Intercity bus companies make plans for relaunch

Business will be anything but usual, but ‘future is bright,’ they say

Two Alberta intercity busing companies are taking contrasting approaches to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic that’s keeping many Albertans at home.

Calgary-based Pacific Western, which operates the Red Arrow and ebus brands, temporarily paused its Alberta routes in late March, while Edmonton’s Cold Shot embraced its essential-service designation and continued running some routes with a skeleton staff.

John Stepovy, Pacific Western’s director of business development, said the decision was about safety. The company had to temporarily lay off about 100 employees when it cut its service.

“At the time, it was all about doing the right thing, keeping our communities safe, keeping our staff and drivers safe,” Stepovy said. “We wanted to make sure that we were doing our part and encouraging people to stay safe at home and not travel. That’s something we decided early on.”

Cold Shot president Sunny Balwaria said his company has cut 90 per cent of its routes, only booking to half capacity and requiring passengers to undergo pre-boarding screening and wear face coverings.

But he said it was important for his company to continue operating, saying many who take the bus are front-line workers.

“Not everybody is able to afford a vehicle, especially in this pandemic, so they’re still using our transportation,” Balwaria said. “Shutting down everything and just sitting at home, pretending that we’re trying to do what we can to help people — where are these people going to go?

“We consider ourselves an essential service. We can’t just shut down everything.”

One thing the companies have in common is they’re both eagerly awaiting a return to more typical service, though they each understand business will be anything but usual. For Red Arrow and ebus, a June return to service is in the cards.

Stepovy said the pandemic has been a significant setback for Pacific Western, but that the company has used the past month to plan for safely resuming partial service.

“We still believe the future is bright,” he said. “It may take a bit of time but we’re prepared to relaunch in a phased approach. It’ll be driven by provincial health authorities and it will be driven by public demand, as well. We certainly will be taking precautions, looking at enhanced disinfection and sanitization as well as some amount of social distancing.”

Balwaria said Cold Shot is prepared to reintroduce routes as soon as demand increases. But he added finances are becoming more difficult, as the provincial government defers their request for aid to the federal government, which Balwaria said isn’t doing enough to help.

“We can’t fill the bus anymore but we still have the same price for tickets, honouring everything the same as it was before,” he said. “We’ll see how long this can last.”

Greyhound Canada announced Thursday it plans to temporarily halt all service amid declining ridership numbers during the COVID -19 pandemic. The company pulled out of Western Canada in July 2018, cutting all its Alberta routes.