One last Western Canadian ride for the longtime bus line
The afternoon Greyhound to Calgary didn’t stop in Medicine Hat on Wednesday.
After 87 years, the final run of the national busline in Western Canada would have been greeted by workers clearing out the Second Street terminal at 2 p.m., loading up lockers and desks, setting alarms and taking down signs.
A manager on site referred all questions from News reporters to a company media line.
The closure comes after the August announcement that the money-losing routes west of northern Ontario would be closed after years of declining revenue.
The decision ends service in some 400 communities, and leaves about 420 people out of work, say company officials.
Alberta Transportation noted in a release that 82 per cent of Greyhound’s routes in the province are already serviced by other private carriers that are planning to enhance their services.
Also on Wednesday, the province announced it will take part in a two-year cost sharing agreement to provide bus service in remote areas.
“Bus services have been a lifeline to work, school, vital health care, family and friends,” said Transportation Minister Brian Mason. “That’s why our government will be working with companies to ensure that service continues across the province.”
The province also announced in August its plan to help develop regional rural bus service pilot projects around mid-sized centres, including a Medicine Hat-to-Lethbridge route that could be operated by a private carrier in January.
That route, along Highway 3, was the first such Greyhound route in Hat when the company arrived in the area March of 1931.