Greyhound Bus Goes Off Highway 17 Near Deep River

A Greyhound bus with 40 passengers on board went off Highway 17 near Deep River, Ont., as it headed toward Ottawa early Friday morning. The driver and a passenger were taken to hospital.

The bus, which had been heading east towards Ottawa from Sudbury, crashed down an embankment about 100 metres into a wooded area.

The man driving the bus, in his 50s, suffered serious facial injuries and was taken to hospital in Deep River. A passenger in his 60s suffered minor back injuries. The other 39 people on board were checked by paramedics, who found them rattled but otherwise fine.

Passengers said they were let back into the bus to seek shelter from the rain until another bus arrived around 8 a.m. The second bus reached Ottawa around 11:30 a.m.

The highway was temporarily closed but has since reopened. OPP and Greyhound are each investigating.

"The exact cause of the incident has not yet been determined. We are fully cooperating with the local authorities on their investigation and conducting an investigation of our own," said a Greyhound spokesperson in an email.

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Court Rules Greyhound Must Update and Enforce Fatigue Management Policies

A jury in Philadelphia has found Greyhound is liable in the amount of $5.05 million to four claimants injured when a Greyhound bus collided with a tractor trailer in central Pennsylvania. Following a six week trial the jury awarded $3.05 in compensatory damages and an additional $2 million in rarely awarded punitive damages. The award of punitive damages is to punish and serve as a deterrent to Greyhound for "outrageous" conduct that was the factual cause of the crash.

Led counsel for the plaintiffs, Jon Ostroff, said in commenting on the verdict that "Greyhound must update and enforce its driver safety rules and fatigue management policies or these preventable, catastrophic, fatigue-related crashes will continue, ... The testimony of CEO David Leach made it clear that even after 102 years as the largest and oldest interstate bus carrier in the US, Greyhound places profit above the safety of its passengers."

Due to organizational changes implemented by Leach the Safety department was essentially demoted so that its' Director no longer reported directly to him while he still continued to receive direct reports from the Directors of Greyhound's finance and marketing departments. Ostroff stated that "Until Greyhound is restructured and safety is given adequate priority and oversight, particularly with respect to fatigue management of its drivers and enforcement of its safety rules, these fatigue-related highway crashes will likely continue. Greyhound’s passengers, including our clients, deserve better. A tired driver behind the wheel of a 40-ton bus filled with 49 passengers is a recipe for this type of disaster.”

Ostroff called on the government to intervene and create regulations to prevent these fatigue related crashes from continuing to happen. He also stated that "It is clear that if safety, including proper training and management of its drivers continues to be left in the hands of Greyhound without industry oversight, passengers will continue to be at risk.”

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Ontario Liberals Moving To Deregulate Intercity Buses

It has been the worst kept secret going on several years now, but there is hardly a single bus company in the province that is in favour of the existing regulatory system for Intercity buses. Some have been quietly lobbying for years for the Ontario Government to step in and open up the intercity bus market to competition. The existing regulatory regime routinely rejected applications by other service providers and was a barrier that was impossible to challenge without incurring unsustainable legal and financial costs.

In a presentation to the City of London City Council in 2012 Coach Canada and Pacific Western argued that if there was deregulation they would bring the popular Megabus discount service and the executive-styled Red Arrow brand, currently operating in Alberta, to popular routes to and from London.

At the time, the Provincial Government was opposed to de-regulation on the grounds that competition on routes had to be limited to protect the viability of services being provided to the travelling public as there may only be sufficient ridership to support one service provider. The introduction of a second service provider would therefore jeopardize the viability of both service providers.

Fast forward 4 years to 2016, and there has been a complete change of heart by the Ontario Government on the merits of intercity bus deregulation. Based on submissions it received last year the Ontario Government has recently released its' discussion paper "Intercity Bus Modernization: Creating Opportunities and Connecting Ontario Communities."

According to the discussion paper, the regulations which govern entry into the intercity bus market now pose a challenge to the health of the intercity bus sector in today's changing market. Under the existing regulatory regime Bus companies are granted public vehicle licences which never expire and never have to be renewed. The paper goes on to say "it is this licensing system that MTO is proposing to amend, in order to better ensure that all Ontarians have access to viable modes of intercity bus transportation." The role of the government in a deregulated market will be limited to "ensure that safety and insurance remain the highest priorities for the wellbeing of passengers and operators."

The Ontario Government is hosting a series of public meetings over the summer to discuss the modernization of intercity bus regulation. The date for hearings in Toronto is August 11, Kingston on August 18 and London on August 23. If you can't make it to the hearings you can make submissions online.

Greyhound/FirstGroup have not made any public statements regarding deregulation of intercity buses in Ontario, although in 2011 following the Alberta Government's decision to deregulate intercity buses Greyhound Canada vice-president, Stuart Kendrick, was complimentary of the government's decision and said "The government of Alberta deserves credit for clearing the path to success and creating new opportunities for transportation services to the travelling public,"

In 2009, Greyhound requested annual subsidies worth $15 million from provincial governments and threatened to pull out of northern Ontario and all of Manitoba. Later that year, Greyhound backed off of its threat in Manitoba after the province agreed to pay the company a subsidy to maintain service. Other provinces have refused to pay such subsidies. Greyhound has continued to make cuts, either eliminating routes entirely or by reducing services on existing routes, with the most recent round of cuts taking place in the last quarter of 2015.

