Murray Wood: Who's hot... and who's not?
Every Friday, Murray Wood takes a look back at the week's news and decides who's hot... and who's not. This week's list ...
The transportation landscape in Saskatchewan will once again be changing after Greyhound announced it’s ending all routes in the province starting Oct. 31.
On that day, the busing company will also cease operations in Manitoba, Alberta and British Columbia — except for one route between Vancouver and Seattle.
Greyhound stated a decline in ridership as one of the main reasons.
Premier Scott Moe spoke to reporters Thursday, indicating this is a familiar discussion for people in the province.
“This is a sign of changing times with respect to transportation systems across, we will say Western Canada in this case, but in many cases even larger than that,” Moe said.
He noted Greyhound saw the same sort of decline in ridership STC did – around a 40 per cent decrease.
The premier added that the subsidy needed for Saskatchewan Transportation Company to have continued operating was $80 million over five years – something the government didn’t see as being viable due to less people taking the bus.
Moe said his government will not provide funding to help keep Greyhound running, and that it would be difficult to ask the federal government for a subsidy since they didn’t provide one themselves for STC.
“It’d be our hope that the private sector will have a look at these main routes.”
Moe said Greyhound didn’t provide service to northern areas of the province.
The premier will be speaking with his provincial counterparts at the Council of Federations meeting next week, about possible options to keep the route along Highway 1 open.
