Greyhound Canada Transportation ULC is the prominent operator of inter-city coach services in Canada. Greyhound Canada is a subsidiary of British transport company FirstGroup, linked with Dallas-based Greyhound Lines (also known as Greyhound USA).
Video Greyhound Canada
History
In 1929, Greyhound Canada was founded as Canadian Greyhound Coaches, Limited, operating first in BC and then Alberta. It merged with Greyhound USA in 1935 and split after Greyhound Canada was sold in 1987. It was not until U.S.-based Laidlaw's purchase of the Canadian operations in 1987 and U.S. operations in 1999 did the two operations link up again. Toronto area routes and some buses were acquired from Gray Coach in 1991. In 1998, Greyhound purchased Quebec-based Voyageur Colonial Bus Lines, and, shortly afterward, bought Central Ontario's Penetang-Midland Coach Lines, thus gaining a foothold in the South-Central Ontario region. In 2007 Laidlaw was purchased by FirstGroup of the U.K.
Western Canada route cancellations
In February 2018, Greyhound Canada received permission to terminate its two remaining routes on Vancouver Island running from Victoria, British Columbia to Nanaimo and Vancouver. Tofino Bus Services subsequently took over these two Greyhound routes.
Greyhound Canada terminated service along Highway 16 between Prince George and Prince Rupert in British Columbia with the last run being on May 30, 2018. Greyhound said it was losing $35,000 per day on routes in Northern British Columbia and in parts of Vancouver Island, and had lost $70 million in the six years prior to 2018
Greyhound Canada also terminated service from Prince George, British Columbia to Whitehorse in the Yukon with the last trip from Whitehorse occurring on May 30, 2018. From 2014 to 2017, ridership along that part of the route between Dawson Creek and Fort Nelson had dropped from 18,307 to 9,647 passengers.
Greyhound Canada announced on July 9, 2018 that it was cancelling all services in Northern Ontario (i.e. west of Sudbury), and in Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and Alberta, and will no longer operate in British Columbia with the exception of one route between Vancouver and Seattle operated by Greyhound USA. The cancellations were due to declining ridership, which dropped 41% nationwide since 2010 and 8% in Western Canada alone in 2017. The cancellations will take effect on October 31, 2018. Greyhound said that the decline in ridership was due to increased car ownership, subsidies to competing passenger carriers, competition from low-cost airlines and regulatory restrictions.
Maps Greyhound Canada
Routes
Regular service
Greyhound Canada's scheduled bus service operates in eight of Canada's provinces and territories (Alberta, British Columbia, Manitoba, Northwest Territories, Ontario, Quebec, Saskatchewan, and Yukon), but will cease all operations outside Ontario and Quebec in October 2018.
Connections to US destinations are available, primarily through Greyhound USA, although there is direct service to New York City, Detroit and other cities in states bordering Canada via Greyhound Canada.
For travel into areas not served by Greyhound, passengers may need to transfer onto other bus lines which have inter-line agreements with Greyhound:
- Ontario Northland Motor Coach Services
- Hammond Transportation
- Pacific Coach Lines
- Orléans Express
- Maritime Bus
- Adirondack Trailways
- Grey Goose Bus Lines (a Greyhound subsidiary)
- Edmonton Yellow Cab (Edmonton)
- Gray Line Banff
- Frontier Coach Lines (Yellowknife, Fort Simpson and Fort Smith, NWT)
QuickLink
In Southern Ontario, Greyhound operates a commuter service known as 'QuickLink Commuter Service'. A list of cities served by this service:
- Toronto
- Barrie
- Belleville
- Cambridge
- Grimsby
- Guelph
- Kitchener
- London
- Niagara Falls
- Peterborough
- St Catharines
NeOn
NeOn, a discount service based on the same model used for BoltBus in the United States, and competing with Megabus, is a service operated by Greyhound Canada in cooperation with Trailways of New York and Greyhound Lines between the New Yorker Hotel in Manhattan and the Toronto Coach Terminal.
