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Jefferson Lines (JL or JLI) is a regional intercity bus company operating in the
United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...
. Their current operations expands over 14 states throughout the Midwest.


Background

The company is operated by Jefferson Partners L.P., located in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Jefferson Partners also conducts
charter bus A bus (contracted from omnibus, with variants multibus, motorbus, autobus, etc.) is a road vehicle that carries significantly more passengers than an average car or van. It is most commonly used in public transport, but is also in use for cha ...
service within Minneapolis and Billings for large group travel. The company is the second-largest bus company in the U.S. that operates from fixed stations. Jefferson was founded in 1919 during the early days of motorcoach travel. The company's name originates from the
Jefferson Highway The Jefferson Highway was an automobile highway stretching through the central United States from New Orleans, Louisiana, to Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. The Jefferson Highway was replaced with the new numbered US Highway system in the late 1920s. ...
, a north–south route in the early
National Auto Trail The system of auto trails was an informal network of marked routes that existed in the United States and Canada in the early part of the 20th century. Marked with colored bands on utility poles, the trails were intended to help travellers in ...
system which once ran from
Winnipeg Winnipeg () is the capital and largest city of the province of Manitoba in Canada. It is centred on the confluence of the Red and Assiniboine rivers, near the longitudinal centre of North America. , Winnipeg had a city population of 749, ...
in
Manitoba , image_map = Manitoba in Canada 2.svg , map_alt = Map showing Manitoba's location in the centre of Southern Canada , Label_map = yes , coordinates = , capital = Winn ...
, Canada, south to
New Orleans, Louisiana New Orleans ( , ,New Orleans
. Jefferson expanded south of Kansas City in 1966 when it purchased Crown Coach. By 1990, the company was believed to be the second-largest intercity bus company in the country after Continental Trailways was bought by Greyhound Lines. Jefferson went through bankruptcy in 1990 and was sold to a group led by Norwest Equity Partners. Charlie Zelle acquired a majority of Norwest's stake in 1998. Jefferson acquired the scheduled service of Jack Rabbit Lines in the Dakotas in 2000. Intercity bus lines underwent many changes in the 2000s decade after Greyhound Lines declined into bankruptcy and subsequently shed off many bus routes. Jefferson Lines has taken over operation of many former Greyhound routes and has been able to improve ridership significantly on some of them. The service to Winnipeg was cut back to Grand Forks, North Dakota, on October 7, 2010. The company serves 13 states as of 2018:


Details

According to the company website, Jefferson Lines has 210 employees including roughly 100 drivers. Jefferson Lines is a member of the American Bus Association, United Motorcoach Association, and National Tour Association. The company is reported to have 75 buses in its fleet. Jefferson Lines was voted the best transportation company in Minnesota in 2021 in the Star Tribune's Minnesota's Best contest.


Coverage


Routes

As of September 2022, Jefferson Lines operates the following routes. Only the termini of each route is shown.


Management

Steve Woelfel became president and CEO of Jefferson Lines in January 2013 after formerly serving as CFO of Jefferson Lines for eight years. Before his career at Jefferson, Woelfel was vice president and general manager of Fox Sports Net North. Previous to Steve was Charlie Zelle. Charlie had been an
investment banker Investment banking pertains to certain activities of a financial services company or a corporate division that consist in advisory-based financial transactions on behalf of individuals, corporations, and governments. Traditionally associated with ...
in
New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...
until returning to Minnesota in 1987 to take over the company from his late father, Louie. Due to poor real-estate investments, such as in the
St. Anthony Main Saint Anthony Main refers to an area of buildings with multiple owners located on Main Street across from Saint Anthony Falls in the Nicollet Island/East Bank, Minneapolis section of Southeast, Minneapolis in the U.S. state of Minnesota. Commonl ...
project in Minneapolis, the company was in danger of foundering, but Zelle helped restructure the company under
Chapter 11 Chapter 11 of the United States Bankruptcy Code (Title 11 of the United States Code) permits reorganization under the bankruptcy laws of the United States. Such reorganization, known as Chapter 11 bankruptcy, is available to every business, wheth ...
bankruptcy in 1989 and 1990. The company was founded by Zelle's grandfather—Charlie Zelle marks the third generation of his family to work at Jefferson Lines. He owned 60% of the company as of 2010, with the remaining 40% owned by business partner Fred Kaiser of Texas. As of 2011, Charlie Zelle was also chairman of the board of the Minneapolis Regional Chamber of Commerce. In 2012, Charlie was appointed Commissioner of the Minnesota Department of Transportation. Upon beginning his new position in January 2013, Zelle withdrew as a Jefferson employee with any management authority while remaining as the Chair of the Jefferson Lines Board of Directors. He is recused from matters associated with MnDOT and Jefferson Lines relationships.


See also

*
Jefferson Highway The Jefferson Highway was an automobile highway stretching through the central United States from New Orleans, Louisiana, to Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. The Jefferson Highway was replaced with the new numbered US Highway system in the late 1920s. ...
* List of intercity bus stops in Iowa *
List of intercity bus stops in Wisconsin The following is a list of presently operating intercity bus stops in Wisconsin with regular service. The list excludes charter buses, local transit buses, paratransit systems, and trolleybus systems. The following companies provide intercity bus se ...


References


External links

* {{Official website, http://www.jeffersonlines.com/ Intercity bus companies of the United States Companies based in Minneapolis Transportation companies based in Minnesota Bus transportation in Arkansas Bus transportation in Idaho Bus transportation in Iowa Bus transportation in Kansas Bus transportation in Minnesota Bus transportation in Missouri Bus transportation in Montana Bus transportation in Nebraska Bus transportation in Oklahoma Bus transportation in North Dakota Bus transportation in South Dakota Bus transportation in Washington (state) Bus transportation in Wisconsin Bus transportation in Wyoming