Greyhound Run/Schedule Changes

[dev161]

1 hour ago, Michel said:

Not sure how long it's been but I noticed that Greyhound no longer has the Air France shuttle from Ottawa to Montreal.  Skyport has the contract now and is running a Setra S417 that has a full wrap on it.

I would say a year or so , they have 2 buses 1 wrapped for KLM and 1 Wrapped for Air France !!! the link below shows photos of the 2 buses

http://www.tourismeplus.com/html/article.php?idnouvelle=23746

[MCIBUS]

Its interesting that they Leave & arrive at the Via Train Station instead of the Central Bus Station(Greyhound) on Catherine Street/

[Flalex72]

On 2016-06-10 at 4:33 PM, MCIBUS said:

Its interesting that they Leave & arrive at the Via Train Station instead of the Central Bus Station(Greyhound) on Catherine Street/

If you're trying to make the experience more like flying, the train station is the better choice. Not only is it more accessible by transit (well, ignoring LRT construction), it is a much nicer building and offers long term parking.

[Shaun]

How long are the blue buses that Greyhound rebuilt supposed to last? Some of the earlier ones are starting to show rust forming around the body panels. Some look a bit beat up. 

[INowKnowwhY]

On 6/8/2016 at 11:05 AM, roeco said:

It's kinda odd that a TCH Express isn't available as of yet! I would think they will run it as it was quite popular the last few summers..!! Especially the Vancouver to Calgary part. And seems to be popular over Christmas too. It usually starts Victoria day weekend til labor day.

Greyhound laid-off about 26 drivers between the TCH schedule cuts last year and Victoria day weekend this year. Most were Sudbury based drivers, and very few were called back during Christmas. An additional 7 more were laid off last month along with 18 drivers from Toronto, Ottawa and Montreal. They simply don't have the man power.

[roeco]

Seems a little strange not running TCH summer schedule east of Calgary...I do see they did add it from Vancouver to Calgary this year...and their were sure no layoffs in the West cause their short drivers and even some drivers doing exta board especially Edmonton/Calgary, just because they laid off drivers that's cannibalizing their own business in the East, Kinda weird if u ask me...Why would they not want to add services that generate revenue...Cause now u can barely get a passenger on a schedule going East via TCH especially Calgary to Regina and Winnipeg east..their all full for most part and that's before long weekend. I can see Major issues as their are some places where u will get 10-15 people showing up for the TCH schedule to go east expecting to buy tickets..and no overload or second schedule. We had to turn away a group of 5 wanting to go East and I couldn't sell them a ticket past Winnipeg ...they said screw it and took VIA Rail out of Edmonton to Toronto.

[traildriver]

GLI is also not running anywhere near the summer expresses that they used to, around the USA.  New York State is a happy exception to that, as they have added the usual summer expresses from New York City to Montreal and Toronto....

[roeco]

kinda odd not wanting to make money...that's unusual..! They've ran Expresses every year even with the 2nd schedule and they were still pretty much full n TCH..If they don't have the man power hire back drivers for the summer...its not rocket science

 

 

[northwesterner]

14 minutes ago, roeco said:

kinda odd not wanting to make money...that's unusual..! They've ran Expresses every year even with the 2nd schedule and they were still pretty much full n TCH..If they don't have the man power hire back drivers for the summer...its not rocket science

 

 

We've been through this before. The "new" Greyhound is much more financially viable than the Greyhound of a decade ago because of the tight capacity management implemented by the current executive team.

 

What buses will they run those expresses with? What revenue will they generate with that capital equipment the other 9 months of the year when they aren't being used on those expresses? 

We've been down this road before, roeco. The financial implications of the operations of the old Greyhound led to a company that was barely hanging on, year after year.

[traildriver]

One solution would be to supplement with "rental" companies.....we do that on busy holiday's now....not as profitable as running it yourself, but still better than letting the business go entirely elsewhere.....

[roeco]

good to see Penticton is getting better service as of June 26they changed the schedule that left Kelowna at 11 pm or so to route via Penticton and Hwy 3...that may be a good change for sure.

