Canadian Railroads > OT: Greyhound shuts down in ONT & QEW

From the Toronto Star / Hamilton Spectator:Greyhound Canada ends service on all routes in Ontario and QuebecGreyhound Canada is closing down all bus routes in Ontario and Quebec, effective Thursday.The transporation company said in a news release that due to low ridership, it will discontinue all routes in both provinces.Bus routes such as from Toronto to Montreal, Ottawa to Kingston and Toronto to Windsor were temporarily suspended in May 2020, but will now be fully shutdown. Greyhound Canada added that reduction in ridership along with revenue loss backs up the reasoning behind their decision.“A full year without revenue has unfortunately made it impossible to continue operations,” said Stuart Kendrick, Senior Vice President of Greyhound Canada. “Thank you to our dedicated staff for their commitment and service, and to our customers for choosing Greyhound Canada during better times.”Any customers who currently hold tickets after May 13 will be refunded.
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Will MacKenzie
Dundas, ON

https://news.greyhound.ca/

I feel very bad for those people who have depended on Greyhound within Canada regularly. I don't want to turn this much into a bus page but I will say this, hopefully other intercity bus companies across Canada will emerge. Now onto the trains-with Greyhound intra Canada routes discontinued-this could be a motivator for VIA Rail to seriously think about increasing the frequency of corridor trains in the Quebec City to Windsor Corridor. It would be nice to have that route running from Toronto to Montreal serving Peterborough.

Sorry to make this correction, however QEW is a highway in southern Ontario, QC is the correct abbreviation for the province of Quebec.

Cheers.

VIA Rail exists at the pleasure of the PM and a usually hostile Transport Minister. Trudeau has not reversed any of Harper's cuts, in or outside of the Corridor, or for that matter Algoma Central. VIA Rail will do nothing without their blessing, and I suspect nothing.

You may see more Megabus, Coach Canada, Trentway-Wager, or whatever they call themselves, or something in the Maritimes stretch their reach, or whatever they can palm off on GO Transit and Ontario Northland. It looks like Greyhound Lines will take over Greyhound Canada between Buffalo and Toronto, but notice they are not touching Windsor - Toronto. I don't think US firms like Indian Trails and Jefferson Lines want to be bothered with border crossing issues.

What becomes of all these bus terminals in larger cities ? I'd imagine Toronto's Coach Terminal and the new one in Montreal is somewhat oversized.   

4489 Wrote:
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> Sorry to make this correction, however QEW is a
> highway in southern Ontario, QC is the correct
> abbreviation for the province of Quebec.
>

Don't apologize. It's a point that needed to be made.
 

toledopatch Wrote:
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> 4489 Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > Sorry to make this correction, however QEW is a
> > highway in southern Ontario, QC is the correct
> > abbreviation for the province of Quebec.
> >
>
> Don't apologize. It's a point that needed to be
> made.

Thank you!

>  

4489 Wrote:
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> Sorry to make this correction, however QEW is a
> highway in southern Ontario, QC is the correct
> abbreviation for the province of Quebec.

I know that all too well!!!  Don't know how I made that mistake ... thought I had typed QUE!!
Mea Culpa for not double checking!

w
 

Will MacKenzie
Dundas, ON

Greyhounds major routes that were left were southern Ontario including Toronto-London-Windsor along with Toronto-Ottawa and Ottawa-Montreal...but the main Toronto-Montreal run through Kingston is Mega-Bus. Greyhound does not run east of Montreal.....that's Orleans Express and Maritime Bus in NB, NS and PEI.

Greyhound's Transcontinental routes were discontinued a couple of years ago and Ontario Northland can get you to Winnipeg.....and some regional carriers now serve routes west of there.

Greyhound USA will still serve Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver.

Greyhound whines about VIA Rail subsidies, but they kill service west of Sudbury where VIA Rail barely exists, and retained service in the rail Corridor, except for the main Toronto - Montreal trunk. They threw all their eggs in one basket where they are most vulnerable. They had the more populated route through Sault Sainte Marie, Thunder Bay, Regina, Calgary, Banff all to themselves, and once lobbied to Transport Canada to get rid of CP-routed  transcon train and won. I call that death-wish, or "what goes around comes around". 

Wasn't Montreal - Toronto Voyageur-Colonial at one time ? 

I think there is a 140 mile gap in Saskatchewan of no bus service. It still takes more days to get from Winnipeg to Vancouver with an assortment of bus companies and less than daily service. 




 

I took Vogeuer from Cornwall to Montreal in 1970. If they got taken over by Greyhound, how is it that the route is Coach Canada or Megabus today ? 

joemvcnj Wrote:
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> I took Vogeuer from Cornwall to Montreal in 1970.
> If they got taken over by Greyhound, how is it
> that the route is Coach Canada or Megabus today
> ? 

I'm not sure when the takeover took place. There were some changes before First Group took over. Laidlaw took over before First Group, and then got into financial trouble. Laidlaw had other bus operations which were folded into Greyhound.

Nice picture of an MCI MC7.  I enjoyed riding on those buses.

MCI and Greyhound thought the MC-6 and MC-7 would be as classic as the GM PD-4501 Scenicruiser. The fleet name for the MC-7 was Scenicruiser and MC-8 was Americruiser. But the MC-6 fell flat on its face, of which 15 of 100 went to Canada. For the MC-7, It didn't happen. Passenger forward view was poorer. Aesthetically, too angular, just a blown up MC5. Some MC-7's in Canada were built atop chassis of scrapped 4501's. since they were heavier, had 2 dual rear axles, and better at hauling trailers.But during MC-7 production, GM stopped building PD-49 series.