scrubbedexpat091

Greyhound Bus is largely exiting Western Canada, eliminating all service in SK, MB, and AB, and only keeping Vancouver to Seattle which is technically US division who operates that route along with Greyhound owned Bolt Bus. Greyhound is owned by UK based First Group.

Will certainly make getting around more difficult for people who rely on said service. My mother in law uses it often to come to Vancouver, suppose she won't be able to come visit as often...

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/cana...estern-canada/

BristolUK

Oh well...nuff said then.

macadian

If the routes axed ain't paying then that's that init......unless BC govt wish to subside them like good socialists.....

BristolUK

Quite right. Medical services, education, local services...scrap the lot if a profit can't be made.

caretaker

Saskatchewan lost it's provincial bus line STC first, so now with no Greyhound the way is clear for untrained illegal operators to haul carloads of passengers in their un-inspected private vehicles across the country at big profits. It works for 3rd world countries which can't afford a national transportation system.... If I cleaned out my van and put the bench seat back I could take 6 people to Calgary and bring 6 back each day. After expenses at $150 a pop it's over $1,000 if I don't because I won't report it on my income tax. It was the creation of the trans-continental railway that made uniting Canada possible, and if the government can go into the pipeline business maybe they should consider diversifying into the bus business, in the national interest.

Oakvillian

Wait up, Bristol. The bus service was a private for-profit business. Greyhound had given the three western Provincial governments over a year's warning that their services were financially unsustainable - they've lost money every year since 2004. Most reports suggest that the bus company had "encouraged" the governments to consider supporting or subsidizing the service to keep it running, but when they declined the invitation their bluff was called.

If it were a genuine public service, I guess you'd have a point. First has managed to pull the wool over the UK government's eyes for years (private profit vs public debt, again and again ad nauseam) but the same trick hasn't worked here. The losers, of course, are the public - especially the economically disadvantaged who maybe don't have access to a car and can't afford a flight. But the blame for the cancellation of service lies more at the feet of the government, in this instance, than with the private corporation losing money every time it runs a bus.

BristolUK

Yes, and public. That was the thought behind my first comment.

I wasn't suggesting First should carry on the way things were going, I meant the subsidy issue that macadian mentioned.

Aside from the obvious human issue - parents working away (but able to return home regularly) and possibly faced with giving up their jobs or splitting up the family and the knock on (costly) effects of that and maybe employers suddenly missing workers, there's a potential loss in tourism revenues from people unable to visit the cities that Greyhound served.

Sounds worth a subsidy to me never mind the label one wants to give it.

Oakvillian

Ah. I don't disagree with any of this.

Objection withdrawn, Your Honour.

scrubbedexpat091

BC did or will be adding some service to a northern route that Greyhound cancelled in the first round but doubt they will expand that province wide.

Some communities will be left with no transportation options other then private car.

Its really going to be bad for those who cant drive and have medical appointments 100 plus km away from home.

MarkG

It certainly was a bad time for the Saskatchewan government to cancel their bus service. We've noticed a lot more hitch-hikers since that happened.

scrubbedexpat091

Greyhound pulling out of Western Canada makes me glad we never ended up moving to a more remote area as we were thinking, part of moving would have included needing to use Greyhound to get around for longer distances.

Further cements us in Vancouver because now there is currently going to be no way to get around the province between these smaller communities until/unless another company comes in and builds up a bus network.

jeremy brewer

scrubbedexpat091

I believe the lost contract was just for one transit region, appears First still operates a fair amount of BC Transit operations.

https://bctransit.com/terrace/career...tside-victoria

https://bctransit.com/seatosky/news/...=1403649067408

caretaker

Rider Express applies to take over some Greyhound routes in western Canada

scrubbedexpat091

a start at least.