Sault Ste. Marie: the bus stops here (updated)

You can see them every day at the Bay Street Tim Horton's.

The eastbound people arrive at times like 6:30 a.m. and 7:10 p.m.

The westbound folk at 11:45 a.m., 11:55 p.m. and 2:45 a.m.

They are cross-Canada Greyhound pilgrims, in whose lives Sault Ste. Marie is a mere 15-minute layover at Darryl and Patti Buck's terminal on Brock Street.

They shuffle, bleary-eyed, to the Timmy's next door.

They all have their stories, and they swap tales of the road.

It's the Labour Day weekend, and every seat was taken on the eastbound Greyhound that left the Sault last night at 7:30 p.m.

Some of the passengers had been travelling for days.

A hairdressing student from Peterborough, Ontario was returning home from Penticton, B.C., tanned and prosperous from a summer picking Okanagan Valley's famed cherries.

She was forced to squeeze with two other travellers into the motor coach's back seat, inconveniently located adjacent to the washroom.

After the bus reached Sudbury, the numbers were considerably reduced.

The blonde fruit-picker set out to find a seat further from the smelly toilet.

About two-thirds of the way to the front, she laid claim to that most prized of Greyhound possessions - two adjacent seats.

She was thus able to stretch out and catch a bit of sleep before rolling into downtown Toronto at 6:50 a.m. today.

After December 2 of this year, the trans-Canada pilgrims will no longer come here, as Greyhound Canada cherry-picks its money-making routes and dumps less-profitable runs at the roadside.

Greyhound Canada announced today that it's decided to end all operations in Manitoba and Northwestern Ontario.

Sault Ste. Marie will be the end of the line for Ontario Greyhound travellers.

The buses will come here, but no further.

That's causing great consternation in communities along the North Highway, which will lose a critical transportation link if Greyhound's decision isn't reversed.

In Wawa, Mayor Howard Whent is calling for senior levels of government to look at the Greyhound situation and other transportation issues.

Greyhound Canada wants that, too.

The company says it will continue to explore possible solutions with the federal and provincial governments over the next 30 to 90 days.

However, Transport Minister John Baird thinks the company is simply a bully tactic aimed at trying to shake down the government for subsidies.

“Greyhound is a Texas-based multinational," Baird told the Financial Post. :Their actions are heavy-handed and clearly an attempt to bully the provinces of Manitoba and Ontario. The real priority shouldn’t be lost is the people who rely on these bus services.”

"The decision to cease our operations in Northwestern Ontario and Manitoba was a very difficult one," said Stuart Kendrick, senior vice president of Greyhound Canada.

"We have repeatedly asked the federal and provincial governments to change the existing legislative and regulatory regimes that govern inter-city bus operations," Kendrick adds. "Our financial situation is dire and we are no longer in a position to absorb losses that are almost solely attributable to government policies."

In the meantime, Greyhound says it's also reviewing the viability of its bus services in Alberta, Saskatchewan, British Columbia, Yukon, and the Northwest Territories.