Orange Belt Stages


Orange Belt Stages is a bus company based in Visalia, California. OBS was incorporated on November 30, 1935, and offers charters anywhere in the United States and Canada, as well as scheduled runs in California.

History

The company had its beginning in 1916, when Cyril Haworth began a taxi service in Kern County, California. Cyril "Pop" Haworth had 3 sons, two of whom ran the company. Thoburn ran the Visalia branch while Bryan ran the Bakersfield branch until he was bought out in the mid 1970s. T.S.' son Michael has run the company from Visalia since 1980. The headquarters is in Visalia with branches in Fresno and Bakersfield.
The name Orange Belt Stages came from the route along the foothills of the Sierra Nevada mountains, where lush groves of oranges are found.
In May of 1969 a bus carrying a group of Girl Scouts from Universal Studios back to Bakersfield crashed and killed 3 young girls and injured many more. Orange Belt seems to want to ignore that.
Orange Belt previously ran a route from Visalia to Las Vegas; the route was cancelled in 2017.

Connections

OBS buses connects with Greyhound at various points, particularly Fresno, Bakersfield and Goshen.
OBS buses also connect with Amtrak trains in Paso Robles, Merced and Bakersfield and are considered part of the Amtrak Thruway Motorcoach system.
OBS also owns Orange Belt Adventures, a travel agency offering tours and charters.