{"id":74,"date":"2018-03-27T09:00:43","date_gmt":"2018-03-27T09:00:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/poparideblog.wpengine.com\/?p=74"},"modified":"2020-04-07T17:24:19","modified_gmt":"2020-04-07T17:24:19","slug":"greyhound-british-columbia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/poparideblog.wpengine.com\/greyhound-british-columbia\/","title":{"rendered":"Greyhound is leaving British Columbia, and here\u2019s what we can do about it"},"content":{"rendered":"

March 27, 2018 – Vancouver, BC<\/p>\n

Greyhound has been approved by the BC transportation board to withdraw some of their services from Northern BC and Vancouver Island<\/a>, and reduce frequency on the Sea-to-Sky corridor<\/a> and in the Okanagan<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"Greyhound
Routes in British Columbia affected by Greyhound’s announcement<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Several mayors and municipalities have appealed to the province for financial support for their transit needs. The challenge\u2014and the very reason why Greyhound is withdrawing\u2014is how to operate a regular service on routes with low demand without losing money.<\/p>\n

In an ideal world, organized transit is provided by the government. People need to travel and having reliable, regular transportation between cities is indispensable for regional communities to thrive.<\/p>\n

In reality, running transit on corridors with insufficient demand inevitably requires subsidies, an approach which has proven to be financially unsustainable due to budget and political constraints.<\/p>\n

The source of the problem is the cost of running services on routes with low demand; a provider such as Greyhound must finance vehicles, insure and maintain them, hire drivers, provide a booking system, set up offices and pickup locations, and somehow turn a profit. This is before taking into account customer service, operational overhead and compliance.<\/p>\n

In a statement, Greyhound Canada senior vice-president Stuart Kendrick said he regrets reducing service in the province, but said it is impossible for the company to turn a profit as is.<\/p>\n

In previous interviews with CBC, he said declining ridership in northern B.C. is due to ride-sharing services and new B.C. Transit routes that are subsidized competition.<\/p>\n

CBC News Release on February 21, 2018<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Instead of adding costly transportation services that run at a loss on these routes, we could take a different approach. What if we made use of the vehicles already on the road to reduce costs and the need for more infrastructure? What if we could convince drivers with extra seats to fill them with people headed in the same direction? What if we could crowdsource transportation and make it safe, reliable and financially viable for everyone involved?<\/p>\n

These \u2018what-ifs\u2019 are becoming a reality with Poparide<\/a>. Over the last four years, we have been building an online platform for drivers to be matched with people headed in the same direction and share the costs of their journey.<\/p>\n

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The Vision Behind Poparide<\/a><\/p>\n

Why we do what we do.
\n100% authentic footage with Squamish.com True Calling Canada Modo OGO Car Share Co-op Simon Reggiani Eric Carpentier Francois Fontaine Flo Devellennes Bc Helicopters<\/p>\n

Posted by Poparide<\/a> on Tuesday, August 15, 2017<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n

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Over 80,000 people<\/strong> have joined Poparide and shared 5,000,000 km<\/strong> since we launched in BC in late 2014.<\/p>\n

\"Greyhound<\/a><\/p>\n

The Poparide iOS<\/a> and Android<\/a> app<\/small><\/div>\n
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Poparide popular routes in Canada<\/strong>
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