Canadian Railroads > Greyhound service cuts in BC.

Greyhound Lines Canada has announced service frequency cuts to take place throughout the Province of BC in late October of this year. Kamloops, which is a regional hub from Greyhound, with services going north, south, east and west will see weekly departures go from 56 to 42.

Service between Kamloops and Prince George will be reduced to a single daily bus service.

At the same time, crew and bus dispatching will be centralised at Burlington ON, causing the closure of several Greyhound regional administrative offices. For many years, the head offices of Greyhound Canada have been at Calgary AB.

For years, reductions in passenger train frequency, on CN and CP, BCR and Via Rail was justified in "train off" announcements because there was bus service available on the same routes.

Greyhound claims to be loosing $14 million per annum operating intercity bus services in BC, including the flagship run along the Trans-Canada Highway from Calgary to Vancouver.

First Group, a large transportation company from the UK which operates bus and train service there is the current owner of Greyhound Canada. First Group promised to operate GLC more efficiently and improve service when they took over the company.

They have improved service in the Montreal to southern Ontario corridor, and between Calgary and Edmonton, but have cut services in northern Alberta, Manitoba and northern Ontario in recent years.

Greyhound did announce that the parcels service they operate is profitable. In a strange parallel to passenger train service in the 1960's, the parcels business has been subsidising the passenger business on certain runs.

Many bus runs between Calgary and Vancouver include a parcels trailer. In Vancouver, the trailers are added and removed at suburban Coquitlam. The first image shows the Coquitlam "switcher" (fork lift) hostling trailers at the Coquitlam Greyhound terminal with Greyhound trucks loading at the warehouse in the background. A Calgary-Vancouver bus is shown arriving at Coquitlam where the trailer will be removed.

Greyhound Canada bus service in BC dates back to the late 1930's, with the greatest number of passengers being hauled in the 1960's. Over the last thirty years there has been a steady decline in revenues and passenger counts. Despite that, many rural communities rely on Greyhound to provide connections to the rest of Canada. Of special note is the bus service provided along the Alaska Highway during WW2 to provide transportation to thousands of troops heading to Alaska. The US Military "Northern Transport Command" took over operation of this Greyhound route, and Greyhound bus drivers from across Canada and the US drove the buses for the duration of WW2.

In BC, a curious parallel network of scheduled buses operate to transport patients to regional hospitals for non emergency treatment. This network is subsidised by medical premiums paid by all BC citizens for medicare. Most are small Handi-Dart van conversions, but a full size bus operates between Kamloops and Prince George.

Across Canada, intercity bus transportation is in crisis, with the possibility of much of Canada being without scheduled bus services unless operating subsidies are provided either by the Provincial Governments or the Canadian Government.

Is a bus equivalent to Via possible in the future?



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 01/09/22 19:15 by eminence_grise.

It's surprising that a bus service with no amenities and no leg room, operating on taxpayer-funded highways, can't make a profit. As was previously reported, the Maritime provinces will see the end of Acadian Lines bus service just a month after VIA continues its "modernisation", i.e. reducing the "Ocean" from six days a week to three days. With so many bus services disappearing I have to wonder who VIA will call upon when they need to replace a train. Perhaps VIA will be less likely to discontinue a train and put passengers on a bus for no other reason than it is late.

DrawingroomA Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> It's surprising that a bus service with no
> amenities and no leg room, operating on
> taxpayer-funded highways, can't make a profit. As
> was previously reported, the Maritime provinces
> will see the end of Acadian Lines bus service just
> a month after VIA continues its "modernisation",
> i.e. reducing the "Ocean" from six days a week to
> three days. With so many bus services disappearing
> I have to wonder who VIA will call upon when they
> need to replace a train. Perhaps VIA will be less
> likely to discontinue a train and put passengers
> on a bus for no other reason than it is late.

No passengers???

Bob

With VIA cutting back and Grayhound following, Canadians will be in a real bad place to travel. This will leave a shrinking air service and the family auto to get anywhere. The short sighted policies of Canada (and the US) have made travel almost impossible for the working class.

YankeeDog Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> The short sighted
> policies of Canada (and the US) have made travel
> almost impossible for the working class.

I thought that was the plan.

..jr

Within the past year, Greyhound also ended direct service on the Calgary-Saskatoon lane, leaving many communities isolated, as well as forcing travellers between these cities to take the ''scenic route'' via Edmonton or Regina, likely involving a layover as well. The sad part is that many of the small towns along this lane have an aging population that relied on this service to get to the cities for medicical care & such.

Most travel is by car and air.

Rental cars are available virtually anywhere and provide maximum flexibility to most people. They can also be a good value, and do not require the hiring of a driver, unlike a bus or other common carrier.

This is the trend.

In big markets, other options will continue to be available.

Tourism has never been bigger or a better value.

DPKrause Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Within the past year, Greyhound also ended direct
> service on the Calgary-Saskatoon lane, leaving
> many communities isolated, as well as forcing
> travellers between these cities to take the
> ''scenic route'' via Edmonton or Regina, likely
> involving a layover as well. The sad part is that
> many of the small towns along this lane have an
> aging population that relied on this service to
> get to the cities for medicical care & such.

