The Greyhound saga rolls on..... for now

Back in September, Greyhound Canada announced their intention to cut the number of buses they run between Vancouver and Nanaimo from six a day to just two, citing falling traffic and growing losses as the reason. To help contain costs, they agreed with the BC Passenger Transportation Board that they would run the remaining four buses as shuttles to the ferryport on either side, with passengers boarding the ferry as walk-ons.

Enter BC Ferries into the equation, and after some heated discussion, BC Ferries refused to allow Greyhound buses to park outside the terminals, forcing Greyhound to abandon the four shuttle buses and (despite being under an obligation to run them pending determination of their application) their service has only run 2 buses each way since early October.

Since then, the tables have turned - and now, Greyhound has seemingly reached agreement with BC Ferries for the use of the terminals - but the Passenger Transportation Board has determined that, under the terms of their intercity bus licence, the Greyhound bus must be taken on the ferry and make the complete journey from Vancouver to Nanaimo and back. For Greyhound, this not only means paying for the coach to travel on the ferry - but also means they have to continue paying their drivers for 2 hours or more of unproductive time on every journey.

Not surprisingly, this now makes the whole Greyhound service on the route unsustainable, and this week Greyhound have applied to the Board to withdraw the service altogether. For Greyhound, the fact that Translink and BC Transit serve the ferry terminals on either side with subsidised low-fare bus routes - and others, like the Island Link bus service on Vancouver Island, can run 'connector buses' to and from the ferry terminals with no route licence obligations at all, meant that they were at the very high end of a distinctly unlevel playing field. What choice did Greyhound have?

Well, they say if you can't beat'em, join'em. And Greyhound has now advised the Passenger Transport Board that, having apparently reached agreement with BC Ferries on parking arrangements, they intend to run 'connector buses' to and from the ferry terminals on either side "as many or as few times a day as market conditions dictate". Or, in other words, Greyhound will exploit a legal loophole that, quite legitimately, lets them run whatever service they want to - or none at all.

All of which may be good for passengers, or maybe not. Greyhound claims to have reinstated the six trips a day from November 15th, but look on their website and they still offer bookings on only two journeys each way - which doesn't instil much confidence for the future - and probably leaves their operating partners (like Tofino Bus, who run connecting services between Nanaimo and Tofino) as confused as the rest of us.

What does this sad tale convey? Well, the overriding impression is that the legislation under which inter-city bus operators are obliged to run defined levels of service (and, in return, get a degree of protection from competition) has lost most, if not all of its teeth and operators like Greyhound Canada can - and will - do whatever they want. Running inter-city buses is an expensive business, and no operator can afford to continue running near-empty buses - so is there a purpose to the licence system any more?  It's only a little over a year ago that another operator also withdrew their route from Vancouver Airport to Nanaimo - once again, without waiting for the Board's approval to do so.

It's time to accept that market conditions have changed dramatically since the Passenger Transport Act established the current legislative framework, leaving the dominant inter-city bus operators frustrated and out-of-pocket, yet preventing innovative alternatives being established to meet today's more discerning transport needs. The inter-city bus market in BC is decaying  - yet in other parts of the country new high quality, low-cost alternatives such as Megabus and Bolt Bus (ironically a re-invention by Greyhound) are flourishing. True, the markets are different - but with a little imagination and the right product, the market is there on Vancouver Island.

So come on, BC Government, take a long hard look at the rule book, and ask yourself whether the time is right to remove the regulations limiting entry to the inter-city bus market before the old dog retreats back to its kennel altogether.