Student Transportation Inc., (STI), North America's third-largest provider of school bus transportation services, reported the closing of the previously announced asset purchase and sale agreement with National Express Corporation. In order to resolve antitrust concerns for the merger of National Express Corporation and Petermann Partners Inc., the divested contracts open two additional states for STI to provide transportation services in Texas and Washington. All the school districts have unanimously approved the contract transfer agreements. STI will now operate over 9,000 vehicles in 15 U.S. states and Canada.
    "This is a very good opportunity for us entering two new states that have excellent growth potential," said Patrick Vaughan, STI Chief Operating Officer. "The experienced Petermann team joining our family will be a great addition to our operations. We are pleased that all the school districts overwhelmingly approved the contract transfers and we are ready to serve them with the continued level of safe and reliable transportation they have received from Petermann."

(source:transportweekly)