Greyhound stopping western Canada service from Manitoba to BC

markz

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Canada and the USA
........ Except Seattle to Vancouver

It is a shame because many people count on the bus service in small towns. It is affordable and frequent, but with the Carbon Tax and rising costs and fewer ridership which is down 40-55% what are these small town people going to do. I hope other bus services like Red Arrow and EBUS pick up the major routes like Calgary to Vancouver. Red Arrow already does Medicine Hat, Lethbridge, Fort Macleod, all the way to Fort Mac. Brewesters does Calgary to Banff/Lake Louise and Jasper.
A one way ticket is $70 for 125km, $120 for return trip.

Looks like I will be flying now to BC.
Everyone just has to plan ahead, book in advance and its still reasonable. I looked at Calgary to Van and it was $150 1-way + $130 return. But baggage is extra, food is extra. Flairair, New Leaf, Swoop, West Jet.
Many small towns dont even have discounted airline access. I hope our government steps in and saves the bus routes.

https://calgary.ctvnews.ca/greyhound-canada-cancels-all-of-its-routes-in-western-canada-plans-to-cut-415-jobs-1.4006215
Citing dwindling ridership, Greyhound Canada has announced its plans to cancel all of its freight and passenger service in western Canada effective October 31, 2018.

from Sudbury, Ontario west which includes all of Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta and British Columbia, except for the Vancouver to Seattle piece of business which the U.S. area operates,” said Stuart Kendrick, senior vice-president with Greyhound Canada

According to Kendrick, the company has experienced a 40 per cent decline in ridership since 2010, a reduction Greyhound Canada attributes to increased competition by subsidized carriers and the continued migration of Canadians from small towns to larger urban centres.
 
B.C. searching for replacement after Greyhound announces exit
www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/b-c-searching-for-replacement-after-greyhound-announces-exit-1.4741635


Premier calls Greyhound service cuts 'disturbing' news for rural Albertans
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/notley-greyhound-cuts-1.4741374
Her government is also calling on Ottawa to look into a national solution for rural transportation across provinces.
 
The implications of these service cuts go much deeper than that. I don't think most people in the cities of Canada realize just how isolated the rural areas of the country are. I laughed when you said most small towns don't have access to discount airlines. Those flights go from city to city, Medicine Hat is about the smallest place you'll find any of them flying. I'd say 60-70k people is the minimum size of a population centre that could possibly support even occasional low cost flights.

The fact of the matter is that for hundreds of thousands of people scattered over tracts of land too vast for most city dwellers to even comprehend, Greyhound is the only transportation option available to them aside from operating a private vehicle.

This is going to mean some of those people will not be able to stay where they are because they won't be able to access services they require. It will mean that poorer kids whose families can't afford to drive all over the province at $1.60/Litre won't be able to go visit their relatives that live out of town. And so on, and so on.

There are flights, mainly by Air Canada, to smaller centres like Castlegar, Cranbrook, Terrace. These are more "hub" places, not large enough in themselves to support airline flights but enough people living in their periphery and willing to travel there for a flight to a city. And flights from those hubs to Vancouver, Calgary, etc are EXPENSIVE. Like $400 one way from Castlegar to Calgary or Vancouver, a flight that lasts under an hour. The Greyhound was/is less than 1/3 of that cost, runs twice a day, and isn't at the mercy of the weather.

It doesn't take much to sock in an airport situated in a narrow valley with 6000+ foot tall mounds of rock all around it, and when these flights get diverted to an alternate airport, that could be many hours of treacherous highway travel from your intended destination. Ironically, often on a Greyhound. This is particularly the case in snow season, which runs from about mid September to mid May on the high mountain passes. I've been whited out in early August in Manning Park.

I've met many people that don't feel comfortable driving themselves over those passes in winter, they take the Greyhound because it's much safer to have a professional driver take you in a professionally maintained vehicle. And those people aren't worrying about nothing, despite decades of safety improvements to both our highways and the vehicles that travel on them, they continue to kill and injure a staggering number of people every year.

All of this is aside from the obvious environmental impacts of replacing a bus with 50 people on it with a few dozen (probably poorly driven) cars.
 
