Greyhound Canada

Infobox Bus transit
name = Greyhound Canada

logo_size =


image_size = 250
image_caption = Greyhound Canada #1302 lays over at the Toronto Bus Terminal.
company_slogan = "We're On Our Way"
"Stop Less. Go More."
parent = FirstGroup plc
founded = 1929
headquarters = 877 Greyhound Way SW,
Calgary, Alberta
locale =
service_area = CAN
service_type = Intercity coach service
alliance = Greyhound Lines, USA
Adirondack Trailways
(Toronto-NYC & Montreal-NYC services)
routes =
destinations = 1,200+
stops =
hubs =
stations = 1,100+
lounge =
fleet = 480
ridership =
fuel_type =
operator =
ceo =
website = [http://www.greyhound.ca Official Website]

Greyhound Canada [ [http://www.greyhound.ca/en/company/ Greyhound Canada: Company] ] (registered as Greyhound Canada Transportation Corp.) is a prominent operator of inter-city coach services in Canada. Based in Calgary, it is a subsidiary of Britain’s FirstGroup plc, linked with Dallas-based Greyhound Lines (also known as "Greyhound USA").

History

In 1929, Greyhound Canada was founded as Canadian Greyhound Coaches, Limited, operating in Alberta. It merged with Greyhound USA in 1935 and split after Greyhound Canada was sold in 1987. It was not until Laidlaw's purchase of the Canadian operations in 1987 and U.S. operations in 1999 did the two operations link up again. Toronto area routes and some buses were acquired from Gray Coach in 1991. In 1998, Greyhound purchased Quebec-based Voyageur Colonial Bus Lines, and, shortly afterward, bought Central Ontario's Penetang-Midland Coach Lines, thus gaining a foothold in the South-Central Ontario region.

Routes

Regular service overview

Greyhound Canada's scheduled bus service operates in eight of Canada's provinces and territories (Alberta, British Columbia, Manitoba, Northwest Territories, Ontario, Quebec, Saskatchewan, and Yukon).

Connections to US destinations are available, primarily through Greyhound USA, although there is direct service to New York City, Seattle, Detroit and other cities in states bordering Canada via Greyhound Canada.

For travel into areas not served by Greyhound, passengers may need to transfer onto other bus lines which have inter-line agreements with Greyhound:

* Pacific Coach Lines
* Orléans Express
* Acadiɐn Lines
* Adirondack Trailways
* Vancouver Island Coach Lines
* Grey Goose Bus Lines (a Greyhound subsidiary)
* Saskatchewan Transportation Company
* Yellow Cab (Edmonton)
* Gray Line Banff
* Frontier Coach Lines (Yellowknife, Fort Simpson and Fort Smith, NWT)

QuickLink commuter service

In Southern Ontario, Greyhound operates a commuter service known as 'QuickLink Commuter Service' [ [http://www.greyhoundquicklink.ca/ QuickLink Commuter Service] ] . A list of cities served by this service:
* Toronto
* Barrie
* Belleville
* Cambridge
* Grimsby
* Guelph
* Kitchener
* London
* Niagara Falls
* Peterborough
* St Catharines

NeOn discount service

NeOn, a discount service based on the same model used for BoltBus in the United States, and competing with Megabus, is a service operated by Greyhound Canada in cooperation with Trailways of New York and Greyhound Lines between the New Yorker Hotel in Manhattan and the Fairmont Royal York Hotel in Toronto. [ [http://www.greyhound.com/home/en/DealsAndDiscounts/Neon.aspx Greyhound.com neon] ]

Fleet

Greyhound operates 480 buses, but it has an extended fleet through connecting operators:

Greyhound Canada's fleet:

Greyhound Canada also offers courier services via Greyhound Courier Express.

