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Review of Greyhound request to end passenger service in final stage

A review of Greyhound Canada's application to withdraw passenger service in northern B.C. is getting down to the short strokes.
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A review of Greyhound Canada's application to withdraw passenger service in northern B.C. is getting down to the short strokes.

Both the public comment period and the deadline for Greyhound to submit a response have come and gone and the Passenger Transportation Board is now in the decision-making phase, the agency's director, Jan Broocke, said this week.

After reviewing the submissions, Broocke said the PTB could make a final decision but could also make a preliminary decision on parts of the application and hold public meetings in some communities.

Greyhound is hoping PTB will make a decision by the end of this year.

In part, Greyhound wants to end service along the entire Highway 16 corridor, from Prince Rupert to Valemount, and along Highway 97 to the Yukon border as well as reduce service between Prince George and Vancouver.

Greyhound has said it lost $12.9 million on its passenger operations in British Columbia during the last fiscal year. Its freight carrying service made up $8.3 million, leaving the company $4.6 million in the red.

The company cited subsidized competition from Northern Health and B.C. Transit for the decline in passenger volumes, although others differ. Notably, Fraser-Fort George Regional District chair Art Kaehn maintains a better schedule would solve the problem.

"All buses originating in Prince George and travelling north, east and west leave late in the evening, and travel through the evening," he said in a letter to the PTB.