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Interior Bus Riders Mad at Greyhound

Dropped run makes it harder to get to Vancouver.

Jeremy Nuttall 2 Nov 2005TheTyee.ca
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Seniors made vulnerable?

For seniors and many residents in small towns scattered across the southern interior, the Greyhound bus is a lifeline to big city services. That lifeline is fraying because the company plans to cut a key run from Rock Creek to Vancouver, say critics, who slam not only Greyhound but the Passenger Transportation Board, in charge of approving the change.

As a result, vulnerable seniors, some seeking medical attention, will be forced to roll into Vancouver's unfamiliar environs late in the evening, a fact that sparked angry comments from citizens at a recent Passenger Transportation Board meeting.

Greyhound plans to drop one of its two daily routes to Vancouver using Highway 3 going through Rock Creek, Osoyoos, Oliver, Penticton, Keremeos and Princeton. The company says ridership isn't high enough on the route to require two runs a day.

Greyhound Vice President of Business Development Brad Shepard says it is Greyhound's goal to make money. "Our goal is to not run any routes that are below break even," says Shepard. "It's not really acceptable to run a route at a loss."

Arriving late at night

The company wants to axe the early run to Vancouver, departing Rock Creek at eight in the morning, which would leave residents with one run a day.

"The one schedule carries more than the other and that's how the decision was made as to which one would be reduced," says Shepard.

What concerns many riders is that the second run doesn't get into Vancouver until 9:30 at night, or later.

"If you want to make a connection or some kind of an appointment, forget it, you're spending the night down there," says Princeton's Mayor Randy McLean, who is the local Greyhound agent in the town of 4,500. McLean is concerned for many of the seniors using the bus to make medical appointments in Vancouver. "Downtown Vancouver at ten at night is no place for a senior."

Petition ignored

McLean says numbers are down on the route because of poor scheduling. He says riders from the Kootneys are redirected north through Westbridge and Beaverdell, when they could just go straight through on the number 3 through the Southern Interior. He adds there's more than enough passengers moving through Kelowna to make that route viable, so it doesn't need any help from passengers coming from the Kootenays.

"Kelowna, Vancouver, Calgary, obviously you're going to have enough ridership," McLean said. "So why would you be switching passengers from the Kootneys, running them all the way up to Kelowna and down? When they could simply come through a populated area (Southern Interior) and serve those areas as they go through them and go to Vancouver."

Passenger services such as Greyhound are regulated by the Passenger Transportation Board. Spokesperson Michael McGee says Greyhound is obligated to provide service to the public and, in order to drop the route, has to apply to the Passenger Transportation Board.

Those opposed to the change accuse the Passenger Transportation Board of unfairly favouring Greyhound.

Another Greyhound agent, wanting his identity protected, says petitions against the change yielded hundreds of names, but their creators were told they wouldn't be considered in the decision by the P.T.B.

Meeting clampdown

Controversy also erupted in the town of Oliver when P.T.B. Chair Dennis Day demanded Oliver Chronicle reporter Wendy Johnson turn off her tape recorder 45 minutes into the discussion, when tough questions started flying about negative aspects of the changes.

Under Passenger Transportation Board rules, it can decide what devices may be brought into a hearing. However, according to Johnson, the Passenger Transportation Board's own advertisements had billed the event as a meeting, not a hearing.

"It was a public meeting," said Johnson. "It said so right in their own literature," Johnson was told by board members to turn off her tape recorder or leave. Johnson eventually turned the recorder off.

McLean complained that it was unfair that an attorney representing Greyhound was allowed to cross-examine any person standing up to point out flaws in the new plan. "I said, 'I am answering no questions from Greyhound,'" says McLean.

He says his protest was met with accusations of grandstanding for his mayoral run and because he owns the restaurant attached to the Greyhound station.

Board has yet to rule

McGee won't respond to the allegations of the Passenger Transportation Board shirking its responsibility to residents. "I can't talk about a specific meeting or event," he says. He added the applicant has a right to conduct a presentation, but made no comment on the cross-examination of those opposed.

As for the route change, according to McGee, while the board can set terms and conditions for a licensed operator, in this case he doesn't yet know if the Passenger Transportation Board will force Greyhound to keep the route or drop the other instead.

Shepard says the company can't please everyone. "It's not as convenient, but the demand warrants only one service a day," he says.

Jeremy J. Nuttall is a Penticton radio reporter and freelance writer.  [Tyee]

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