Bus companies and travelers adjust one year after Greyhound’s demise in BC

NELSON (NEWS1130) – It’s been a year of learning and adjusting for the BC bus companies picking up the slack after Greyhound left most of its BC routes.

In June of last year, Ebus, which operates between Vancouver, Kelowna and Kamloops, applied to add five stops to one of its routes, and to expand its service to Prince George.

The Passenger Transportation Board approved the new stops but denied the company approval to expand.

Meantime, Rider Express Transportation, which operates between Vancouver and Alberta, eliminated some stops between Kamloops and Vancouver last summer.

The companies appear to be thriving, but travelers are having to get used to using a patch-work of buses to get to different parts of the province.

Craig Hubner is an assistant manager of Silver City Stagelines out of the Kootenays, and he says he sympathizes with people who need to use more than one bus company to get to their destination.

“It’s just linking our services up, so it’s hard to go from one corridor to another,” he notes. His company, for example, only services the route between Nelson and Kelowna.

He says bus companies are often willing to coordinate their routes with each other, but their pick up and drop off points are not centralized in most cities, except for Vancouver, which has Pacific Central Station.

“In other centres like Kamloops and Kelowna, there’s no single depot for all the buses, so every company is on its own to find a location. Ebus, which has 45-foot coaches, is finding it hard to pair up with other companies.”

Meanwhile, business is good for Silver City. Hubner says the company has managed to exceed its profit predictions.

Hubner, who drives the buses as well, says they are filling an important niche.

“A lady on the bus said ‘You guys are a blessing. I don’t know what I would do without you.’ So many people need monthly visits to their medical specialists. There’s no way they can drive.”

He says a quarter of their passengers are people travelling to their appointments, but he says they’d like to take more advantage of the tourism market.

Greyhound ended all of its BC routes, except for the one between Vancouver and Seattle, in October of 2018.