Sea to Sky corridor sees one Greyhound route cancelled, another reduced

The Sea to Sky corridor will be loosing some of it’s Greyhound service this summer.

The company previously made known their intention to reduce or cancel a range of services across British Columbia, but the changes had to be authorized by the B.C. Passenger Transportation Board (PTB).

On February 21st the PTB ruled in favour of Greyhound Canada’s request to eliminate and reduce service. The company has sighted a 51% drop in ridership on seven routes that will now be cancelled, and a 46% drop in ridership across B.C. “We regret having to do this and appreciate the Board’s acknowledgement of the difficult circumstances under which we’ve been operating over the past several years,” said Stuart Kendrick, Senior Vice President of Greyhound Canada.

Locally, the University Endowment Lands (UBC) to Whistler route will be axed, while the Vancouver to Pemberton route will see a reduced number of trips. The company will no longer offer a service to Mount Currie.

The PTB decisions sights few comments received from the public opposing the elimination of the UBC-Whistler route and that a number of other carriers serviced the route. Greyhound will still operate it’s regular Vancouver-Whistler route.

The changes will come into effect on June 1st, however some changes could come earlier according to a press release: ‘In instances where eliminations and route flexibility are permitted sooner, Greyhound Canada will base its decisions on passenger demand with sufficient notice to our customers for planned route changes – for example, frequencies may be increased or decreased.’ Greyhound says they are committed to communicating with customers; “We will continue to provide fair and open communications with our customers to ensure that adequate notice is given for any planned route changes” said Kendrick.

The company is also calling on the provincial government to create a ‘Connecting Communities Fund. The concept is to provide First Nations and rural remote communities access to intercity bus services that would be provided by a partnership arrangement between the province, private operators and participating municipalities. Greyhound says all British Columbians and First Nations should have access to viable and sustainable intercity bus service.