scrubbedexpat091

Greyhound is ending it's Canadian operations, after having already pulled out of western Canada a couple years ago, its remaining routes in Ontario and Quebec will cease permanently on Thursday.

US Greyhound Lines, Inc., will continue to operate cross-border routes to Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver once the border reopens.

https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/greyhoun...mpression=true

CanadaJimmy

Canada really needs to invest into alternative to driving between major cities. Even just some regular passenger rail would be nice.

Danny B

I have used this bus company a few times over the years, pretty reasonable prices and modern buses.

https://www.myebus.ca/

caretaker

Elon Musk speedy vaccum tube, just like the thing they used to send orders up in the old Sears warehouse. Most of our major cities are all in a line beside the main highway; it's a natural. Even in the mountains most of the heavy lifting was done lifetimes ago. You'd be able to strap in at Toronto's Union Station and a few hours later after a snack and a movie climb out in Vancouver. We should also hire him to modify the current main rail lines to some sort of energy efficient voodoo because the 1940's technology behind those big diesel-electric engines has seen it's day. I'd love to see passenger rail service come back to the main line, but am not sure it's possible now. Even 2 trains a day means there's a lot of traffic that would have to make room for something that doesn't pay as well as mixed goods.

scrubbedexpat091

Really should have light rail or skytrain like system connecting Surrey with Chilliwack, and Kelowna could use a light rail system connecting West Kelowna to Kelowna and then run it through Kelowna along the highway, would speed up transit time which would encourage more people to use it, right now the buses are so slow, only those with no other option use transit, sorry not going to spend 1-2 hours on a bus when I can drive it in 30 minutes or less, but a train could do it quicker and by train I mean light rail, not heavy rail, doesn't even need to be elevated sky train, light rail would be sufficient, like the San Diego trolley or Edmonton or Calgary.

I don't know if there is a viable way to link via heavy rail going west to east, Via loses money on the Canadian which isn't daily when its operating (not sure if its operating currently at all ) and requires a great deal of subsidy, but we can at least start with light rail in the larger metro areas.

Vancouver by now should have more light rail crossing the city, large swaths of Vancouver are not served by skytrain and still rely on slow buses that may only run 2 or 3 times per hour, discouraging transit use, unless you live along major arterial routes in Vancouver or near skytrain, its actually pretty frustrating using transit and so much time wasted.

scilly

How much are you willing to spend??????

VIA is running a limited service from Vancouver to Toronto (The Canadian), service from Jasper to Prince Rupert, in the "Corridor" of Montreal Toronto and Ottawa. Service may be reduced, eg 4 or 5 trains a day in the Corridor instead of 6 or 7, and no Business Class.

Same for the two western routes ............ Jasper to P. Rupert is running as Economy Class only, once a week I believe instead of 2. The Canadian has one return trip a week, with Economy and Sleeping Class only, no high priced Prestige Elite Sleepers, and huge restrictions on moving around the train ............. the only time a passenger is allowed out of their cabin is to be escorted to a reserved place for breakfast and dinner, or to the shower. Lunch served in the cabin, and no access to lounges or the dome car, so basically in the cabin for 4 days. Passengers in Economy Class can move out of their seats only to go the toilet/washroom, no shower facility for them, and are served pre-prepared food at their seat from a service cart, no cafeteria -type service, lounge or dome access.

Needless to say, masks must be worn, except actually in the sleeper cabin or while eating.

I read some time ago that the powers-that-be (ie CN and the Federal government) have been looking more seriously at trying to double track the railway across the north (through Edmonton), many areas especially in northern Ontario, are still the single track that was built back in the late 1800s, over muskeg and through the Canadian Shield, The cost was well into the billions of $.

I assume that trying to build all the ones mentioned in posts on here would cost into the trillions ............ some of it from the various provinces but most of it from the Feds.

Does Canada have that much?

The other concern is that only the goods trains are profitable ................. any long-distance passenger trains are never going to make a profit because there just is not the population in Canada to make it so. Therefore any passenger trains from city to city is going to require continuous monetary subsidies.

I don't even know if the West Coast Express makes a profit or is subsidised VIA's Corridor trains are the only ones that seem to make a profit but that triangle between Toronto-Ottawa-Montreal is well populated, especially the direct route Toronto-Montreal.

