Saturday, October 09, 2010

Bus Service Between Nanaimo and Vancouver

Greyhound Cuts Many Buses
On Vancouver - Nanaimo Route

If you are planning on using the Greyhound bus for your trip to and from Vancouver you should be aware that they have changed their schedules drastically, and seemingly without any notice to the travelling public.

Determining when the buses actually run is also challenging because if you phone the Nanaimo bus depot the recorded message still indicates six trips from Nanaimo to Vancouver daily. However, if you check their online fares and schedules site they only show two trips daily.

According to the online schedule information there are only two buses daily from Nanaimo to Vancouver and they leave Nanaimo at 12:01 pm and 4:30 pm, leaving from Vancouver they leave at 7:30 am and 11:30 am. This means making a 'day trip' to Vancouver impossible. It would seem the powers that be at Greyhound have done their level best to make this service about as useless as it can possibly be.
To be positive when the buses run, you should not rely on the information I am providing here, as clearly the bus line itself has not updated the information given if you call the main phone number and listen to the recording. It was still showing three AM trips and three PM trips.

To be certain you should contact :

Toll Free Ticket Info 1-800-661-8747 (this is an automated service)
Nanaimo Depot Main Ph. 250-753-4371
Nanaimo Package Express 250-754-6442
Online Website use this LINK

Comment: It is possible that the bus company really wants to drop this route and by making it as inconvenient as possible they will discourage enough traffic to warrant canceling the run. This of course is pure speculation on my part and may not be the real reason for the change. It could be the real reason, is that some ivory tower, bean counter came up with a brilliant way to say money.

allvoices

2 comments:

  1. Greyhound Canada is currently obliged, under the terms of the licence they hold from the BC Passenger Transportation Board (PTB), to run a minimum of six journeys each way between Nanaimo and Vancouver.

    They recently applied to reduce the number of journeys to 2 because of the losses they are making on the route. That application is not due to be considered until after the public consultation period closes on November 2.

    Greyhound has pre-empted the decision by cutting the service straight away, citing the failure to agree new terms with BC Ferries as the reason. Will the PTB take action against Greyhound Canada? I doubt it. After all, they sat and watched as Pacific Coachlines pre-emptively withdrew their route from YVR to Nanaimo two years ago.

    Greyhound's detailed explanation of events can be found at http://www.th.gov.bc.ca/ptb/applications/2010/101006/101005_explanatory-paper.pdf

    ReplyDelete
  2. Greyhound wanted to offer service to and from Vancouver without actually sending a bus over. They offered to take people to and from the terminals. SAFETY reasons prevent them from doing that after BC Ferries forced them to use the passenger pick up and drop off areas where the coaches can not fit and if they could, they cannot wait until the ferry unloads, they must immediately vacate the area unless they give into the pressures of paying the ferry company some money.

    ReplyDelete

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