Trick Or Treat, that is the new slogan of Greyhound in the West actually from Sudbury Ontario to the Pacific Coast.
October 31st Halloween Night will be like the ride of the Headless Horseman. See that night where ever you are going to you have to find your own ride home.
All short run low volume transportation will end and it does have implications for every community. There are young people without transportation, low income people, elderly using the system to reach larger centers for specialized care and an economical transportation service that communities rely on.
So how much discussion have you heard on a large scale to deal with the problem? We didn’t deal with alternatives in transportation period. We just counted on Greyhound to keep providing service and they are bowing out.
There are alternatives we just have to plan for them and put them into practice. Asking a large company to continue losing money or having a company go on a fools errand to provide such a massive project is not viable. Pumping large sums of money into government subsidized service is not viable either.
What does that leave us with in the Valley right here right right now? It gives us an opportunity for multiple solutions and a cooperative effort. We in the Okanagan are good at cooperative projects.
The whole valley participated in the Sterile Insect Release Program that has provided us all with cleaner water and air.
We have worked together on the Okanagan Basin Water Board as well.
The first part of any plan is to provide a service through the Valley in terms of a public bus service. We could start with the purchase of some Greyhound Buses.
In addition we can begin to work on a valley wide integrated transportation plan to serve the communities needs over time think about it, bus service, light rail and park and ride. It has always struck me, why we can’t have passenger ferry service from West Kelowna and Kelowna and have a working transit system that actually addressed the riders needs.
Lets start with a valley wide bus service and have it branch out to say Grand Forks and Princeton once the bugs are worked out. At the same time we can explore and develop a transportation system that is economical and functional and reduces vehicle traffic because there is a better alternative.
People require mobility that is a given and in today’s society there is no alternative but to provide it. The sooner we embrace a solution the less pain there will be.
Greyhound made a decision that affects tourism, and winter transport to ski hills, seniors, low income riders and young people getting to and from the coast to unite families at special times like Christmas.
We need the Regional Districts, Civic Governments, the Province and the Federal Government to be part of the solution. Today is a good day to start.
Fred Steele
Some people have been asking me how to find my book on line. A book of poetry and poetic stories I had published in 2015. Readers can obtain it n line through Red Toque Books and looking up the title One Old Stately Pine or contacting me  fredsteele@shaw.ca