Greyhound get a bail-out from the Manitoba taxpayer!

http://www.cbc.ca/canada/manitoba/story/2009/10/28/man-greyhound-no-stoppage.html

No figures disclosed....so it's probably like a blank cheque.

WTF!!!

I don't approve. I was hoping that the market would leap up and fill the void. Matbe there is no way to provide this service and make a dime at the same time.

And now we'll never know....at least, until the next time they play the extortion gambit for a bailout.

If they are just handing out blank cheques, the least they could do is open it up to bidding, lowest bid gets the contract for 4 years.

I'm not sure that I would paint Greyhound as the bad guy. In order to maintain their license, they have to provide service on unprofitable routes. How does that make any business sense? To me, its just another case of government interference, pandering to certain groups by extorting private business. (Either you provide service to the guys who elect me, or I kick you out of the province.)

I understood some of the fares were so high it cost less to drive a car then to buy a Greyhound ticket. Maybe that explains the untenable routes. Their strategy was to price the routes so high nobody would ride.

Let's go buy a few 10 passenger vans and start a new bus company. The sandbox bus company.

grumpy old man wrote:I understood some of the fares were so high it cost less to drive a car then to buy a Greyhound ticket. Maybe that explains the untenable routes. Their strategy was to price the routes so high nobody would ride.

Let's go buy a few 10 passenger vans and start a new bus company. The sandbox bus company.

I'm game. I'll do the Winnipeg to Brandon route, I know the way there, but may need help for the return trip.

So we buy sofas from rosens company and place them in our vans. Goth and MizP will be our stewardesses. DeanK can drive the northern route. Rosen will drive the Winnipeg - Cuba route.

Stewardesses???? Goth, what do you make of this? I kinda figured we would at least be security?

Security, OK, thats fine, but remember that the uniform for security staff in the sandbox bus company includes spike heels, mini-skirts and push up bras.

Winnipeg to Brandon is a profitable route.

How about driving to Plum Coulee everyday and only picking up two passengers per week? Would it still be profitable?

Therein is the problem.

JTF wrote:Winnipeg to Brandon is a profitable route.

How about driving to Plum Coulee everyday and only picking up two passengers per week? Would it still be profitable?

Therein is the problem.

Exactly, but I bet you that Greyhound has to operate the Plum Coulee route because the license that the province issues them says they have to. Therein lies the problem.

JTF wrote:Winnipeg to Brandon is a profitable route.

How about driving to Plum Coulee everyday and only picking up two passengers per week? Would it still be profitable?

Therein is the problem.

Would a milk run that includes Plum Coulee be profitable? How about a milk run that includes Plum Coulee every week?

Servicing Plum Coulee will never be profitable. That's the problem.

Plum Coulee is a metaphorical place in my scenario...

I guess what bugs me the most about this whole thing, is this seemed (at least to me, and several others by the sounds of it) that this was a great opportunity for "someone else" to step up and step in.

Do expand on your thought.

Not much to expand upon....

In my naive opinion, their was no reason to bail-out Greyhound. If they no longer wished to service those remote areas, or any stop in Manitoba other than the major ones....too bad, we'll give the local operators an opportunity to expand their services into those areas and see if that satisfies the need in those areas.

JT Estoban wrote:Not much to expand upon....

In my naive opinion, their was no reason to bail-out Greyhound. If they no longer wished to service those remote areas, or any stop in Manitoba other than the major ones....too bad, we'll give the local operators an opportunity to expand their services into those areas and see if that satisfies the need in those areas.

Thats easier said then done. At issue is the license issued by the province. It dictates what routes must be run. As I understand, Greyhounds license includes the good and the bad and while they agreed to it at whatever point in time, things change and they can not afford to subsidize certain routes.

Give it time I think some one else will start something .

Start what? they have to be licensed by the province.

Can someone please refresh my memory; is Manitoba the only province to have a complete cut of services to rural areas? Is BC, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Ontario, etc., having their rural routes completely shelved as well or is it just Manitoba. If it is just Manitoba, what makes the province stick out on Greyhounds list to single it out and cut 98% of service from the province?

cause its in the middle of the country and would stop all traffic from moving east west... ie we are fuccking important.

Who cares about other provinces? And, just to keep the facts straight, Greyhound was going to cease operations entirely in Manitoba.

Lets go over it one more time. Greyhound needs and has a license from the Highway Transportation Board to operate in Manitoba and that license stipulates the routes/areas they have to service, but it has come to the point where some of them are unprofitable to operate, but it was ok before, but things change. The province won't let htem out of the deal so they can only operate profitable routes, so they ask for a subsidy.

Simple solution, get the government involvement out of the way, save for safety regulations and the like and let the market decide who operates what routes. Obviously, larger more popular routes, Greyhound would probably want to continue and let small, local operators take on others.

But, we have a bunch of socialists running the province who consider themselves smarter than everyone else, and we therefore need to be told how to run our lives.

is it clear now?

We should not have to subsidize peoples' choices to live in the boonies.