Greyhound’s departure from Western Canada will be a blow to small communities.  “I’m not surprised that Greyhound is cutting services to smaller communities, because they’ve been doing this for years,” said Oliver mayor Ron Hovanes. “But the fact that they are pulling out completely, it’s going to be devastating for smaller rural communities.”
Osoyoos mayor Sue McKortoff said she’s having a bit of a feeling of deja-vu, as Greyhound just went through the regulatory process with the BC Passenger Transportation Board to stop running buses down Highway 3 to communities like Princeton and Keremeos. “We wrote letters, we were upset, and just recently that route was cancelled,” she said. “Because we feel that in small towns, Greyhound or a bus service in and out of town is really important.”
Penticton mayor Andrew Jakubeit said it’s hard to gauge how big of an impact the change will have on Penticton as a hub city. He called the move “unfortunate.” He suggested the province could encourage a private company to move into the area by deregulating the industry. Greyhound has cited a 41 per cent decline in ridership since 2010 in their decision to end service, but Jakubeit thinks there is still demand. “In the meantime, I hope that other local, private operators will see an opportunity to bring a badly needed service to the parts of the province most affected by Greyhound’s decision.”
Source: Files from Castanet