Over thanksgiving I happened to travel from Kamloops to Vancouver on a Greyhound bus for the first time in years and was surprised at their current state of affairs. They have an up-to-date and well designed website including online booking, etc. but this is in stark contrast to their bus depots, which look and feel like they’ve been stuck in time since the 80’s. Everything from the plastic chairs to the arcade games feel like they haven’t changed in decades. The front office was closed for much of the afternoon, and the electronic booking system was so ineffective the receptionist had to make several calls to just see if she could continue to book the bus in question. While these issues may exist mainly in smaller centers, Kamloops is not that small of a town and is a rather central hub in BC.
I was thinking about how Greyhound is the only (major) public bus service in Canada and therefore has a virtual monopoly on many routes, giving them little incentive to upgrade their service. However, the government does require them to operate many unprofitable routes, resulting in demands for heavy subsidies (for example, greyhound says they lose $7.5 million per year just operating routes in Alberta – http://www.edmontonjournal.com/Greyhound+says+losses+could+portend+massive+Alberta+cuts/3570826/story.html).
It struck me just how much it would take to rejuvenate the company’s image. First of all, it would take a massive amount of money to overhaul the system, but also they would need a major re-positioning in terms of how they are viewed by the public. Currently, greyhound is often seen as mainly used by the lower levels of society; those less fortunate and with few options (including s a lot of poor students such as myself). Taking the Greyhound is often seen as a ‘last resort’ by many.
While travelling in Europe over the summer I rode buses in many different countries, and was surprised at the quality of the service even in some countries where you may not expect it. For example, bus lines in Slovakia and Croatia were efficient, modern, on time, and reasonably priced, few of which describe Greyhound buses in Canada. Granted, their volume is much higher and distances generally shorter, but I think much can still be learned from some of these successful bus services in terms of how they have effectively marketed their product.
