Cullen Concerned About Greyhound Service Cut Plan
Prince George ,B.C. – Skeena-Bulkley MP Nathan Cullen is working on the Greyhound service cut file.
Cullen says the timing of the cuts “is brutal” as it comes at a time when there are efforts to increase safety along the Highway 16 corridor “Cutting options for people is a terrible situation”.
Greyhound has announced it would like to end service from a number of routes including Prince George to Prince Rupert, Prince George to Dawson Creek, and Prince George to Valemount.
The proposal is before the Passenger Transportation Board in B.C and the City of Prince George is hoping delegates to the Union of BC Municipalities convention will support a late resolution calling for the Passenger Transportation Board to deny the proposed service cuts.
Cullen says it is insensitive for greyhound to suggest the bus service is not needed “Most companies would look at a lack of people on their service and say, is there something we can do to improve that service, rather than somehow blaming the victim. I’ve used Greyhound and the thing takes off sometimes at 3 o’clock in the morning and sometimes drops you off at 4’o’clock in the morning somewhere else. It’s obviously not ideal for a lot of people, and it even raises questions about safety. Through all of this I’ve found Greyhound more than just a little insensitive, and just looking for reasons to say no, instead of looking for reasons to make this work better for everybody.”
Comments
Can’t compete with a 5 dollar bus from PG to points west. Private enterprise doesn’t have the pockets of the taxpayers to finance their ventures. (Except outfits like Bombardier but that’s another story…)
I assure you, Greyhound was going downhill long before there was a public transit system on a similar route. I rode the Greyhound fairly recently and it was one of the most unpleasant 2 hours in recent memory.
Last year, I was going to put my eldest child on the bus to go see his grandparents, but after all of Greyhound’s fees (including a gift ticket fee!) I was only going to save $10 over the flight cost. How is that for competition?
The Okanagan and GVRD have inter-city public transportation, yet Greyhound is not eliminating routes there. I am pretty sure that the Highway 16 bus was just the excuse Greyhound was looking for to get out. Good riddance. I hope someone else starts a regional bus system that actually serves the needs of the area.
Taxpayers have already started a regional bus system for the area. People are still going to complain (like Cullen) because it’s not an on demand taxi service. The sense of entitlement runs deep in a lot of people.
That’s true. I was actually thinking about those that live to the Northeast and all the way up to Whitehorse who will lose service with no replacement.
Greyhound is a business just like any other business. If they’re not making money, they’re going to shut it down. That’s not insensitive. That’s a smart business decision.
Prince Rupert is 10 hours by bus with the stops along the way. It is a bit insensitive to think that a 20 hour round trip would only happen during sunshine hours
Sorry Mr. Cullen, this isn’t a union matter. I would shut down some of the route also if I owned greyhound. The $5.00 bus fare that is empty half the time totally cut into greyhounds income. The government should have subsidized Greyhound. They would have saved money.
I wonder how long before a government ends up subsidising the $5 fee now charged?
Typical socialist attitude. We demand the service at our price, and we don’t give a rat’s you know what if you’re losing money because it’s a service we want, and the losses are not coming out of our pockets!
I would suspect that if Greyhound is denied their request to shut down the requested routes, they will go one better and lop off the entire money losing appendage by pulling completely out of BC.
I
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I wonder if train service could replace bus service along highway 16. The trains have to run anyhow.
VIA Rail runs from Prince George to Prince Rupert, but it also runs empty or near empty besides during the summer.
They do it because they are subsidized by taxpayer money, which isn’t right either.
Poor business decisions on Greyhound’s part if you ask me. It’s a transportation company that is damn expensive to get from one point to the other and obviously have issues with competition. Those buses stop absolutely everywhere there is a depot, which is annoying for the cost and is time consuming for many people who don’t have hours to waste sitting on a bus. That’s why so many hitchhike on Hwy 16. With BC Transit and Northern Health they have few stops.
Greyhound seriously needs to get a game plan together and work on this instead of just calling it quits for major routes in the northern half of the province. Use smaller buses, cut the times the buses leave more people will fill the bus that way. Cutting times won’t be an issue for passengers but cutting the Northern routes entirely gives the public no access north of PG. Don’t be stupid Greyhound!!
I could be wrong but Greyhound has been in business for over a hundred years. I’m sure they know how to make their business work. They (as any other business) are there to make money. If there is money to be made on this route by “tweaking” it, of course they will do it. If there isn’t money to be made, they (as any other business) will pull out. There’s a reason that Westjet no longer flies direct PG to Calgary. No business should be forced to lose money for the sake of convenience.
Maybe if they lowered their freight rates comparable to where they were a few years ago, then they would get a lot more freight to offset the passenger service. Drop the trailers that are almost empty now and put the freight back on the bus.
$42.00 for a 7 lb. parcel from here to Van is out of sight.
The 5.00 transit bus only runs between towns, not all the way to Prince Rupert.
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