Applicant seeks a broker license so as to authorize it to serve the traveling public in the following ways: (1) to arrange for bus transportation in other regions of the Nation for its travel patrons who desire to travel by airlines or train to certain points in the United States, and thence to use bus transportation in those other areas of the country; (2) to distribute tour folders and sell tour transportation for Trailways and Greyhound; (3) to make arrangements with passenger motor carriers at points of entry on the east coast and west coast for its customers upon their return by air or ship to the United States from travel in foreign countries; and (4) to use an authorized motor carrier to pick up its tour patrons along the tour route from Springfield at points more convenient to their homes.

Supporting users and carriers.-The application is supported by 167 witnesses. Many of the public witnesses are individuals who have used applicant's travel agency service in arranging airline trips or escorted motor bus tours to and from numerous points in the United States. A large number of them desire that applicant arrange their entire trips, including their traveling in part by air and in part by motor bus. Nine passenger motor carriers and Trans-World Airlines also support the application.

The president of the Chicopee Golden Age Club states that 37 members of that club made arrangements with applicant for airline transportation with respect to a tour to San Francisco, Hawaii, and Las Vegas. They were not able to make complete arrangements, however, for all of their sightseeing tours and transfers through applicant because of its lack of a broker license. The group would find it more convenient to have applicant make all of their travel arrangements. In inquiries made to other travel agencies, the club's president has found that none of them offer this complete service. If a broker's license is issued, the new service would be used.

A similar statement is made by the trip organizer of the Aldenville Senior Citizens. Many members of this group desire to take a tour to the West, including Grand Canyon, California, Las Vegas, and Yellowstone Park, but they do not desire to travel the entire distance in a motorbus. The trip organizer has spoken to applicant's personnel about arranging for air flights, hotels, bus tours in the West, sightseeing, and transfers, and was told that applicant can only sell another travel agency's tours of that area. The group would prefer to use applicant's tour service because they are familiar with applicant's arrangements and escorts. The trip organizer has contacted other companies locally and finds that no one offers a service like this.

Another witness, David LaSalle of Amherst, has used applicant's travel service before and states that it would be convenient for him to arrange in advance his entire trip through applicant's service. One such trip which appeals to him would be to travel by air to California, stay there for a while, take an all-expense bus trip to Las Vegas or Colorado, and return by air to Amherst. Similar statements are made by other public witnesses.

Nine motor bus companies supporting the application conduct charter operations originating in their respective authorized territories of the New Haven, Conn., area, New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania, western New York and northern Pennsylvania, the Chicago, Ill., area, western Ohio and eastern Nebraska, middle Tennessee and Kentucky, and the Los Angeles and Sacramento, Calif., areas. Six of the supporting carriers express their beliefs that a grant of authority herein can produce additional transportation business for them.

Trans-World Airlines is increasing the numbers of groups and charters originating at overseas points and coming to visit in the United States. It needs the support of applicant's proposed broker service, and recommends that the sought nationwide authority be granted.

Affiliation with Peter Pan Bus Lines.-Applicant is controlled and managed by the same officers who control and manage Peter Pan Bus Lines, Inc., a motor common carrier of passengers. Under certificate No. MC-61016 and subnumbers thereunder, Peter Pan Bus Lines holds regular-route authority to operate primarily between points in Massachusetts, and also holds special operations and incidental charter authority to provide tour service beginning and ending at points in Berkshire, Hampden, and Hampshire Counties, Mass., and extending to virtually all points in the United States.

Applicant acts as an agent in selling transportation for Peter Pan Bus Lines, but applicant and the motor carrier are distinct and separate entities. Each corporation has its own employees, and no employee of one corporation works for the other corporation.

Protestants.-Three of the protestants herein are authorized passenger brokers: Greyhound World Tours, Inc., Paragon Travel Agency, Inc., and Keri Tours, Inc. The other protestants are authorized passenger motor carriers: Greyhound Lines, Inc., Manhattan Transit Company, and Campus Travel, Inc.

None of the three protesting brokers maintains a broker office at Springfield or any other point in Hampden and Hampshire Counties

to serve the traveling public. Paragon operates as a passenger broker at Boston and three other points in eastern Massachusetts, and is authorized to arrange passenger transportation between points in the United States. Keri Tours operates as a broker only in New York, N.Y., and is authorized to arrange transportation of passengers from New York to all points in the United States and return. Keri Tours is under common control with Campus Travel, a carrier.

Greyhound World Tours maintains offices at Phoenix, Ariz., and has travel bureau offices located at 49 different cities, including one at Boston. It is authorized to operate as a broker at any point in the United States for arranging passenger transportation, in round trip sightseeing trips and all-expense tours, between points in the United States. During 1973, Greyhound World Tours operated 150 escorted tours of two or more scheduled departures. It also operated 700 independent tours in which patrons traveled independently, using the regular-route services of Greyhound Lines and connecting carriers. Greyhound World Tours and Greyhound Lines are commonly controlled corporations.

DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS

We agree with the initial decision of the joint board that applicant has met its statutory burden of proof, and that the application should be granted. We believe, however, that the sought broker license should be granted subject to an appropriate restriction that would prevent applicant and Peter Pan Bus Lines from holding duplicative authorities regarding the same passenger tour operations.

Section 211(b) of the Interstate Commerce Act requires that a brokerage license shall be issued to any qualified applicant, if the Commission finds (1) the applicant to be fit, willing, and able properly to perform the proposed service and to conform to the act and the Commission's regulations thereunder, and (2) the proposed service is or will be consistent with the public interest and the national transportation policy.

Benefit of proposed operation.-In deciding whether a proposed service is or will be consistent with the public interest and the national transportation policy, an applicant must establish that its proposed service will contribute something of value or be of benefit to carriers or the public, and will not be needlessly duplicative of existing facilities. Carla Ticket Service, Inc., Broker Application, 94

M.C.C. 579 (1964); and Elegante Tours, Inc.-Broker Application, 113 M.C.C. 156 (1971).

It is not conclusive with respect to a broker application, however, that protestants should offer tour services and that those tours may be adequate. Although the impact of an applicant's proposed service on a competitive situation must be considered, existing services are not entitled, as a matter of right, to have a tour market to themselves. Paragon Travel Agency, Inc., Ext.-Atlanta, Ga., 120 M.C.C. 1(1974). In considering the nature of a proposed broker operation, weight will be given to such factors as (1) the extent to which a significant segment of the public has come to depend upon an applicant's personalized local service, including its offering the convenience of originating and ending tours at a point within the local area, (2) protestants' inability to attract a significant amount of patronage from that segment of the public which would use applicant's service, and (3) the likelihood that a grant of authority would foster beneficial competition. Cook Broker Application, 119 M.C.C. 709, 717-718 (1974).

In this proceeding, the evidence demonstrates that applicant's proposed broker operation will contribute something of value and be of benefit to existing motor carriers and to the traveling public, and will not be duplicative of existing facilities. Applicant has shown that, as agent for its affiliate Peter Pan Bus Lines, it is highly experienced in arranging motor carrier tours in areas of the Northeast, the South, the Midwest, and the West Coast. It has arranged such motor carrier tours for approximately 7,000 passengers during a year's period of time, and applicant's ability to generate operations extending to many different and representative parts of the Nation is well established by the evidence of record. The application is not opposed by any authorized passenger broker located at Springfield, Northampton, Holyoke, or Amherst. None of the protestant brokers maintains an office for serving the traveling public in this involved territory of Hampden and Hampshire Counties, and a grant of authority would enable applicant to fill a vacuum with regard to the traveling public's need for broker service in this area. (Greyhound World Tours has a travel bureau office at Boston, and holds authority to operate as a broker at any point in the United States. But it does not maintain any broker office in the area involved herein.) Applicant's proposed broker service, consequently, will not be needlessly duplicative of any existing broker facilities located in Hampden and Hampshire Counties.

A considerable number of the traveling public in Hampden and Hampshire Counties desire to use applicant's proposed service to arrange tours involving a combination of air and motor transportation to various places in the United States and especially to areas in the West. This Commission has previously approved a broker license for an applicant which has arranged such combinations of air and motor transportation of passengers. See Paragon Travel Agency, Inc., Ext.-Atlanta, Ga., supra, at 3-4. A grant of authority would enable applicant to meet these unmet needs of the traveling public. It would also be in harmony with this Commission's policy of encouraging the development of intermodal transportation services. See Service Transfer, Inc., Contract Carrier Application, 117 M.C.C. 506, 514 (1972). In this respect, it should be noted that Trans-World Airlines has expressed its interest in applicant's proposed broker service for the benefit of groups of visitors from foreign countries to make tours in the United States.

The evidence amply demonstrates that a grant of authority would also be of benefit to existing motor carriers of passengers in various parts of the United States. Applicant could arrange, for example, for a group of senior citizens to travel by airline from Berkshire, Hampden, and Hampshire Counties to Los Angeles, Calif., there to use the service of one of the supporting motor carriers for a bus tour of places of interest in California, and then to return to those counties by air. Applicant could arrange for many such groups to fly to numerous different locations in the United States, and there to use the services of existing motor carriers for tours in those areas according to their interests and desires. The generation of such business would be of substantial benefit to the existing carriers so used, including protestant Greyhound. The evidence does not indicate that any of the motor carrier protestants would be adversely affected by a grant of the sought broker license.

Affiliation with a carrier.-It has long been held by this Commission that common directorates and common ownership between a broker and a motor carrier of passengers would deprive the broker of the unrestrained independence of judgment which is required of a broker in order that he may provide the best and most economical services available. Albright Broker Application, 83 M.C.C. 406 (1960); and Cain Broker Application, 2 M.C.C. 633 (1937).

In certain circumstances, however, applications have been granted despite a relationship between the broker and a carrier. Foster Broker Application, 28 M.C.C. 41 (1941); National Trailways