It was announced back in March that WCE is getting 7 engines refurbished so they will get 15 years more life ............ they are currently just over 25 years old. Estimated cost $20.4 billion, half from the Feds, $9 million for the BC government and the rest from Translink (the transit authority)

https://biv.com/article/2021/03/west...ns-refurbished

This is an interesting article published on WCE's 25th anniversary last November ........... adding one more station and the connecting line would cost more than $1 million for the addition of 60 more passengers

https://www.missioncityrecord.com/ne...-for-25-years/

It's also worth noting 2 things ............. the WCE only runs 5 trains in the morning to Vancouver, and 5 trains late afternoon out of Vancouver. NO service between those times in either direction, the trains just sit in Waterfront Station all day. Suggestions that they run during the day, or have at least a train run from Vancouver to Maple Ridge in the morning or from Maple Ridge to Vancouver in the late afternoon/early evening have been suggested several times because that would be useful for shoppers or people who live in Vancouver but work at one of the places along the line, but always come to naught

Secondly WCE Express and VIA's passenger trains all run on tracks owned either by CP or CN, and therefore they have to pay for the "privilege", cost of leases is "private.

scilly

The Broadway subway extension in Vancouver is going to cost $2.8 BILLION to construct the 5.7 km extension of the Millennium Line and 6 underground stations. Most of it will be underground, built by tunnel boring machines, but some will have to be cut-and-cover, while there will be one 750 m elevated track. Building will start this year and it is expected to be in operation in 2025.

When cut-and-cover was used to build the Canada Line to the airport, the city and government ending up paying compensation in the millions of dollars to business owners who lost customers or had to close permanently in one of the busiest local shopping areas. This new line also goes through another busy local shopping area.

In addition, there are the buildings that have already been bought to provide for the above ground entrances to stations. Lots of small businesses in those buildings have already gone.

The final daft thing about the new extension, to be called probably if unofficially the UBC Line, will not go anywhere near UBC. Anyone wanting to go further than the current "last station" will have to transfer to a bus, either one of the Rapid buses direct to UBC or one of the local buses

https://dailyhive.com/vancouver/broa...line-extension

The future expansion of the line to UBC is not yet in the planning stage, but it will be roughly 7 km long, and require 6 more underground stations. Estimated current cost is about $3 billion. It will go through one of the really busy local shopping areas, with many small businesses. Current hope is that it will be ready in 2050

scrubbedexpat091

Small communities concerned about the sudden loss of Greyhound. Can't blame them, there still isn't the same level of service out west that existed with Greyhound, some companies have filled a void on select routes though with time I am sure some company will step in back East but not necessarily at the same level.

https://globalnews.ca/news/7860104/g...r-communities/


Looking back to when my wife and I met online, if not for Greyhound we likely never would have been able to meet in person as at the time she didn't have a car and I didn't have a car and we lived 100km apart.

caretaker

Losing Greyhound and Saskatchewan Transportation Corporation Bus Lines (STC) left all our small towns with no way to travel but private car. It means extra business for Canada Post (at least for those things that are mail-able) and private courier companies but there's no way it replaces freight on the bus. There is a private company running some buses on the Trans Canada, but I'm not sure how good it is. I have put in a lot of miles on the bus and think the government should have been planning on a national bus system long ago.

scilly

For years, Greyhound was the way for us to exchange Christmas gifts with OH's sister who lived in northern BC.

I once took Greyhound both ways to stay with my sis-i-l after her husband died. It was an overnight trip, with a change in Prince George ....... that station was VERY interesting at 5 am in the morning!! Many of the smaller towns in BC didn't even have a "station". The one in 100 Mile House was one room round the back of a Chinese restaurant, speak to the employee if he was on duty , and sit or stand outside without any shelter! We waited 2 or 3 hours there for someone coming in from Vancouver and the bus was late, didn't dare leave because there was no-one "on duty" to let us know how late it was going to be!

Others literally were just a stop outside a gas station, get on the bus and pay the driver ......... that's if he had remembered to stop and pick you up. We heard stories of 15-year old girls being left with nowhere to go and no means of contacting anyone when that happened ........... that was back in the 1980s, no cell phones or internet

I heard a talk on CBC radio this afternoon that seemed to indicate that several owners of small provincial bus lines that currently operate only within one or maybe two provinces are looking to combine together to develop some form of bus travel across Canada.

Partially discharged

Here in Ottawa, Megabus has indicated that they are going to be picking up some of the slack and will run buses from Toronto to Ottawa via Scarborough and Kingston. As well, there is interest in an Ottawa-Montreal route to be in place via a private operator.

https://obj.ca/article/local/next-st...ital-next-week

Of course, Ottawa's resident trustafarian who thinks money grows on trees and the rich should be taxed to death to pay for everything craps all over this.

https://publish.twitter.com/?query=h...8&widget=Tweet

He has lots of ideas but they all involve spending money that isn't there.