Loss of Greyhound service significant in province: NDP
Company cites 41% drop in riders as it cuts most routes in the West
Fourteen months after the provincial government shut down the money-losing Saskatchewan Transportation Co., the province’s other major scheduled highway bus operator is planning its own exit.
Blaming a range of factors, including plummeting ridership, Greyhound Canada on Monday announced its intention to shut down all of its routes in Saskatchewan, Alberta and Manitoba — and all but one in B.C. — at the end of October.
While Greyhound signalled last year that it had no plans to pick up the slack left when STC closed down, its loss will still be significant for the province, according to the Saskatchewan NDP’S Crown Investments Corp. critic.
“For seniors, for students, for people of low income, for people with medical issues — this is just a further erosion of public transit access, and it’s unfortunate,” Cathy Sproule said Monday afternoon in an interview.
Stop The Cuts, an activist group that emerged following the provincial government’s unpopular 2017-18 austerity budget, went further, describing the loss of scheduled highway transportation as “nightmarish.”
“How much more vulnerable will Indigenous women and girls be with literally no options for transportation other than private vehicle ownership or hitchhiking?” the group said in an unsigned statement.
Greyhound’s decision is expected to affect two routes in and out of Saskatchewan, which link Saskatoon to Edmonton and Winnipeg. It will also affect other routes running through the province, along Highway 1.
The company attributed the decision to a 41 per cent ridership decrease since 2010, competition from subsidized national and regional carriers, the growth of low-cost airlines, regulatory constraints and increased car ownership. About 415 people are expected to lose their jobs as a result.
Speaking with The Canadian Press on Monday, Greyhound Canada senior vice-president Stuart Kendrick said the decision was “regretful” and the company sympathizes with the fact that small towns will lose service.
“But, simply put, the issue that we have seen is the routes in rural parts of Canada — specifically Western Canada — are just not sustainable anymore,” Kendricks told The Canadian Press.
The Saskatchewan government has resisted calls to reverse its decision to shutter 71-year-old STC, the assets of which have since been sold and confirmed Monday it will not be revisited.
In a statement, spokesman Jim Billington said Greyhound’s rationale aligns with the decision to close STC, which experienced a 35 per cent ridership drop since 2012 and would have cost $85 million to run for another five years.
“The government is optimistic that other private sector companies will be able to begin providing transportation services or expand their current service offerings to affected communities where the demand exists along the Transcanada and Yellowhead Highways,” Billington said.
Sproule said Greyhound’s decision is likely an acknowledgment that private companies with shareholders to please can’t make a profit in Western Canada — and a signal that government should play a role. “STC wasn’t profitable in the economic sense, and so that’s what we’ve always argued: That’s only one aspect of what’s important … it’s more about what we value as a society.”
The issue that we have seen is the routes in rural parts of Canada — specifically Western Canada — are just not sustainable anymore.