Greyhound Canada


Greyhound Canada Transportation ULC is the Canadian affiliate of Greyhound USA, and part of the North American operations of FirstGroup.
Operations are confined to the provinces of Quebec and Ontario, providing services in the main centres such as Toronto, Montreal, Ottawa, Kingston, Barrie, London, Hamilton, Kitchener, Windsor, and Niagara Falls.

History

In 1929, Greyhound Canada was founded as Canadian Greyhound Coaches Limited by George Fay and Speed Olson, operating first in Nelson, British Columbia and then Alberta. It was sold to Greyhound USA in 1940. In 1948 it purchased a controlling interest in bus manufacturer Motor Coach Industries, taking full ownership in 1956.
In 1992, Gray Coach was purchased from Stagecoach while control of Motor Coach Industries passed to Greyhound USA. In July 1996, Greyhound Air was established operating Boeing 727s. In September 1997 the business was purchased by Laidlaw. The Greyhound Air business was not included and shut down. Voyageur Colonial Bus Lines was purchased in 1998 followed shortly after by Penetang-Midland Coach Lines. In 2007 it was included in the purchase of Laidlaw by FirstGroup.
On May 6, 2020, Greyhound Canada announced it would temporarily shut down all its remaining bus services effective May 13. The reason was a 95 percent drop in ridership due to the COVID-19 pandemic in Canada. The shutdown would affect 400 employees. Greyhound had already reduced service on March 25 and suspended 6 routes on April 5.

Western Canada service termination

In February 2018, Greyhound Canada received permission to terminate its two remaining routes on Vancouver Island running from Victoria, British Columbia to Nanaimo and Vancouver. Tofino Bus Services subsequently took over these two Greyhound routes.
Greyhound Canada terminated service along Highway 16 between Prince George and Prince Rupert in British Columbia with the last run being on May 30, 2018. Greyhound said it was losing $35,000 per day on routes in Northern British Columbia and in parts of Vancouver Island, and had lost $70 million in the six years prior to 2018 At the time, BC Bus North stepped in to provide services between Fort Nelson, Prince Rupert, Prince George, Fort St. John and Dawson Creek.
Greyhound Canada also terminated service from Prince George, British Columbia to Whitehorse, Yukon with the last trip from Whitehorse occurring on May 30, 2018.
From 2014 to 2017, ridership along that part of the route between Dawson Creek and Fort Nelson had dropped from 18,307 to 9,647 passengers.
Greyhound Canada announced on July 9, 2018 that it was cancelling all services west of Sudbury, Ontario. The sole remaining route between Vancouver and Seattle would be operated by Greyhound USA. Greyhound Canada claimed the cancellations were due to declining ridership, which dropped 41% nationwide since 2010 and 8% in Western Canada alone in 2017. The cancellations took effect on October 31, 2018. Greyhound said that the decline in ridership was due to increased car ownership, subsidies to competing passenger carriers, competition from low-cost airlines and regulatory restrictions.

Routes

Regular service

Greyhound Canada's scheduled bus service operates only in two Canadian provinces, namely Ontario and Quebec.
Connections to US destinations are available, primarily through Greyhound USA, although there is direct service to New York City, Detroit and other cities in states bordering Canada via Greyhound Canada.
For travel into areas not served by Greyhound, passengers may need to transfer onto other bus lines which have inter-line agreements with Greyhound:
In Southern Ontario, Greyhound operates a commuter service known as 'QuickLink Commuter Service'. A list of cities served by this service:

Fleet

As at October 2018, Greyhound operated 436 vehicles, but it has an extended fleet through connecting operators:
Greyhound Canada's fleet:
Greyhound Canada also offers courier services via Greyhound Courier Express.
denotes wheelchair accessible vehicles

Historic

Most buses are registered in Alberta and bear the province's license plates. In Ontario, Voyageur buses and some Greyhound buses have Ontario plates.
Older buses sport the old colours of the American parent, but the current scheme is a white base with large greyhound image on the front and sides with a large light grey wording Greyhound on the sides.

Transmissions

From the 1985 model year 96A3 to the 1995 model year D4000 and D4500, as well as the first Prevost H3-45 coaches, Greyhound Canada specified manual transmissions in all their intercity coaches. At first, five speed Eaton Fuller transmissions were equipped in all 96A3 and 102A3 coaches. Beginning with the 1989 model year 102C3SS coaches, Greyhound Canada specified seven speed manual transmissions.
Allison B500 and B500Rs have been used on coaches equipped with Automatic transmissions until the D4505s which use the ZF-AStronic transmission.

Unions