It's funny you should bring that up. Last time I almost took a Greyhound I was stranded in Princeton, about 270km east of Vancouver. I was there on a job and our work van broke down. I needed to get back to the city as I had personal matters to attend to, and my workmate was able to stay and deal with getting the van back. The Greyhound service there in winter (It was January and about -30C there) had been neutered down to one bus a day that departed at 1AM and got me back here(ish) just before 5AM.

That was not ideal in any way, so I equipped my fancy -30C socks, got my thermos filled with hot coffee, and walked to the western end of town. Stuck my thumb out not expecting much but figured I'd give it a shot until I got too bored or frostbite kicked my ass. When the weather is like that most of the traffic is semi trucks, and they don't generally pick people up.

Third car that went by was 2 guys from Vancouver on their way back from skiing in Penticton, pulled over and made room for me and my backpack, and off we went. I tried to give them gas money, but the most they would take is $20, even after I told them it wasn't my money it was on the companies dime.

They drove me right to my house, we exchanged numbers and now I have 2 more very interesting friends.

I used to do a lot of hitchhiking (and Greyhounding) when I was younger. It's not the most reliable method to travel but I have to say it can be the most rewarding, memorable and enjoyable.
 
Everyone in rural areas are screwed! If the budget airlines dont fly to any city less then 80k population that puts a lot of people screwed.

Semi Trucks do not pick up hitch hikers anymore.
Most citizens are scared to pick hitchhikers up if there is no vehicle nearby with its hood up.
Good luck if your just thumbing it. You could be waiting days.
Maybe now there will be hitch hikers with signs stating destination and cash to pay.

It could be a move for Greyhound to get funding from the Federal/Provincial governments. A bail out, like our government did Bombardier, CBC, GM/Chrysler, Banks, Pipeline.

Reduced schedules, higher fare prices. Keep people employed that support the operations. Wonder what Turd-OH will do now.
Apologize no doubt.
 
billvon said:
The fingers said:
Maybe there will be a resurgence in hitch hiking. :x
Or greater popularity of ridesharing apps like rdvouz.

https://www.rdvouz.com/
Maybe there is one for Canada.
Quick Google comes up with a couple options
https://www.shareyourride.net/carpool/Canada/AB/Calgary/
ride offer: Calgary to Nanaimo
https://www.carpoolworld.com/carpool.html?to=CALGARY&wc=CAN,CA&ws=AB&lat=51.0725038&lon=-114.1133979
https://www.poparide.com/travel/calgary-ab/vancouver-bc?origin-place=ChIJ1T-EnwNwcVMROrZStrE7bSY&destination-locality=Vancouver&departing=&origin-country=CA&origin-latitude=51.0486151&destination-address=Vancouver,%20BC,%20Canada&destination-latitude=49.2827291&destination-country=CA&origin-longitude=-114.0708459&origin-aal1=AB&origin-address=Calgary,%20AB,%20Canada&destination-place=ChIJs0-pQ_FzhlQRi_OBm-qWkbs&destination-longitude=-123.1207375&origin-locality=Calgary&destination-aal1=BC
Calgary to Vancouver
Leaving
Sunday, July 15 at 11:00am


Or classified ads on sharing rides for long distance travel. Ads like
Ride from kelowna(nearby) to Vancouver 2 or 3 July
Ride Share Vancouver B.C. To Barrie, Ontario
 
The communities themselves will come up with solutions to some extent. The people that live in these places are generally pretty resourceful, and "have eachothers backs" more so than people in more populated areas. They're also more likely to pick up hitchhikers, and take them as far as they can, but that's usually just to "town".

Town will be the place where Greyhound picks them up to continue their journey. I think there are 3 or 4 Greyhound routes in BC, traveling the major highway corridors, connecting most of these "towns". But even now, that leaves hundreds of smaller communities on secondary routes that have to travel sometimes hours just to get to a Greyhound route!

Most of them have some kind of loosely organized ride share/minibus system that provide that link, so that people without cars can get to town for any number of reasons.

Sometimes it's a scheduled, private service by a member of the community.

