Bus, plane or train, north needs reliable transportation

T

he first Greyhound bus that I remember taking was from Prince George to Fort St. James when I was around nine years old. I was going to stay with my aunt for a few days and my uncle was a bus driver so I was able to go on the bus without my parents.

I sat up front without slouching and tried not to be terrified that I was leaving town without my mom. I had my little duffle bag on my lap and I was wearing a yellow dress and I was on my best behaviour.

I remember feeling like I was on an adventure even though I was just going to keep my aunt company when she was home with a new baby.

The bus had beautiful seats (for the early 90s) covered in soft fabric and everyone on the bus seemed happy to be on the road.

I remember my uncle telling me that we were doing the “milk run” and every few kilometres, he would pull the bus over and throw a stack of Citizen newspapers out the door for the paper carriers to collect in the wee hours of the morning. The ride was fun.

I rode on a few more buses during my life here in the north. Prince George to Vernon, Prince George to Kamloops, Prince George to Vancouver via Kamloops. Largely they were unmemorable rides except for the length of time they took to get to where I was going. Except for this one time…

I was 20 years old and on my way to university in Victoria. My car had died a slow and expensive death the summer before so I had no transportation and I needed to get on the Greyhound heading to Vancouver where I was going to meet up with my parents.

When we were setting up the plan, my mom told me that my brother was going to be on the bus from Prince George but he was not aware that I would be getting on the bus in Quesnel. We decided not to tell him because we thought it might be funny but we also avoided telling him because we thought he might not get on the bus if he knew I was coming.

He was around 16 and cranky and not super keen on the idea of travelling twelve hours on a bus with his sister. The look on his face was priceless when he saw me through the window (I was waving at him enthusiastically).

That bus ride was some good times.

Good, good times. Greyhound still is running some routes out of Prince George but I feel like the stoppage of the northern routes is a betrayal of the people who live in these communities and rely on the services it provides.

I am glad that BC Transit is stepping up for the communities in the meantime. I believe this is a great opportunity to bring back another mode of transportation that theoretically could reach all communities in our area: passenger trains.

If the federal, provincial and municipal governments truly believe that access to transportation in and out of our rural communities is important, surely we could work out a better railway transportation system. The trains and cars exist yet not too many people are using the existing systems because freight cars take precedence over passenger cars. We are valuing our “stuff” over people.

Maybe if we worked hard at it, we could have a passenger train system that rivals what we were able to do 100 years ago – maybe.

Surely we could set up a system wherein people could afford a train ticket and have a reasonable guarantee of getting to their destination within a few hours of the expected length of the trip. We wouldn’t even have to wear corsets or petticoats, unless we really wanted to.

So hear me out, fellow stranded passengers. We need to demand a system that works and is affordable for our communities – be it by plane, train or automobile.