About Grand Tours & Ridge Road Express
We are a locally-run and operated transportation provider, offering a wide range of services including full-service school bus transportation, student activity trips, special education transportation, school bus fleet management services, complete deluxe motorcoach trips, school bus charter service, sightseeing tours, airport transfers, convention shuttles, sports and theater packages, and much more.
As a member of the Student Transportation of America Family of Companies, we are backed by the support and resources of our North American parent organization while being able to maintain the relationships we have built over years of service to the local community, right here at home. To learn more about the STA Family of Companies, please visit here.
How It Began
In 1929 after a year of driving for Ridge Road Express, Mr. Ralph A. Weeks purchased the two-bus operation originally based in Jeddo, New York. With Mr. Weeks behind the wheel of a 15-passenger Garford bus and Mrs. Weeks driving a 7-passenger Buick Sedan, Ridge Road Express began its first regularly scheduled line run, offering service between Lockport and Lyndonville along Ridge Road Route 104.
In 1935, the Weeks family purchased Grand Island Transit Corporation (GITC), an inter-city bus line offering service between Buffalo and Niagara Falls, across Grand Island. Over the years, GITC evolved into a full-service deluxe charter and tour motorcoach company known today as Grand Tours.
Times Are Changing
As times changed, so did the company. In 1985, Scholastic Transportation Management Services, Inc. (STMS) was born out of a desire to support the Albion Central School District, and still runs Albion’s entire system plus several other school districts either operationally or on a consulting basis. Today nearly 80 percent of our operation is focused on safely transporting students with 300 buses and vans serving 10 school districts.