[traildriver]

One disappointment is they still only run the Ottawa-Brockville- Syracuse route two days a week....Southbound on Thursday and Sunday night, Northbound on Friday and Monday morning.   They should have gone daily, at least for the summer.  At one time we pooled with them offering thru service between Ottawa and New York City.  Much faster then transferring in Montreal.....

[IRT_BMT_IND]

On 6/29/2016 at 11:30 AM, roeco said:

 

Seems a little strange not running TCH summer schedule east of Calgary...I do see they did add it from Vancouver to Calgary this year...and their were sure no layoffs in the West cause their short drivers and even some driv

 

I've always wondered about that route, it seems to run at the oddest and most inconvenient times. Would you happen to know how popular it is?

I assume the bus crosses at the Thousand Islands Bridge and uses I-81?

[traildriver]

1 hour ago, IRT_BMT_IND said:

I've always wondered about that route, it seems to run at the oddest and most inconvenient times. Would you happen to know how popular it is?

I assume the bus crosses at the Thousand Islands Bridge and uses I-81?

I assume you meant to quote my post about the Ottawa-Syracuse run.....yes, your routing is correct.

Actually, the schedule runs at the most popular time....overnite...that is, IF it was a thru bus, and not force passengers to transfer in the middle of the night....

I recall back in the sixties, when Eastern Greyhound,  Thousand Islands Bus Line, and Colonial Coach ran that route....at the time it was a thru bus from Ottawa to Washington.

It made more local stops back then, as EGL operated it to the border, over TIB's franchise from Watertown to the border, Colonial operated it from the border to Ottawa. The EGL driver had a separate trip report envelope to place the Watertown to border ticket on behalf of TIB.  No TIB driver's or buses were used....

From Syracuse, the bus ran south via Binghamton, Scranton, Harrisburg, and Baltimore....It was interesting to see Colonial 4107's  in D.C on some trips.....

 

 

[roeco]

I wonder if we're going to see any more schedule changes in the west.

[roeco]

Effective Oct.1 Cold Shot Courier is now doing the Contract GCX run for Edmonton to Cold Lake....However what's really interesting is they have gone one step further and they have bought a 12 passenger Sprinter van and pull a trailer and are now doing a Regular Scheduled Run from Edmonton Lv6:30am Mon to Sat  routing via Smoky Lake,St Paul,Elk Point,Bonnyville and Cold Lake arr 11:30am. Lv Cold Lake 1pm back into Ed at 6pm...and they are on Trips and Interlining with Greyhound. Cold Shot Courier also operates the Edmonton and area P&D they also operate the Sherwood Park agency and also do the Contract Gcx service for Drayton Valley and Barrhead/Westlock.

[Shaun]

I took a detour off the 400 and noticed that there are PMCL bus stops along highway 10 north to king city .  Did greyhound pickup this route when they bought PMCL?  GO transit seems to service the same stops but theyes have both on the same post.  

 

[Swadian]

On ‎6‎/‎13‎/‎2016 at 7:18 PM, Shaun said:

How long are the blue buses that Greyhound rebuilt supposed to last? Some of the earlier ones are starting to show rust forming around the body panels. Some look a bit beat up. 

 

Then you haven't seen how bad some of the 2009 X3-45s and 2010 D4505s down in the US have gotten. Interior lights falling off, seat covers torn to bits, and massive gashes in the lavatories along the mirror. A cargo hold door fell off #86072 and was replaced. Don't know if that was a collision, but the interior lights were warping out, too. Not that #86307, #86308, or #86352 are any better. And did I mention all the torture seats have been chewed up by a dog?

 

On ‎7‎/‎21‎/‎2016 at 8:26 AM, roeco said:

good to see Penticton is getting better service as of June 26they changed the schedule that left Kelowna at 11 pm or so to route via Penticton and Hwy 3...that may be a good change for sure.

 

Actually, not really. The Vancouver-Osoyoos was discontinued.