Stations
Fleet
Greyhound operates 480 buses, but it has an extended fleet through connecting operators:
Greyhound Canada's fleet:
Greyhound Canada also offers courier services via Greyhound Courier Express.
denotes wheelchair accessible vehicles
Historic
- MCI MC-7 suburban coach
- Twin Coach 38S transit bus
- MCI Courier 100, 100A, 100B, 100C suburban coach
- MCI Courier 200, 200A, 200B suburban coach
- MCI Courier 95, 95D, 96, 97 suburban coach
- MCI Courier 85A, 85-X suburban coach
- Western Flyer Coach P-41R "Canuck" rear engine intercity coach
- MCI MC-1 suburban coach
- MCI MCX-1 suburban coach
- MCI MC-2 suburban coach
- MCI MC-3 suburban coach
- MCI MCX-4 suburban coach
- MCI MC-4 suburban coach
- MCI MCC-5 suburban coach
- MCI MC-5A suburban coach
- MCI MC-6 suburban coach
- MCI MC-8 suburban coach
- MCI MC-5B suburban coach
- MCI MCX-5 suburban coach
- MCI MC-9 suburban coach
- MCI 96A3 suburban coach
- MCI 102DL3 suburban coach
- Yellow Coach 743 intercity suburban coach
- GMC PD-3302 rear engine parlour coach
- CC&F/Brill IC-37 intercity coach
- GMC TDH-4506 "Old Look"
- GMC TDH-4509 "Old Look"
- Motor Coach Industries 96A3
- Motor Coach Industries 102A3
- Motor Coach Industries 9
- Motor Coach Industries-9Sp
- Prevost Car Le Mirage XLII
- International 3400
- Leyland Motors Ltd double decker
- Daimler Double decker
- Dupon Trolley Industries Trolley bus
Most buses are registered in Alberta and bear the province's license plates. In Ontario, Voyageur buses and some Greyhound buses have Ontario plates.
Older buses sport the old colours of the American parent, but the current scheme is a white base with large greyhound image on the front and sides with a large light grey wording Greyhound on the sides (now the old scheme for the rest of the Greyhound operations).
Transmissions
From the 1985 model year 96A3 to the 1995 model year D4000 and D4500 (102D(L)3), as well as the first Prevost H3-45 coaches, Greyhound Canada specified manual transmissions in all their intercity coaches. At first, five speed Eaton Fuller transmissions were equipped in all 96A3 and 102A3 coaches. Beginning with the 1989 model year 102C3SS coaches, Greyhound Canada specified seven speed manual transmissions.
Allison B500 and B500Rs have been used on coaches equipped with Automatic transmissions until the D4505s which use the ZF-AStronic (automatic standard) transmission.
Unions
- Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1374 represents unionized Greyhound employees in Western Canada and Northern Ontario and is based in Calgary.
- Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1415 represents unionized Greyhound employees in Southern Ontario and Quebec and is based in Toronto.
Notable incidents and accidents
- December 23, 2000: An attempted hijacking of a Greyhound Canada bus near Thunder Bay, Ontario left one woman dead and 31 others injured.
- July 30, 2008: Tim McLean, a passenger on an Edmonton to Winnipeg schedule, was beheaded by another passenger near Portage la Prairie, Manitoba. The attacker was arrested at the scene and charged with second-degree murder, but later found to be not criminally responsible by reason of insanity. Greyhound Canada withdrew ads with the slogan There's a reason you've never heard of "bus rage" following the event, citing that the campaign was "no longer appropriate".
- September 21, 2008: A young man was attacked by another passenger on a Greyhound Canada schedule in northwestern Ontario. Police arrested a 28-year-old man near the town of White River, about 300 kilometres (190 mi) north of Sault Ste. Marie, shortly after the bus driver let him get off at the side of the highway.
- December 16, 2010: A Toronto Transit Commission 505 Dundas streetcar was heading eastbound at River Street when it crashed into a Greyhound Canada bus after running a red traffic signal. 17 passengers, including 4 schoolchildren, received serious, but non-life-threatening injuries.
See also
- Gare d'autocars de Montréal
- Gray Coach Lines
- Greyhound Air
- Penetang-Midland Coach Lines
- Voyageur Colonial Bus Lines
References
External links
- Greyhound Canada
- Greyhound USA
- Gray Line Canada
- Historical timeline
Source of article : Wikipedia
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