Access icon denotes wheelchair accessible vehicles

Historic

* MCI MC-7 suburban coach
* Twin Coach 38S transit bus
* MCI Courier 100, 100A, 100B, 100C suburban coach
* MCI Courier 200, 200A, 200B suburban coach
* MCI Courier 95, 95D, 96, 97 suburban coach
* MCI Courier 85A, 85-X suburban coach
* Western Flyer Coach P-41R "Canuck" rear engine intercity coach
* MCI MC-1 suburban coach
* MCI MCX-1 suburban coach
* MCI MC-2 suburban coach
* MCI MC-3 suburban coach
* MCI MCX-4 suburban coach
* MCI MC-4 suburban coach
* MCI MCC-5 suburban coach
* MCI MC-5A suburban coach
* MCI MC-6 suburban coach
* MCI MC-8 suburban coach
* MCI MC-5B suburban coach
* MCI MCX-5 suburban coach
* MCI MC-9 suburban coach
* MCI 96A3 suburban coach
* MCI 102DL3 suburban coach
* Yellow Coach 743 intercity suburban coach
* GMC PD-3302 rear engine parlour coach
* CC&F/Brill IC-37 intercity coach
* GMC TDH-4506 "Old Look"
* GMC TDH-4509 "Old Look"

Transmissions

From the 1985 model year 96A3 to the 1995 model year D4000 and D4500 (102D(L)3), as well as the first Prevost H3-45 coaches, Greyhound Canada specified manual transmissions in all their intercity coaches. At first, five speed Eaton Fuller transmissions were equipped in all 96A3 and 102A3 coaches. Beginning with the 1989 model year 102C3SS coaches, Greyhound Canada specified seven speed manual transmissions.

Allison B500 and B500Rs have been used on coaches equipped with Automatic transmissions until the D4505s which use the ZF-AStronic (automatic standard) transmission.

Unions

* Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1415 represents unionized Greyhound employees Ontario and based in Toronto

Notable incidents and accidents

*December 232000: An attempted hijacking of a Greyhound Canada bus near Thunder Bay, Ontario leaves one woman dead and 31 others injured. [http://www.cbc.ca/canada/edmonton/story/2008/08/01/bus-slaying-security.html Greyhound slaying sparks debate over bus security] ]
*July 302008: Tim McLean, a passenger on an Edmonton to Winnipeg schedule, was beheaded by another passenger near Portage la Prairie, Manitoba. The attacker was arrested at the scene and charged with second-degree murder. [ [http://www.cbc.ca/canada/story/2008/07/31/greyhound-transcanada.html 40-year-old suspect said to have boarded in Edmonton held in gruesome Manitoba bus killing] ] [ [http://www.ctvbc.ctv.ca/servlet/an/local/CTVNews/20080731/Manitoba_victim_080801/20080801/?hub=BritishColumbiaHome Friends identify bus victim; RCMP name suspect] ] [http://winnipegsun.com/News/Manitoba/2008/08/01/6328131.html] [http://winnipegsun.com/News/Manitoba/2008/08/01/6329366.html] [http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-vince-weiguang-li-080801-ht,0,2765341.story Vince Weiguang Li] Greyhound Canada withdrew ads with the slogan "There's a reason you've never heard of "bus rage" following the event, citing that the campaign was "no longer appropriate". [ [http://edmonton.ctv.ca/servlet/an/local/CTVNews/20080805/bus_killing_080805/20080805/?hub=EdmontonHome Greyhound suspect whispers 'please kill me'] ]
*September 212008: A young man was attacked by another passenger on a Greyhound Canada schedule in northwestern Ontario. Police arrested a 28-year-old man near the town of White River, about 300 kilometres north of Sault Ste. Marie, Ont., shortly after the bus driver let him get off at the side of the highway. [http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/cbc/080921/topstories/toronto_greyhound_stabbing] ]

References

See also

*Penetang-Midland Coach Lines
*Greyhound Bus Lines
*Gray Coach Lines
*Greyhound Air

External links

* [http://www.greyhound.ca/ Greyhound Canada]
* [http://www.greyhound.com/ Greyhound USA]
* [http://www.grayline.ca/ Gray Line Canada]
* [http://www.greyhound.ca/en/company/history_text.shtml Historical timeline]