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Intercity Bus Services

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Though it has yet to resume operations in Ontario and Quebec, Greyhound Canada announced that it will no longer be serving the Downtown Ottawa bus terminal.

Greyhound is the only intercity coach carrier to completely suspend services. TOK (formerly Can-Ar) still runs its Toronto-Haliburton and Toronto-Port Elgin buses; Northland and Megabus (Coach Canada) are operating on reduced schedules. Intercommunity routes such as Ride Norfolk, T:GO, GOST, Grey Transit Route, Quinte Access, Simcoe Linx, and Strathroy-Caradoc's London-Sarnia routes are operating as well.

Before abandoning Western Canada, Greyhound moved out of the downtowns of Winnipeg, Edmonton, Saskatoon, and Regina in favour of airport locations (YWG and YQR), a remote VIA station (Edmonton), and a truck stop (Saskatoon).

It's as if Greyhound does all it can to just die.
 
ShonTron said:
Though it has yet to resume operations in Ontario and Quebec, Greyhound Canada announced that it will no longer be serving the Downtown Ottawa bus terminal.

Greyhound is the only intercity coach carrier to completely suspend services. TOK (formerly Can-Ar) still runs its Toronto-Haliburton and Toronto-Port Elgin buses; Northland and Megabus (Coach Canada) are operating on reduced schedules. Intercommunity routes such as Ride Norfolk, T:GO, GOST, Grey Transit Route, Quinte Access, Simcoe Linx, and Strathroy-Caradoc's London-Sarnia routes are operating as well.

Before abandoning Western Canada, Greyhound moved out of the downtowns of Winnipeg, Edmonton, Saskatoon, and Regina in favour of airport locations (YWG and YQR), a remote VIA station (Edmonton), and a truck stop (Saskatoon).

It's as if Greyhound does all it can to just die.
Click to expand...

For clarity, not a like for content; but because @ShonTron is an excellent source of news on inter-city bus services in this country!
 
ShonTron said:
Though it has yet to resume operations in Ontario and Quebec, Greyhound Canada announced that it will no longer be serving the Downtown Ottawa bus terminal.

Greyhound is the only intercity coach carrier to completely suspend services. TOK (formerly Can-Ar) still runs its Toronto-Haliburton and Toronto-Port Elgin buses; Northland and Megabus (Coach Canada) are operating on reduced schedules. Intercommunity routes such as Ride Norfolk, T:GO, GOST, Grey Transit Route, Quinte Access, Simcoe Linx, and Strathroy-Caradoc's London-Sarnia routes are operating as well.

Before abandoning Western Canada, Greyhound moved out of the downtowns of Winnipeg, Edmonton, Saskatoon, and Regina in favour of airport locations (YWG and YQR), a remote VIA station (Edmonton), and a truck stop (Saskatoon).

It's as if Greyhound does all it can to just die.
Click to expand...
After taking Bla Bla Bus (formerly Ouibus) in Europe last winter and using its super easy booking site, Greyhound deserves to die. For a few reasons:
  1. You have to print a ticket and hand it to the driver. For bla bla bus i had a QR code and they double checked me name on a electronic manifest.
  2. The booking website is stuck in the year 2000 with no interactive map or attempt to use GIS Trip planning/ data
  3. The stations are terrible (not entirely Greyhound issue) I used to take the bus out of Peterborough.
 
Garuda said:
After taking Bla Bla Bus (formerly Ouibus) in Europe last winter and using its super easy booking site, Greyhound deserves to die. For a few reasons:
  1. You have to print a ticket and hand it to the driver. For bla bla bus i had a QR code and they double checked me name on a electronic manifest.
  2. The booking website is stuck in the year 2000 with no interactive map or attempt to use GIS Trip planning/ data
  3. The stations are terrible (not entirely Greyhound issue) I used to take the bus out of Peterborough.
Click to expand...
What kills me is that there is a marked difference between taking Greyhound in the United States and in Canada -- in the US there's an app and reward points system, automated ticket machines, things like that. It feels much more modern. Greyhound Canada felt stuck in the 1980s.
 
kEiThZ said:
This is actually a good thing. That terminal and location sucks.
Click to expand...

I don't disagree with the second sentence. The location, while central, is convenient only to The Queensway (417), which was the point back when it was built, with the public entrances facing the highway, and the wrong way to the city centre. In the 1960s, it wouldn't have mattered much but by the time the Transitway was built, the transit system did a better job serving the VIA station than the more central bus station. I remember a miserable walk in the night rain on my only time taking a bus to Ottawa (the Northland coach, from Pembroke) because it was otherwise a 20-something wait for a bus to get me close to my hotel, and I was too cheap to pay for a cab.
 
kEiThZ said:
This is actually a good thing. That terminal and location sucks.
Click to expand...
With the LRT up and running the train station is a great location for the bus terminal. Hopefully Ontario Northland and others will make the move.
 
Garuda said:
With the LRT up and running the train station is a great location for the bus terminal. Hopefully Ontario Northland and others will make the move.
Click to expand...

I’m sure it could be done with only minor modifications. Having bus and rail at the same location could provide enough clientele for a decent coffee shop or even a proper restaurant, never mind the potential connections between ON buses serving the Ottawa Valley and trains to Montreal and Toronto.
 
ShonTron said:
I’m sure it could be done with only minor modifications. Having bus and rail at the same location could provide enough clientele for a decent coffee shop or even a proper restaurant, never mind the potential connections between ON buses serving the Ottawa Valley and trains to Montreal and Toronto.
Click to expand...
Oh my gosh yes!!!!
However the NCC owns the station and given their incompetence running things (Anyone who has lived in Ottawa will tell you this; read this for more details NCC Watch) I doubt they would properly recruit for a decent restaurant or cafe.
The parking area to the west of the station would be a good place to set a bus layover area up.

fun fact: Air France/KLM run a free shuttle bus for passengers on their flights from Ottawa station instead of the bus station downtown to YUL. It’s very popular when I was there.
 
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