Westlund Bus sold to downstate company

MARINETTE — After nearly 50 years of transporting school children, athletic teams, charter tours and more, Westlund Bus Lines, Inc., 1615 Badger Parkway, Marinette, has been sold.

Tom Westlund said the final paperwork was completed last week. The new owner is Go Riteway Transportation Group of Oak Creek, Wisconsin.

The Marinette School Board last week approved a five-year pupil transportation contract with Go Riteway.

“Riteway will build upon the solid foundation established through the over 40-year partnership between Westlund Bus Lines and Marinette School District,” the district’s Business Manager Sean Kelly said in an email. “They will continue to provide excellent, low cost service and make every effort to accommodate district needs and requests whenever possible.”

Westlund said the district made a sound business decision.

“What they got now is the best of both worlds,” he said. “They got somebody that can (provide) good service and they got it at a decent price.”

“They’re a good company,” he continued. “They have several terminals. They have school buses and they have motor coaches and they have car service, just like we do.”

According to its website, Go Riteway is a family-owned business that started in 1957. It serves about 35 school districts with most being in southeastern Wisconsin. It serves Portage in south central Wisconsin, La Crosse to the west and Waupaca to the north.

The district’s finance and auxiliary services committee explained in its minutes why it recommended contracting with Go Riteway.

“The district assessed the current environment for pupil transportation services,” the minutes read. “Due to the ongoing driver shortage, cost of equipment growing much greater than inflation, and the trend of the small locally based operators being bought up by regional operators, the district determined going to RFP (request for proposals) would be a very poor fiscal strategy due to the lack of competition in the school bus transportation market.”

Kelly said that currently, Marinette School District’s transportation cost per member is at 75% of the state average. He said it’s the lowest among Marinette County school districts and second lowest in the Northeastern Conference.

“There is currently a significant lack of competition in Wisconsin’s school bus transportation market,” Kelly said in the email. “Wisconsin has lost 18% of its school bus drivers since 2007 and the current driver pool is aging. The cost of purchasing new school buses is up 17.25% between December 2022 and December 2023.”

A couple of Westlund employees have retired, but the rest will stay with Go Riteway. When asked how many drivers he has, Westlund said, “Not enough.”

Westlund said he plans to stay on for a year as a consultant to help with the transition.

Westlund, a De Pere native, took over the company from Barney Sequin when he was just 25 years old. He cut his teeth as a bus driver in West De Pere while attending the University of Wisconsin — Green Bay. He also worked at Red Owl to put himself through college.

“On the last day of December of 1976 I drove up here in a blizzard to meet with Barney Sequin,” Westlund said. “It took nine months to get things ironed out and get financing.”

Nearly five decades later, Westlund looked back on his business.

“The company was able to provide safe and quality transportation for the schoolkids and the motor coach passengers,” he said, adding that working with most of the people was enjoyable.

“Especially the kids who graduate and get into real life and they come up and talk with you and you see how life is going for those people,” Westlund said.

He said the most difficult aspect of the job is dealing with the limited labor pool.

Westlund said he’s had a great relationship with the Marinette School District.

“I’ve been very, very fortunate here to have good superintendents, along with business managers because they run the day-to-day stuff,” he said.

Westlund said he has a long list of things to do in retirement that has compiled over the past 47 years. He plans to stay in the area when his year of consulting is done.

“Now I can spend some more time at home, other than to eat and sleep,” he said.