the business contacts and I have the transportation knowledge, and we fit like a pair of gloves,” she said.

They have been able to get GoBus and Tyler Transit on board, and while it may take awhile to get all the kinks worked out, it looks like the Chairot bus line will be able to fit an obvious need.

“We are not in competition with other transportation companies,” Thornton said. “We are trying to compliment, to fill in the holes.”

Even with everything seemingly going their way, the Chariot Bus Line is still going to need support from the community, particularly in the first few months. Once they get rolling, there are outside sources of help that may be available, but they have to survive the beginning on their own.

Of course, neither Coleman nor Thornton believe they are on their own.

“This is still a faith walk,” Coleman said, “but God has gotten us this far, and I just can’t believe and just leave us.”