Tour Buses Barred From Yosemite Road : Tourism: Lodge operators say the ban is costing them dearly. Park Service will lift the rule when ground beneath highway dries out, but officials then plan to curtail traffic under a new policy.

By MARK ARAX

July 1, 1993 12 AM PT

TIMES STAFF WRITER

FRESNO — Yosemite National Park has closed Tioga Pass Road through the high country to tour buses because of wet ground, prompting complaints from some lodging operators in the Eastern Sierra.

Buses mostly carrying foreign tourists over Tioga Pass into Yosemite are a common sight in summer as well as a major economic factor in the resort town of Mammoth Lakes. But park officials barred buses weighing more than 15,000 pounds until the ground beneath the road dries out.

“We’re losing $100,000 a week in tour bus business,” said Tom Smith, general manager of the Mammoth Mountain Inn in Mammoth Lakes. “Almost 80% of our summer business is tied to the tours from Germany, France, Italy and Spain.

“Right now, we’ve got 150 rooms a night going empty because of tour bus cancellations.”

This spring, heavy snowpack kept the Tioga road closed until June 3, much later than Eastern Sierra resort owners would like it to open. Then a freak snowstorm temporarily closed the road again.

The National Park Service is also telling Mammoth and other Eastern Sierra communities along U.S. 395 that serve the tour buses to get used to lighter traffic. Although the bus ban through Tioga Pass may be lifted soon, it will be replaced by a new policy that could cut buses throughout the park by one-third.

Bob Andrew, chief park ranger, said tour bus traffic has nearly doubled in the last five years, from about 9,000 buses in 1988 to a projected 15,000 buses this year. He expects the Park Service to set a temporary cap on bus traffic in the next few weeks until a more permanent plan for reducing traffic is formulated.

“The whole issue of congestion needs to be addressed,” Andrew said. “A lot of the buses are half full and the bus operators may have to pack more people on fewer buses.”

A Park Service draft proposal that was leaked in Washington called for an annual cap of 9,600 buses, a number that has been criticized by tour bus companies and Mammoth Lakes hotels and restaurants.

“That was a very preliminary number,” Andrew said. “We’re working closely with the tour bus companies to come up with a new number. We’re working well together, but it’s conceivable the number we come up with they’re not going to like.”

Environmental groups that have long argued for a less congested park applaud the effort to cut bus traffic. But groups that range from the Wilderness Society to the National Parks and Conservation Assn. say that a more comprehensive approach is needed.

“We support some restrictions on buses, but if the Park Service expects to get a handle on the congestion problem, it’s going to have to deal with an entire transportation plan,” said Joan Reiss, regional director of the Wilderness Society.

“The average visitor spends four to six hours in the park, and a lot of that is due to these tour buses coming in and out. What’s needed is not a piecemeal plan that restricts buses but one that includes cars and provides a shuttle system from staging areas outside the park.”

Times special correspondent Benett Kessler in Mammoth Lakes contributed to this story.