Have you seen advertisements for a new locally owned Reno to Las Vegas to Phoenix bus line called Inland Streamliner? 

The company's website paints a picture of a successful carrier offering comfortable travel on a fleet of buses driven by well-trained drivers.  They are selling tickets for a July 3 inaugural run from Reno to Phoenix. 

But information dug up by users of the social media site Reddit and a Reno Gazette Journal investigation paint a different picture. 

The company has one bus, one driver and currently no authority to legally transport passengers, according to public records. 

It wasn't until the company came under fire from the r/Reno and r/vegas Reddit communities for lacking a business license that it registered one, despite advertising bus driver jobs and selling tickets. 

The company has also been the target of harsh online criticism from Redditors across Nevada, who accused the company of including discriminatory and racist ridership policies. 

The RGJ reached Inland Streamliner's president, John Wang, via email.  The company did not answer repeated phone calls and a knock on the door of their listed business address. 

Pressed about the company selling tickets despite lacking the legal authority to carry passengers, Wang simply replied: "We're committed to complying with all applicable federal regulations." 

More:President of Inland Streamliner responds to RGJ article

'Not authorized'

Though the company can't legally ferry passengers, it does have a bus. 

It's silver and black with purple trim and the word "Streamliner" emblazoned on the side next to the company's logo.  Currently, it can be found parked in the side yard of a northwest Reno residence whose address is listed on the company's business license. 

A Reddit user initially found the bus and posted a picture of it.  The bus now has a sign taped inside the windshield warning would-be vandals the area is being videotaped. 

Whether that bus picks up passengers on July 3, meanwhile, is unlikely. 

Records from the Federal Motor Coach Safety Administration show Inland Streamliner does not currently have interstate operating authority, a registration required to transport people across state lines. 

Wang, who would initially only identify himself over email as a "Streamliner representative" and evaded questions, claimed passengers who bought fares for the July 3 run would make it to their destinations — it just might not be on Inland Streamliner's bus. 

The Reno Gazette Journal was able to purchase a $84.67 (discounted from $129.88) ticket for a July 3 trip to Phoenix on the Inland Streamliner. 

In his emailed interview with the RGJ, Wang said the Inland Streamliner will "outsource operations" to other bus carriers until its operating authority is approved.  He did not elaborate on which companies the routes would be outsourced to. 

Wang had previously asked for federal permission to operate a bus service, but that application was dismissed in 2017, according to FMCSA records.  He's reapplied, but it can take four to eight weeks for an application to be approved if all the paperwork is in perfect order, according to a FMCSA spokesperson. 

In Inland Streamliner's case, records show its current application is missing information including proof of a mandated $5 million insurance policy. 

It's also unclear where the company would pick up and drop off passengers.  Several of the stops appear to be at or immediately adjacent to locations owned by the Regional Transportation Commission of Washoe County, the city of Reno and other private or public entities. 

David Jickling, RTC's director of operations and transportation, said Inland Streamliner — and specifically John Wang — is known to the commission but did not have authorization to use any of their stops. 

Wang claimed he had written permission from Reno to use the downtown Amtrak station as a stop, but did not provide proof.  The city could not independently confirm this. 

Amtrak, though it's listed as a "connecting carrier" on the Inland Streamliner website, said it has no affiliation with the company. 

Accusations of racism and discriminatory policies

A host of policies, ridership requirements and other language previously posted on Inland Streamliner's website brought accusations of racism and discrimination against the company. 

Those policies — which have been largely scrubbed from the website — targeted undocumented immigrants, barred "social justice warriors," restricted the travel of college students and professors, and appeared to mandate English as the only language spoken on the company's buses. 

The policies prompted an onslaught of online criticism in posts to the Reno and Las Vegas Reddit communities. 

Redditors pointed out that the company's logo bore a strong resemblance to the Imperial German flag, a symbol that in modern times has been adopted by neo-Nazi groups, according to the Anti-Defamation League. 

Wang, the company's president, said he did not write the policies and initially had no knowledge they were published. 

He would not say who wrote them, only claiming "they were written by the person who built the website." 

As for the logo, Wang did not deny that the logo was inspired by the Imperial German flag but vehemently denied it held any Nazi inspiration. 

"The company managers are history buffs and recognize that the original Imperial German flag had no racist, alt-right, or neo-Nazi meaning," Wang wrote. 

After the online backlash, the lengthy contract of carriage and several other sections of language attacked as racist were removed from the website.  The company's logo has also been changed online, though it remains on the side of its bus. 

The website has been largely scrubbed of the policies and language it was attacked for, and past versions have been excluded from the Internet Archive's Wayback Machine, an online tool that saves old versions of web pages. 

The RGJ found a copy of Inland Streamliner's original contract of carriage saved in Google's cache. 

Portions of that contract, which was saved from the May 19 version of Inland Streamliner's website, can be found in full here:

Who is Inland Streamliner? 

Jickling, RTC's transportation manager, said Wang first reached out to RTC in 2017 stating he intended to start a bus line and inquiring about using the bus station at Fourth and Lake streets in downtown Reno as a stop. 

Wang stayed in contact with RTC until about a year ago, Jickling said, keeping the authority apprised of how Inland Streamliner was progressing and eventually asking for advice on which bus to buy. 

Then, they stopped hearing from him. 

“We chatted with him quite a bit but came away from it feeling like this was someone who had an idea but really had no idea what it takes to implement it,” Jickling said. 

At least three business licenses were found for the company in Nevada and Arizona.  Two — one in Nevada and one in Arizona — are inactive. 

The active license, which was registered in Nevada on May 26, lists Huiqing Peng as its registered agent and Yida Wang as manager. 

Public records show Peng owns the northwest Reno residence where the bus is parked and where Inland Streamliner's current business address is listed. 

Reached by phone in South Carolina, Peng told the RGJ she is John Wang's mother and that he prefers to use the first name John.  She also said she is the company's owner and financier while Wang serves as its president. 

Wang neither confirmed nor denied Peng's claims, initially claiming he was "not the right person to contact," but did concede he was not the owner of Inland Streamliner and that his "personal relations are not relevant to this topic." 

——

Sam Gross is a breaking news reporter for the Reno Gazette Journal who covers wildfires, emergencies and more.  Support his work by subscribing to RGJ.com right here.