A battle is heating up between rival double-decker tour bus companies – with new allegations that drivers at one company are being treated so poorly that they are abandoning the giant vehicles in the middle of Times Square.
That's according to TopView — which was sued last month for allegedly trying to take on a smaller competitor — which filed an aggressive countersuit on Monday calling the allegations against it “false” and an attempt by the other tour bus company to “distract attention from its own record of misconduct.” “.
Aurora Tourism Services claims it “violates the requirements of the regulations to avoid fair competition, while providing a lower quality service to consumers and adversely affecting the reputation of the bus industry.”
One Aurora driver was even noted for publicly complaining about unpaid wages and skipping work [the company’s] bus in the middle of Times Square in protest, according to a Manhattan Supreme Court filing.
Aurora — also known as Iconic Tours — continually breaks the law by not registering its buses with the proper agencies, operating vehicles without permits or license plates and storing its buses overnight on public streets, according to Top View filing claims.
The company also accuses Aurora of using unlicensed ticket sellers to scam tourists, making unauthorized stops on buses, and picking fights with traffic agents, according to court documents.
Claims TopView previously made in federal court that Aurora workers intentionally wore uniforms similar to their own and deceived customers into believing they were the much larger operator are also included in the new filing.
But since Aurora filed a slur suit against TopView in October — accusing the competitor of beating its workers and harassing its customers with weed smoke and speakers — a slew of new, substantiated allegations of illegality are now in the public record.
TopView, which operates a fleet of more than 40 buses, claims to have documented nearly 100 instances where an Aurora bus was missing a license plate on the front of the bus, according to a 39-page spreadsheet provided as part of its filing.
Tour buses also must wear a license plate from the city's Department of Labor and Consumer Protection on the front of their vehicles at all times, but TopView claims in the same spreadsheet that it has documented 389 cases of Aurora buses that lost the required plates while in operation.
Also on the docket are allegations that Aurora, which has operated a fleet of four double-decker buses since 2022, is using unauthorized bus stops that are not part of the stops permitted by the Department of Transportation.
“On numerous occasions,” the filing said, Aurora “operated at least two different buses with the same license plate at the same time, and/or operated a bus with an illegal license plate, in violation of [sic] DOT, DMV, and insurance laws and regulations.
TopView also claims that Aurora ticket sellers are selling tickets without displaying the required DWCP license, and that they are tricking customers into thinking they are riding a TopView bus, according to the filing.
“This filing demonstrates our steadfast commitment to standing up for our rights and holding Aurora accountable for its actions,” TopView’s Asen Kostadinov said in a statement to The Post.
A representative for Aurora disputed TopView's claim that one of their workers abandoned the bus, saying the company's filing failed to indicate that the vehicle had a mechanical failure and broke down at an authorized station and did not obstruct traffic.
Brandon Walters, Aurora's attorney, said the company is “compliant with all applicable regulations” and uses a compliance firm for that purpose.
“Aurora denies any allegations that it is operating in an unauthorized or illegal manner,” Walters told The Washington Post.
An Aurora representative said that “stickers or front plates are sometimes missing because they were stolen” and that the company was “unable to identify the vandals.”
Walters also sent The Post photos of six DWCP ticket sales licenses, as well as their DWCP and DOT permits for tour bus operations, as well as 10 permits for DOT sightseeing bus stops.
He added that Aurora is permitted to use several other stops that are currently under review by the Department of Transportation.
“Aurora’s compliance with applicable regulations is a matter of public record,” Walters said. “No one should be the enforcer of New York City’s administrative law.”
DCWP, the agency largely charged with regulating tour buses, declined to comment on the allegations because of the ongoing investigation, but a spokesperson told The Post that DCWP has issued two violations to Aurora over the past two years related to vehicle issues.
