Greyhound Service Reductions Approved
Thursday, January 17, 2013 @ 10:55 AM
Prince George, B.C.- The Passenger Transportation Board in B.C. has approved the Greyhound service reductions applied for by the bus company.
In making it’s decision, the Board noted it is aware “that some individuals will be negatively impacted by the reductions proposed by GCTU. The Board is of the view that, on balance, it is in the broader public interest to maintain services on GCTU’s scheduled routes, even with decreased options or scheduling inconveniences, than to have GCTU abandon its B.C. operation altogether in order to stem its severe operating losses.”
Greyhound had made the application for service reduction last fall, saying it needed to reduce service to stem the fiscal bleeding. It says it lost about $14 million dollars in the fiscal year that ended March 31st of last year. It also said it was suffering a reduction in ridership largely because of the heavily subsidized Northern Health Connections service which it claimed was not policing its policy of carrying only those who were on their way to medical appointments.
Northern Health countered that claim saying all trips must be pre-booked through a call centre operated by Diversified Transportation Ltd. and subject to appointment verification and that 99.3% of trips on Northern Health Connections have been verified as medical trips by way of a form which is obtained before a trip or, for practical logistical reasons, sometimes after a trip.
None the less, Greyhound says many of those passengers would have, in the past, been taking a Greyhound bus to their medical appointments, so they have lost ridership due to the Northern Health program.
The Board had considered more than 200 submissions from Government, the public and businesses.
The bottom line had the Board agreeing the service reductions proposed would provide “an adequate level of service to the public”.
While the full list of routes impacted is posted below, the Prince George connection changes are as follows:
Prince Rupert to Prince George: Reduced to 14 per week, ( one east bound, one west bound daily) down from the existing 22.
Prince George to Fort St. James: 1 per week, down from 6
Prince George to Vancouver : reduced to 2 trips daily, down from 3.
Dawson Creek to Prince George: 14 trips per week, down from 24.
Here is the full list of routes impacted:
Greyhound must post the route reductions and can make the changes 21 days after publicly posting of the changes for route S1, 7 days for route X, and 14 days for all others.
The Board expects Greyhound to post the changes at all of the impacted stations and stops as well as on the company’s website.
Comments
Those routes that go to Alberta …. do people get dropped at the border?
Just curious.
That`s going to suck for folks that use them quite often.Myself have been lucky on the other hand to only have had to use GH 3 times in my entire life.
Like flying if I dont have to travel in a giant germ tube I`ll find another way or if I absolutely dont have to be there and can`t drive I don`t go.
So how many are on the bus from Ft. St. James each of those 6 days?
If between 6 and 10, there might be a chance for another operator to open it up with a smaller vehicle.
So I guess hitch hiking will make a resurgence?
For those that cannot afford to own a private vehicle, that is what this will result in.
So the highway of tears will be fed more fodder.
I used Greyhound once. They left my luggage sitting over night in the parking lot at the Langley depot.
Are not the First Nation people getting money from the governments? Then perhaps someone can explain why the bands are not coming together to help their people in need?
Do not each one of the bands have business development branches? Ever thought of working with IPG?
I’m wondering why there is a separate Northern Health Connections service rather than a fare subsidy for patients taking Greyhound? As far as I know, the only difference between the Northern Health Connections service and Greyhound service other than the fare is that NHC stops at hospitals. Is there enough of a difference in schedules etc. to justify a separate service?
And this is the irony Loki. Had the BC government given a free “ride as much as you want bus pass” to every single first nation person who wanted one (or every low income person for that matter) – and had those people actually used those bus passes instead of hitch hiking – there would of been three better results.
1. First nation women would not have been murdered.
2. Greyhound would have made money on the routes and not had to cut service
3. The B.C. tax payer would not have spent millions on investigating the highway of tears murders – and likely the B.C. Taxpayer would still be in the black even after paying for those free passes.
But, often those who pay out of one pocket, don’t care about the other pocket or the consequences of their actions.
City of PG is a great example. They plow roads and get the money from city taxpayer pockets – so – poor service because taxpayers don’t want to pay more money. Result – more accidents – result, ICBC pays out more money. Had ICBC paid for road clearing, ICBC would likely be money ahead due to less accidents – but, we just don’t seem to be able to make those leaps of logic in this world.