Sometimes it's just common knowledge "Joe goes to town every morning at 8, comes homes every afternoon at 5, be on the road in front of Joes' place at 8, he'll give you a ride".

Sometimes you just hitchhike, and since everyone there knows it's the only option, and probably know the person hitchhiking in some capacity, they pick the person up out of a sense of community.

I've lived in a few places like that before, getting to and from town was never a problem, even when it was over 50 miles away.

Re: the ridesharing apps, Calgary to Vancouver or Kelowna is easy. Hundreds or thousands of people make those trips every day, that's major centre to major centre. Also both routes are covered by discount airlines.
 
Red Arrow I believe goes from Medicine Hat Alberta (or it could be Lethbridge) all the way to Fort Mac.
E-Bus is a discount bus doing the same route.
On-It is another bus service that operates during busy season, from Calgary to Banff and Lake Louise
Brewsters Bus is a company that does more tourist routes.
There is a ski bus, Sunshine Coach, goes from a few spots in Calgary to Sunshine Ski Village parking lot.
There is most likely a Lake Louise ski bus as well.

The cost from Calgary to Edmonton on Red Arrow is $85 one-way (about 380km'ish) . Reservation of seats is available for free. There is more space between the chairs. Perhaps I could sleep on that bus, I was never able to sleep on the Greyhound bus with the two dozen trips I've done to Vancouver.

I remember when Greyhound was operating, a bus ride from Calgary to Vancouver (1200km and 18hrs on the bus) would be $88 one way. Cheaper if you booked well in advance.

They should have atleast kept the Trans-Canada route going, even with government bail out money but TURD-OH let it slide.
 
When I was 13* (65 now), I flew to Winnipeg expecting to catch a connecting flight to Lethbridge, but the customs cops delayed me because of my age. I was, however, legitimately traveling, and my uncle & aunt were expecting me in Lethbridge. Everything was supposed to be covered with entering the country etc. I explained to Canada Border Services Agency that if they delayed me, I would miss my flight. They questioned me. When I told them my uncle taught at the college in Lethbridge, one cop told his gang that I was lying. He said there was no school in Lethbridge. So I waited.
Eventually, they were able to reach my uncle and aunt, but by that time, my flight had flown, and the next one was a week off. I had to stay in the airport for the night and catch the bus in the afternoon of the next day.
Everybody in Winnipeg was very nice to me (except Border Services), and because of that, I always thought fondly of the place. I would move there still if I could.
Oh, I tell this story because I had to take the bus at issue. It was an uneventful trip, but I liked it.

*Back then kids had more freedom than they do today.
 
Whenever my wife and I go back to Canada to visit, we take the train from Vancouver west. One Christmas we stopped in Edmonton and took the Red Arrow to Calgary, the other time we continued on to Winnipeg. Next time we will probably go all the way to Ottawa.

The train is much more expensive, but commensurately nicer than a bus. I presume Via Rail still run the Canadien?
 
E-Bus goes from Vancouver BC to Salmon Arm BC 100km drive east of Kamloops BC is possible on E-Bus. No services to get to there from points east.

Via Rail does stop in Kamloops BC but only from Edmonton AB. So a possible trip might include:
E-Bus from Calgary to Edmonton is $42 taking 4 to 6hrs. Express is only 3hrs20minutes on Red Arrow @ ~$75-$80 free candy and water, wifi and 120Vac.
Via Rail Edmonton to Kamloops takes 19hrs and costs 141cdn
E-Bus Kamloops to Vancouver is $110cdn one way.
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Westjet from Calgary to Vancouver, damn I see its like $115, I have literally never seen it that low. I have seen near the $200 mark.
The closer it gets to Xmas the more it will jump back.
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The train is Via Rail and goes from Vancouver downtown all the way out east taking several days.

 
I may do a trip again on Via Rail, bringing my ebike shouldnt be an issue. I know Justin had an issue when he went on his ebike ride across Canada and wanted to return back to Vancouver, but he had a ton of gear.

I see an "Escape" Fare is $325 to go across country, and you only get a seat. A sleeper would run ya $750 pp. It'd take 2 days and 16 hours, which is actually pretty good, way better then driving.
 
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