Town of Osoyoos council has directed senior administration to write a letter to the B.C. Passenger Transportation Board to voice their serious concerns about Greyhound Canada applying to drastically reduce service to Osoyoos and many other parts of the South Okanagan.
Only weeks after Greyhound announced they wanted to totally eliminate numerous bus routes in many parts of northern British Columbia, the company announced recently it has applied to the transportation board to reduce service to Osoyoos and eliminate service completely to Keremeos, Hedley and Princeton.
Greyhound has applied to reduce the daily service between Vancouver and Osoyoos to twice weekly in each direction.
Other routes they would like to reduce from daily to twice weekly include Vancouver to the Alberta border along Hwy. 1; Kamloops to Kelowna; Kelowna to the Alberta border along Hwy. 3; Vancouver to Prince George; Vancouver to Alberta border along Hwy. 16; Vancouver to Kelowna; and Vancouver to Pemberton direct route.
One of several routes Greyhound is looking to completely eliminate include Vancouver to Osoyoos through Agassiz, Manning Park, Eastgate, Princeton, Hedley and Keremeos.
Other routes Greyhound is looking to completely eliminate, if granted permission by the board, include Kamloops to Kelowna via Monte Lake, Westwold, Falkland and Oyama; Kelowna to Alberta border (Beaverdell), Prince George to Vancouver; Kelowna to Vancouver through Agassiz and Vancouver to Pemberton.
“This application is part of an effort to offer a viable, streamlined intercity bus service in response to a challenging transportation environment that is characterized by diminishing ridership, escalating costs and increased competition from publicly subsidized services,” said Greyhound, in a letter to the transportation board. “Despite significant efforts over the past several years to reduce costs, as well as other measures to adapt to the market, Greyhound continues to suffer important losses from its passenger operations in B.C.
“This application seeks to reduce minimum route frequencies to allow the company flexibility in adapting schedules to respond to market demand without the requirement of an application before the board. Service frequencies will not necessarily be reduced as a result. It also seeks to eliminate certain route points that have low passenger use in order to reduce travel time for the majority of users and better respond to market demand.”
All Greyhound operations across B.C. will continue to operate normally on all of the routes mentioned for possible reduction in service during the regulatory process.
“Subject to the outcome of the board’s review of our application, we do not anticipate these changes will come into effect until early 2018,” said Greyhound in its letter. “We expect no impact on passenger ticketing and package transport for the remainder of this year.”
Mayor Sue McKortoff said she’s talked to municipal leaders in Keremeos, Princeton and Hedley and they are all extremely concerned about the proposed cuts to regular Greyhound bus service.
McKortoff said she visits her two children in the Lower Mainland on a regular basis using Greyhound service and the proposed cuts are upsetting as this is the only affordable mode of safe transport for many residents in this region.
Coun. C. J. Rhodes said the simple solution is for more people to use Greyhound services or proposed cuts will become a reality.
“The solution to the problem is to ride the bus … and if not, we’re going to see more cutbacks,” he said.
KEITH LACEY
Osoyoos Times
