Advance Shuttle clears hurtle as company granted charter licence in New Brunswick
SUMMERSIDE— David Anderson has a foot in New Brunswick’s door, but it will likely take changes in transportation legislation to get his shuttle’s wheels firmly on the ground.
The N.B. Energy and Utilities Board recently denied Anderson’s proposal to operate his Summerside-based Advance Shuttle service in that province on a reservation basis.
Advance Shuttle did receive permission to operate a charter service, meaning Anderson can charge passengers as a group but not for individual seats as he’d initially hoped to do.
Still, some leeway to operate in New Brunswick has encouraged him to reapply for another reservation licence.
“I’m thinking of re-applying with a scheduled stop based on our (existing) Halifax route,” Anderson said.
“We would like to stop in Port Elgin, and we would like to stop in Sackville. It’s not any extra cost for us to stop, and that might get me into the province as a scheduled service.”
Anderson was prompted to apply for the licence after bus company Acadian Lines locked out its employees last December.
The lockout is still not resolved, stranding anyone traveling between P.E.I. and New Brunswick.
Anderson saw an opportunity for Advance Shuttle, but New Brunswick’s transportation legislation essentially prohibits any companies other than Acadian Lines from providing intercity service.
Anderson can currently shuttle passengers between P.E.I. and Nova Scotia, but he can’t legally stop between the Confederation Bridge and Amherst, N.S. He believes New Brunswick’s transportation department is considering changing its legislation, which came into effect in the 1930s.
If he’s granted permission to stop in Port Elgin and Sackville, N.B., while on his way to Nova Scotia, Anderson will have his foot in the door if the Acadian Lines monopoly is diminished.
“It takes time, and hopefully it starts with us,” he said. “Changes need to be made...and we’ll be on board when it changes.”
Meanwhile, a Nova Scotia taxi owner plans to operate a daily run between Halifax and Saint John, N.B.
The utility board doesn’t regulate vehicles seating six passengers or less. Anderson said he also has that option, but it’s not a viable one.
“The problem with the shuttle business is that usually it’s more pronounced one way than the other. On a Friday people are coming back to the Island, so you have 10 one way but maybe only three or four going the other,” he said.
“It still costs the same to run that van, whether it’s a minivan or a big van. Your fixed costs are still the same.”