 

On ‎10‎/‎25‎/‎2016 at 2:38 PM, roeco said:

Effective Oct.1 Cold Shot Courier is now doing the Contract GCX run for Edmonton to Cold Lake....However what's really interesting is they have gone one step further and they have bought a 12 passenger Sprinter van and pull a trailer and are now doing a Regular Scheduled Run from Edmonton Lv6:30am Mon to Sat  routing via Smoky Lake,St Paul,Elk Point,Bonnyville and Cold Lake arr 11:30am. Lv Cold Lake 1pm back into Ed at 6pm...and they are on Trips and Interlining with Greyhound. Cold Shot Courier also operates the Edmonton and area P&D they also operate the Sherwood Park agency and also do the Contract Gcx service for Drayton Valley and Barrhead/Westlock.

 

So, Greyhound is not running Edmonton-Cold Lake anymore?

[roeco]

On ‎12‎/‎28‎/‎2016 at 10:05 PM, Swadian said:

 

Then you haven't seen how bad some of the 2009 X3-45s and 2010 D4505s down in the US have gotten. Interior lights falling off, seat covers torn to bits, and massive gashes in the lavatories along the mirror. A cargo hold door fell off #86072 and was replaced. Don't know if that was a collision, but the interior lights were warping out, too. Not that #86307, #86308, or #86352 are any better. And did I mention all the torture seats have been chewed up by a dog?

 

 

Actually, not really. The Vancouver-Osoyoos was discontinued.

The actual schedule was discontinued However they've re arranged it so u can still go Vancouver to Osoyoos basically the same as u did before technically. Just not the same bus all the way u transfer in Penticton or Kelowna now.

 

So, Greyhound is not running Edmonton-Cold Lake anymore?

Greyhound discontinued passenger service in Oct.2011. They did continue doing GCX.

 

Effective Jan.9  Cold Shot Courier from Edmonton is Now also doing a Edmonton-Leduc-Wetaskiwin-Camrose passenger and Gcx service  one trip a day Monday to Friday.the same way they are doing the one for Cold Lake.. This should be a good move for the City of Camrose as it hasn't had a passenger service since 2011.

[Swadian]

Actually, you are mistaken. The Vancouver-Osoyoos used to operate via Princeton on Highway 3. Now that it has been discontinued, Greyhound Canada no longer operates any daytime schedule on that section of Highway 3. A passenger traveling from Vancouver to Penticton or Osoyoos has to take the Vancouver-Kelowna-Cranbrook-Calgary schedule via the Okanagan Connector Highway 97C and transfer at West Kelowna.

If the Vancouver-Osoyoos was still operating, passengers would not have to transfer at West Kelowna.

In other words, the Hope-Princeton-Penticton route used to have 2x daily, now only 1x daily. Schedule 5155 was simply modified to mirror Schedule 5006. It is a net loss.

[roeco]

On ‎1‎/‎7‎/‎2017 at 1:09 PM, Swadian said:

Actually, you are mistaken. The Vancouver-Osoyoos used to operate via Princeton on Highway 3. Now that it has been discontinued, Greyhound Canada no longer operates any daytime schedule on that section of Highway 3. A passenger traveling from Vancouver to Penticton or Osoyoos has to take the Vancouver-Kelowna-Cranbrook-Calgary schedule via the Okanagan Connector Highway 97C and transfer at West Kelowna.

If the Vancouver-Osoyoos was still operating, passengers would not have to transfer at West Kelowna.

In other words, the Hope-Princeton-Penticton route used to have 2x daily, now only 1x daily. Schedule 5155 was simply modified to mirror Schedule 5006. It is a net loss.

5006  Lv Vancouver 0030 Arr Pent 555am. Mon to Thurs transfer to schedule 5111 ,Lv 745 am Penticton arr Osoyoos 845am. Fri to Sun   you are correct about taking 630am from Vancouver and transferring at West Kelowna. On the Return Lv Osoyoos 945 Am, Fri-Sun. via Penticton transfer to schedule 5029 from kootenays at west Kelowna at 410pm. Mon to Thurs Lv Osoyoos 215pm via Penticton transfer West Kelowna at 1220 pm to 5031.