Sorry ski50, I cannot agree with your line of thought. If people were responsible for themselves and, using your two examples, didnt hitch hike or drove to road conditions, then both problems would be solved without the taxpayer being on the hook for looking after them…
“Highway of Tears”…Enough with that hogwash. It may earn website hits down south, but up here it is just a futile attempt at connecting some very distant dots over a 30 year period.
Coincidence takes a lot of planning.
Billposr says “I’m wondering why there is a separate Northern Health Connections service rather than a fare subsidy for patients taking Greyhound? As far as I know, the only difference between the Northern Health Connections service and Greyhound service other than the fare is that NHC stops at hospitals. Is there enough of a difference in schedules etc. to justify a separate service?”
The NH bus is completely different inside. It has opposing chairs so family can stay together, it has large spaces for wheelchairs, room for IV stands, it picks at the hospital and drops at The Ronald McDonald house etc etc. It also makes extra stops if a patient needs it, not just a regimented schedule. It is a fantastic service that my family has used a few times.
Interceptor – I don’t disagree with your line of thought. The problem is people won’t be responsible for themselves, put themselves at risk, bad things happen, and then they become our problems – like it or not. So, I’m just doing a cost/benefit argument that sometimes it’s just cheaper to enable them, than to try and force them to be responsible, and clean up the mess afterward.
The whole war on drugs is probably the greatest example of this. Some people will abuse drugs, so society bans drugs, then society spends billions fighting drugs – because people who abuse drugs – won’t be responsible. So what’s the greater cost – being at war with drugs, or dealing with what society would look like if all drugs were legal? Not sure of that one, but I sure wouldn’t mind trying a 5 year experiment to see what happens. Can always make it illegal again.
Less chance for the vagrants to ride on into town for a crime spree.
fair enough ski50 – I guess the “IF” people would be responsible is the hole in that plan…
Maybe if greyhound didn’t charge almost as much as flying they might have more riders.
Lol Vulgar Sage! Better not go outside, we live in a big germ sphere.
NoWay: “Lol Vulgar Sage! Better not go outside, we live in a big germ sphere.”
People rationalize their fears in many different ways.
Posted by: Eagleone on January 17 2013 2:09 PM
Less chance for the vagrants to ride on into town for a crime spree
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My exact thought too. The loser cruiser won’t be coming from FSJ as much.
Air buses and highway coaches recirculate air if there is a person traveling with any kind of infectious bug recirculated air doubles your chances of contracting it,I`ll take my chances out side.
copy paste:
Life of Cold Virus While In the Air
It is important to understand that viruses don’t actually live. They are simply DNA or RNA material encased within a protein complex (a virion). They cause damage when they come in contact with a host’s cells and are able to attach and take them over to replicate themselves using the host’s energy and materials. A more appropriate question might be how long can a virus stay airborne? This can be answered if the size of the specific viral organism is known and how much weight it has to affect the ability of the respiratory droplet containing it to stay afloat on air currents produced by the cough or sneeze. Usually, especially for cold and flu viruses, this is only a matter of seconds and for a diameter of six feet from the person who coughs or sneezes and produces the respiratory droplets, otherwise, they fall from the air to land on surfaces in that approximate 6 foot area.
They can remain active (e.g., able to infect someone) for longer on the surfaces and on objects that receive the droplets as they fall from the air. Often, for flu and cold viruses, this is around 48 hours, but does vary as noted above according to the size of the individual virions. See the related questions below for more details.
With the exception of fort st James there is still service west once every day. I don’t use greyhound so I wonder will there really be that much of an impact? I mean there is still one option every day. I can’t imagine that 12 hours will make a huge difference to most people using the bus. So they have to travel at 7am and through the day as opposed to leaving at 7pm and going through the night (examples since I do not know the schedule)
I fail to see how this will result in an upsurge of hitch hiking on 16 west. I am guessing that the reason for cutting service was because it wasn’t busy enough. I would hope that they wouldn’t cut service if they predict that once a day service would consistently be over sold.
Like I said, I don’t really know much about Greyhound, just commenting on how it appears to me. I have worked on the travel industry though and have not noticed that flight reductions caused a decrease in passenger traffic through the airport or to companies that depend on air travellers, but I do understand that the greyhound demographic is slightly different. Than air travel demographic.
Interceptor@Thanks for the info. It sounds like there is reason for a separate service.
The average passenger load on the Night bus east and west was around 10-11 people. You just dont see many hitchikers on the Highway between midnight and 7 am. Any attempt to link the now discontinued night bus service to the highway of tears hysteria is simply incorrect and misleading. If the deamnd is there as people say, why havent they been using it?
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