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Winnipeg Free Press - PRINT EDITION

Greyhound blames woes on over-regulation

By: Mary Agnes Welch

Posted: 09/5/2009 1:00 AM | Comments: 0 (including replies)

THE battle over money-losing northern and rural bus routes is threatening to halt cross-Canada Greyhound service altogether, turning the province into a black hole for bus travel.

Greyhound says it would rather dead-end buses at the Manitoba border than continue to cope with provincial regulations that force the company to serve remote towns with few passengers. "We've exhausted all avenues in Manitoba," said Stu Kendrick, Toronto-based senior vice-president for Greyhound. "We can't seem to get right-sized." Greyhound announced Thursday it would pull out of Manitoba at the end of the month and northwestern Ontario in December if Ottawa doesn't pony up a $15-million subsidy, a move the federal government called a bully tactic.

Greyhound's exit will affect thousands of regular passengers, a dozen routes and 160 towns, from Arborg to Zhoda. Northern towns could be particularly hard hit because many First Nations citizens don't have cars and return flights to Winnipeg run well over $1,000. It's those northern routes than have caused Greyhound particular grief over the last several years.

Lynn Lake, where service has already been cut by a day, gets everything from Wal-Mart orders to prescription drugs by bus and sends out everything from water quality samples to medical X-Rays. "The town basically revolves around the bus," said Lynn Lake chief administrative officer Helen Gibson, who is worried cargo service -- which Greyhound has said will continue --could shrink when passenger service disappears.

It used to be that lucrative routes -- the ones in southern Ontario and even the Thompson to Winnipeg run -- would offset losses the company took on runs to places like Lynn Lake. But the downturn in the economy, deep discounts at Via Rail and deregulated air travel have shrunk those profit margins, Kendrick said.

Meanwhile, ridership on many Manitoba routes has declined between eight and 10 per cent a year, and as much as 20 per cent last year.

Kendrick said Manitoba's passenger bus regulator -- the Motor Transport Board -- is among the strictest in the country. Every time Greyhound wants to raise fares, reduce the frequency of a run or stop service to a town, it needs the board's approval.

If Greyhound shrinks service without permission, it faces fines or the loss of its operating licence.

In 2005, the Motor Transport Board hashed through 20 applications from Greyhound to reduce the frequency of 14 routes, cancel the route between Winnipeg and Vita and contract out some runs to smaller companies.

After months of hearings all over the province, the board granted 16 of those requests, but forced Greyhound to continue several northern routes that connect small remote towns with Thompson.

Greyhound appealed to the courts to overturn the decision, but was denied.

Since then, Greyhound says, regulators have stymied attempts to rejig routes to make service more profitable.

However, Alfred Rivers, chairman of the board, says Greyhound has asked for a half-dozen reductions to its routes in the last couple of years and several fare hikes -- and has won them all.

"Since 2007, they've not been denied once," Rivers said.

maryagnes.welch@freepress.mb.ca

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition September 5, 2009 A3

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