After scaling back minimum service levels in the Sea to Sky Corridor earlier this year, Greyhound Canada is now looking to reduce the number of stops along the Vancouver-Squamish-Whistler route in an effort to establish two-hour express service between Vancouver and Whistler.
In an application to the Passenger Transportation Board of B.C. (PTB) posted last Wednesday (June 26), Greyhound has requested that regular pick-up and drop-off points at Dentville, Garibaldi Highlands and Brackendale be eliminated in favour of a single, undetermined pick-up and drop-off point in Squamish.
The Greyhound depot on Government Road in Garibaldi Estates, which is often referred to as the Garibaldi Highlands depot, will still be open and buses will still be stopping there if the changes are approved, Justin Baynton, Greyhound Sea to Sky operations manager, wrote in an email to The Chief.
A number of stops within Whistler would also be eliminated in favour of a single pick-up and drop-off point, presumably in Whistler Village.
(Greyhound's) goal is to provide two-hour Greyhound Express service between Vancouver and Whistler. In order to accomplish this, it is necessary to eliminate route points. One method for doing so is to have only one required route point within the principal intermediate municipalities en route, City of West Vancouver, District of Squamish and Resort Municipality of Whistler, reads Greyhound's explanatory paper accompanying the application.
The paper stresses that minimum route frequency to Vancouver, Whistler and Squamish currently four per day will remain unchanged. In January, the PTB approved a request from the company to reduce the number of daily buses from Vancouver to Squamish from seven to four and from Vancouver to Whistler from eight to four.
A PDF of the application summary can be viewed by visiting www.whistlerquestion.com/assets/pdf/GW75532627.PDF. The application is open for public comment until July 10.
With files from Eric MacKenzie, Whistler Question