Greyhound in the US has been following a similar policy on some service routes in MT and ND. In other cases, scheduled stops in some local towns have been eliminated, which has caused community push back. The NY Times wrote about it earlier this year.

The big problem seems to be with very small towns that generate only a few riders per week, but require a 15 minute deviation from the through route.

Like healthcare, etc, if access to inexpensive transportation is a "right" then the private company providing it should be paid appropriately by the government that assures those "rights"

>
> The big problem seems to be with very small towns
> that generate only a few riders per week, but
> require a 15 minute deviation from the through
> route.
>
>


For many years the Alberta government effectivley ''subsidized'' Greyhound, giving them exclusive authority on many high traffic lanes in exchange for providing service on lanes with light patronage. This ended last year when the government decided to de-regulate inter-city motor coach service.

eminence_grise Wrote:
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In Vancouver, the
> trailers are added and removed at suburban
> Coquitlam.

>



When was this part of the operation moved? I had to pick up a trailer from Greyhound about 15 yrs. ago & they were doing this near the CN/VIA station near downtown.

DPKrause Wrote:

>
> When was this part of the operation moved? I had
> to pick up a trailer from Greyhound about 15 yrs.
> ago & they were doing this near the CN/VIA station
> near downtown.

The Coquitlam Greyhound station is between Highway 7 (Lougheed Highway) and Highway 1 just east of the New Westminster interchange.
(Just west of the IKEA store). Not sure how long it has been there. Huge warehouse with many truck bays. What is very telling is that the parcel window is very busy and works extended hours, the ticket window is only open around bus time.

As a former British Colony, Canada didn't have a Constitution until 1981. For more than a Century, an Act of the UK Government, the British North America Act served as a substitute.

The Constitution Act of 1981 borrows much from several other nation's constitutions, notably that of the US however it includes "rights and freedoms" not contemplated in 1776.

There is an long standing controversy regarding language rights that has kept portions of the Canadian Constitution from being put fully in effect, but many other parts are fully written into law and accepted.

One of the clauses is the "right of mobility", which covers a couple of important issues, such as a guarantee of access to public facilities for people with disabilities. Another part of the mobility clause relates to the right of persons to live and work wherever they want within Canada, with reasonable access to goods and services. This clause was written to specifically address an issue between Quebec and Ontario where the Province of Quebec limited access to public construction contracts to citizens of Quebec, excluding contractors from other jurisdictions.

However, the language is sufficiently ambiguous as to be interpreted as mandating access to goods and services to both areas of low population as well as to areas of high population.

In simple terms relevant to the intercity bus and train issue, there is a movement among rural populations which says, if you take away the train or bus, you deny those who don't or can't drive a private vehicle a Constitutional right. Of course, this has yet to be fully contested in the Supreme Court of Canada.

I can foresee a probable outcome, in part suggested by the transportation industry. If private enterprise can no longer supply the required service without losing money, perhaps a 3P ("public-private partnership") can be formed. A Government Agency can supply the subsidy to operate the transportation network, and a private enterprise can own the equipment and supply the workforce and management to run the network.

This is precisely what "First Group", "Stagecoach", "Keolis" and "Arriva" do in Europe and other parts of the World. In Canada, "First Group" operates several city transit systems of civic Governments, plus a large number of School bus systems for School Districts.

Part of the philosophy of the new transportation companies coming from Europe to operate former North American owned transport networks is that they can operate more efficiently and require less public funding than Government operated enterprises.

Sadly, Greyhound is a long established private enterprise, but by its own admission is losing money continuing to operate as such.

reindeerflame Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Most travel is by car and air.
>
> Rental cars are available virtually anywhere and
> provide maximum flexibility to most people. They
> can also be a good value, and do not require the
> hiring of a driver, unlike a bus or other common
> carrier.
>
> This is the trend.
>
> In big markets, other options will continue to be
> available.
>
> Tourism has never been bigger or a better value.


That is one of the worst statements I have ever read. Total defeatist!

DrawingroomA Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> As was previously reported, the Maritime provinces
> will see the end of Acadian Lines bus service just
> a month after VIA continues its "modernisation",

Tri-Maritime Bus Network Inc. is set to take over most of the former Acadian routes (the following day) and have said they plan an integrated system.....so hopefully we’ll no longer have the bus from Sydney arriving at the VIA station in Truro just as the markers on the Ocean’s Park Car are disappearing at the Prince St. crossing!

http://thechronicleherald.ca/business/154485-maritime-bus-service-gets-ok-to-roll

A new operator has been found to replace the soon to be cancelled Victoria-Port Alberni-Ucluet and Tofino service on Vancouver Island.

I should have figured that someone at Greyhound Lines Canada subscribes to Trainorders.

I was informed that the service cuts at Kamloops will be one of the three Kamloops-Prince George runs, one of three Kamloops-Jasper runs, and an all stops Kamloops-Vancouver local which will be seasonally replaced by an enhanced limited stop service on the same route. The four daily Calgary-Vancouver schedules will be maintained.

Even with the cuts, Greyhound anticipates losing $6.5 million per annum servicing the BC market.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/28/12 12:21 by eminence_grise.