Greyhound is cutting its service through Thunder Bay in half, at least temporarily.
The bus company, starting on Sept. 20, plans to drop the monthly number of trips between Sault Ste. Marie and Winnipeg to one a day. Currently there are two trips available.
Heading east to Sault Ste. Marie, the bus will leave at 9:15 a.m. Traveling west to the Manitoba capital, the departure will be at 10:50 a.m. each day.
“Due to a decrease in ridership that occurs after the Labour Day weekend, we're implementing a seasonal reduction of our frequency on some routes,” said senior communications specialist Lanesha Gipson in an email to the Sault Star published last week.
“We will continue to monitor our capacity and will add extra buses as needed during peak periods, including weekends and holidays, to meet travel demands.”
The company will re-evaluate the new schedule next spring, Gipson told the paper.
“We typically see an increase in ridership during the summer months, as many of our customers travel on vacation during the summer. We assess our schedules along all corridors, including the actual customer count per trip, to determine which schedules have the largest demand. We've decided to reduce frequency on those schedules that have significantly low ridership.”
The news does not sit well with the executive of the Northwestern Ontario Municipal Association.
“The reduction in services is a major concern in the Northwest because most communities will be gravely impacted,” said Iain Angus, the organization’s vice-president, adding public input should have occurred before the scheduling changes were implemented.
“The reduction forces residents living in the Northwest without a personal vehicle to rely on family, friends, or in many cases emergency medical service paramedics for transportation. Travel to larger centres is necessary for medical appointments or to area DSSAB offices to obtain social assistance.”
Angus went on to say, in a release issued on Monday, that successive governments have allowed the inter-city bus service to decay, and in some areas, be eliminated altogether.
“While we know that volume levels have been decreasing over the past few years, it’s important to recognize the vastness of the region,” he said. “Providing some form of transportation service is necessary given the distances people must travel between communities.”
NOMA has sent a letter to Minister of Transportation Steven Del Duca requesting the present level of service be maintained.
Angus also noted in the past governments have subsidized routes with low ridership to ensure access to transportation in affected communities, adding Greyhound is the primary provider of bus service throughout the Northwest.