In 2006, the last year of operation while under Laidlaw ownership, Greyhound had revenues of $323 million and profits of $15.9 million. In 2007 FirstGroup purchased Laidlaw for $2.8 billion. Following the purchase Greyhound's revenues for 2007 dropped to $300 million and profits declined to $7.7 million. By 2009 Greyhound Canada revenues under FirstGroup ownership had dropped to $287 million and losses had grown to a staggering $13.4 Million.

At the same time as the loses were growing the number of drivers employed by Greyhound in its eastern operations dropped from 290 in September of 2011 to 207 in June of 2016.

The New Face of Competition for Intercity Buses

Shofur, an Atlanta-based startup, is debuting the app- and online-based service to and from Austin just a few weeks afterlaunching its bus lines between Dallas and Houston. The company markets itself as an alternative to trains and planes, and it's geared toward business and leisure travelers.

Shofur, which initially launched about three years ago, joins Megabus and Vonlane in offering rides between the Texas cities in buses that are typically more comfortable and modern than Greyhound buses. Shofur buses have Wi-Fi, power outlets, reclining seats and, like and airline, you can pick your seat and upgrade if you want more space and features.

Co-founder and CEO Armir Harris said his company offers a more tech-integrated bus service that allows riders to track buses in real-time and get alerts if a bus is behind schedule.

Shofur doesn't own the buses, which cost around $600,000 each. Instead, it works with third-party coach services that often don't have enough riders and are looking to increase demand. Shofur has added new features to differentiate from other bus lines, including instant reservations and a more robust peer review system to make sure bus amenities and services go well.

"A bus is a bus, and it can only improve so much," Harris said. "But this gets at the inefficiencies in this antiquated system that's been in place for years."

When drivers sign in to the app, the app clocks the time and the actual driving time to ensure drivers get plenty of warning before they bump up against federal law that limits how many hours they drive each day. Most of the buses Shofur connects riders with are 2010 or newer. It also has an agreement with parking garages near its pickup spot at the University of Texas to offer riders a place to leave their cars.

Harris said Shofur was built on $800 of his own money. The company hasn't raised venture capital or taken out loans, he said.

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FirstGroup Says Traffic Congestion and Internet Shoppers Hurting Bottom LIne

From the Evening Standard: Shoppers ordering online rather than trawling High Streets is hitting demand for buses, transport giant FirstGroup has admitted. Its bus revenues fell 1.4% in the first quarter, due to “lower high street retail footfall” plus the impact of more traffic, First said. It is closing or merging bus depots in response.

Those problems on the buses — as well as First’s US coach business Greyhound being hit by “muted” passenger demand — sent like-for-like revenues down 5%, wiping out more takings on US yellow school bus business First Student and the now small UK rail business.

From the Scotland Herald: FirstGroup’s new chairman has warned that the Brexit vote may slow growth in its bus and rail businesses, and called on the UK government to give urgent priority to tackling urban congestion to keep city bus travel viable.

Wolfhart Hauser, chairing his first annual meeting in Aberdeen and giving the floor entirely to shareholders, told them the business had to be proactive in winning new customers “especially with the situation with Brexit where we may not grow as we would have expected in the past”. He added later: “Look what the top line is doing in UK bus and UK rail, there is no guarantee that it goes up without doing anything.”

The chairman went on: “If the trend is allowed to continue, our urban buses will no longer represent a viable mode of transport for the majority of customers, for me it is strange that tackling congestion isn’t higher up the local and national agenda...given the impact of this problem on jobs, local economies, the urban environment.”

Mr Hauser said the business had to attract “the young generation which is using smartphones and Instagram – where do we have followers saying ‘travel by bus it’s the greatest thing in the world’?.....we have to be a lot more active in these areas”.

FirstGroup Assesses Impact of Brexit Vote

According to the The International Business Times: FirstGroup said sales in the first three months of its financial year slipped, adding it was "too soon to judge" how Brexit would affect business. The transport firm said group first-quarter revenues fell 1.4% as its UK bus operations and US coach service Greyhound weighed on rises at its rail unit and other operations.

But the group said a weaker pound would boost sales. It added that two-thirds of its adjusted operating profit is made in the US, where it also runs school buses. The firm said: "The weakening of sterling since the referendum outcome would, if maintained, result in translation benefits from our US dollar-denominated businesses, albeit partly mitigated by some US dollar-denominated costs incurred in the UK divisions (principally for fuel), and some US dollar interest and tax costs."

It added that revenues at its UK bus division, which operates in cities such as Manchester, Bristol and Glasgow, fell by 1.4% because lower high street footfall and urban congestion saw passenger numbers decline.

This Is Money reports: Bus and train operator FirstGroup saw its first quarter revenues fall and said its UK business could be affected by lower consumer confidence stemming from the UK's decision to leave the EU. FirstGroup said the decline was mostly because of waning demand for long-distance coach trips in the US, with its Greyhound coach business reporting a 5 per cent fall in like-for-like passenger revenue.

The FTSE 250-listed travel operator said it was too soon to judge the overall effect of the EU referendum decision on its business, but noted that the strength of the dollar against the pound, if sustained, might boost profits, since more than two thirds of the group’s adjusted profits was generated in North America last year.

However, the group maintained its outlook for the year was unchanged as potential gains in the US could be offset by a ‘more challenging’ economic situation in the UK as a result of Brexit.

In reaction, FirstGroup shares slipped 0.9 per cent, or 0.9p lower to 101.3p in early morning trading.

The firm said it was planning to make further savings in its First Bus arm - which runs a fleet of around 6,300 buses - having already slashed costs by more than £20million in the past financial year, closing depots as part of cost-cutting efforts. Its rail arm also suffered a drop-off in demand from passengers following terrorist attacks in Paris and Brussels.