Greyhound cuts back B.C. bus service

Some B.C. towns will soon be off the map — at least as far as Greyhound bus service is concerned — following a recent decision by the company to cut routes with low ridership.

After Aug. 30, Greyhound buses will no longer stop in the communities of Winfield and Peachland in the southern Interior. Other changes will include less frequent service between Penticton and Vancouver, Cache Creek and Vancouver, Prince George and Dawson Creek, and Prince George and the Alberta Border.

Peachland's mayor Keith Fielding says he's disappointed because he believes the company should be trying to increase ridership, not cut routes.

"We made the point that we want to expand services, not to restrict them, and the fact that ridership may be low, as I think was part of their case, means that we need to beef up publicity. We need to encourage transit use and see how it can be made more attractive, not simply to cut it out," Fielding said.

Not a public service

But a spokesperson for the Passenger Transportation Board, which regulates bus services in B.C. and approved the cuts, says that people have to remember Greyhound is not a public bus service,

The private company does not receive public subsidies, and the areas affected will still be serviced by adequate public and private transit, said the transportation board spokesperson.

Greyhound spokeswoman Abby Wambaugh also defended the cuts, saying empty buses are bad for the environment and for business. 

"Greyhound itself is inherently green. Each bus has the opportunity to take up to 55 cars off the road," Wambaugh said.

"At the same time we are a business, and on a lot of these routes there was consistently significantly less than half a bus full, and that is also not environmentally friendly because you're having a large bus that's only transporting a small amount of passengers," she said.