Private enterprise to the rescue: Cataract tours starts route to Bills game

Tom Kerr, co -owner of Cataract tours offered his free-enterprise version for people to get to the Bills’ games

Frank D'Agostino and Tom Kerr went where taxpayers went before.

They took people from Niagara Falls to Ralph Wilson Stadium in Orchard Park to see the Buffalo Bills play against the Tennessee Titans.

The leading bus tour operators in Niagara Falls, owners of Cataract Tours, heard of the demand for people who wanted a bus ride to Orchard park to see the Bills home games, so they put a bus and a driver on the road.

“After having read in the Niagara Falls Reporter about people who used to take the NFTA bus to games and couldn’t because the route was canceled, we decided to take fans to the games,” said Kerr. “It was a start and it was modestly successful.”

Kerr might have underestimated Cataract’s success for it proved that free enterprise can successfully do what people of the nanny state have come to expect must be done for them by the taxpayers of big government.

Last month, the Reporter told of how local residents, some elderly, some handicapped, some who wanted to have a few drinks and not worry about the drive, were disappointed that the NFTA had canceled its service to the games. For decades the NFTA took Bills fans for round trips to the games charging a buck or two and losing money every trip.

NFTA vice chairman Henry Sloma said, wisely, that the taxpayer funded NFTA should take care of essential needs of public transit riders. That doesn’t extend to Bills’ games.

The average NFTA bus trip costs taxpayers most of the cost.

“Fares cover between six and 10 percent,” Sloma said. “And Bills games are not a necessity. We have limited resources and we have to use these the smartest way we can.”

What a brilliant statement from someone in charge of public money.

Cataract charged $20 per person, enough to cover costs and make a profit.

Clearly, Bills’ fans, who pay minimum $58 for tickets, and from $225 to $720 for season tickets, can afford to pay someone enough to take them to the Bills games.

And they did. According to Kerr, 16 people hopped on their bus to Ralph Wilson Stadium in Orchard Park and presumably enjoyed the game on a pleasant fall day, watching the team lose to the Titans 35 to 34.