 

[Swadian]

7 hours ago, roeco said:

5006  Lv Vancouver 0030 Arr Pent 555am. Mon to Thurs transfer to schedule 5111 ,Lv 745 am Penticton arr Osoyoos 845am. Fri to Sun   you are correct about taking 630am from Vancouver and transferring at West Kelowna. On the Return Lv Osoyoos 945 Am, Fri-Sun. via Penticton transfer to schedule 5029 from kootenays at west Kelowna at 410pm. Mon to Thurs Lv Osoyoos 215pm via Penticton transfer West Kelowna at 1220 pm to 5031.

 

5029 doesn't come from the Kootenays, it's a Kelowna-Vancouver schedule. The Kootenays westbound schedule is 5161.

http://extranet.greyhound.com/revsup/csked2/pageset.html

[roeco]

On ‎1‎/‎9‎/‎2017 at 9:41 PM, Swadian said:

5029 doesn't come from the Kootenays, it's a Kelowna-Vancouver schedule. The Kootenays westbound schedule is 5161.

http://extranet.greyhound.com/revsup/csked2/pageset.html

5161 operates Calgary to Kelowna via Lethbridge and Cranbrook to Kelowna, passengers to Vancouver transfer to 5029  at Kelowna which leaves 330pm to Vancouver...that's the schedule passengers transfer to at West Kelowna..! I mistakenly mentioned 5029 schedule was from Kootenays...its connecting schedule from!

On ‎12‎/‎28‎/‎2016 at 10:05 PM, Swadian said:

 

Then you haven't seen how bad some of the 2009 X3-45s and 2010 D4505s down in the US have gotten. Interior lights falling off, seat covers torn to bits, and massive gashes in the lavatories along the mirror. A cargo hold door fell off #86072 and was replaced. Don't know if that was a collision, but the interior lights were warping out, too. Not that #86307, #86308, or #86352 are any better. And did I mention all the torture seats have been chewed up by a dog?

 

 

Actually, not really. The Vancouver-Osoyoos was discontinued.

 

 

So, Greyhound is not running Edmonton-Cold Lake anymore?

Greyhound hasn't ran Edmonton to Cold Lake itself since Oct.24.2011...initially they did have a truck but they lost a ton of freight business on that corridor when they discontinued bus service,freight service has been contracted out since about mid 2012. Initially Northern Express interlined with Greyhound to operate the service(they still run it independent of Greyhound) But Now Edmonton to Cold Lake has 3 bus lines...Northern Express(lv 945am),Red Arrow(Lv 5 pm) and now Cold Shot(interlining with Greyhound)Lv 630am. both NEX and red arrow don't operate tues and sat..cold shot doesn't operate Sundays.

[Swadian]

Yes, I know, I just took that route to Penticton! I would have gone on 5022 but it was discontinued!

Do any of those operators on the Edmonton-Cold Lake actually use a motorcoach or is it all-shuttle?

Does anyone still run High Level-Hay River connecting to Frontier to Yellowknife?

[roeco]

On ‎1‎/‎11‎/‎2017 at 5:07 PM, Swadian said:

Yes, I know, I just took that route to Penticton! I would have gone on 5022 but it was discontinued!

Do any of those operators on the Edmonton-Cold Lake actually use a motorcoach or is it all-shuttle?

Does anyone still run High Level-Hay River connecting to Frontier to Yellowknife?

Edmonton to Cold Lake along with Edmonton-Wetaskiwin Camrose is operated by Cold Shot Courier the operators of the Edmonton P&D and is being run with a sprinter van pulling trailer.  Just a Note too Northern Express and Red Arrow also operate Edmonton to Cold Lake corridor.

Only GCX is operated Edmonton-Peace River and contracted out to the High Level agent between Peace and High Level. Buffalo Courier(division of Buffalo Air) operates High Level to Hay River Gcx only.  Grande Prairie agent operates Peace RIver to Gp Gcx. And a company Not affiliated with Greyhound called Northern Express operates passenger service High Level to Edmonton via Peace River and Peace River to Grande Prairie. THey operate Independent of Greyhound leaving from the Continental Inn on Kingsway in Edmonton.