No More Greyhound Buses

Greyhound Canada have just announced that as October of this year, all of their Western routes will be terminated. There will be no Greyhound buses running in the four western provinces. It is hard to blame a corporation for cancelling a product line when it is no longer profitable, but the consequences of Greyhound's decision is far reaching and, it could be argued, affect the well being of Canadians. While I generally dislike the government bailing out for-profit corporations, I think an argument could be made that someone needs to do something.

I am not a fan of Greyhound buses. It is true that on a couple of occasions finding a seat (at least twice in the middle of night) on the Greyhound has, if not actually saved my life, made it substantially easier. But the buses are cramped, sometimes dirty, frequently smelly and no one I know has ever said they were fun. Going across Canada on a Greyhound bus may be the worst possible way to travel. But they are cheaper than any other form of travel and go through towns that larger systems (e.g. Via rail or airplanes do not). For a number of Canadians it is the only way that they can afford to travel and to get to where they need to be.

Take for example a gentleman I met in Golden at the Husky restaurant late one evening in June. He lived in Cranbrook - (the southern end of BC) and needed to get to Salmon Arms (about 500 km away) for his father's funeral. He had no car. Greyhound was the only way for him to get there. Not the best way or the cheapest way - the only way. This time next year, that man would not be able to go home for his father's funeral. Young people travelling out west to pick cherries or to do tree planting, young moms going from one city to another to visit family or people travelling to find a better job will no longer be able to do so. Yes there are airplanes or trains and if one books months in advance they are fairly economical - but for many people, booking four months in advance is not an option. And even if booking ahead was possible - Greyhound is still cheaper.

I am not sure how people will travel from Calgary to Edmonton, or Revelstoke to Calgary or Portage to Brandon if they don't have a car. There are thousands of Canadians who at least on occasion need to use an intercity buses to get to where they are going. Ideally smaller bus lines will fill the vacuum for the shorter routes but on the trans-country or near trans-country routes I am not sure if anyone will.

While I am sure it is not intentional, Greyhound's decision affects only poor people, people who cannot afford a car, people who if there was any choice would not ride the bus. People with access to money drive or fly or if they have lots of time, take the train. By limiting access to jobs, visiting family or any of the other reasons why people travel on buses, we are ensuring that our society remains divided between those who have and those who do not.

The Canadian government has ignored the steadily worsening state of our Canadian passenger train system and now they will (and perhaps can) do nothing to help maintain a bus system. But the cynic in me wonders if someone wants the poor folks to not communicate/socialize with others like themselves. It is so much easier to both divide and conquer and ignore those folks when they can't share their stories.