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LETTER - Cancellation of bus service until spring is unacceptable

Dear editor,
31540078_web1_181029-BPD-Wilsons-Transportation-bus
Vancouver Island-based Wilson’s Transportation has cancelled its Victoria-Tofino-Campbell River route until May. (Black Press files)

Dear editor,

It’s hard to believe, but we won’t have any highway bus service until sometime in the spring.

Wilson’s Transportation, which operates the intercity coach routes on the Island, claims there are too few people using the service for it to be profitable at this time of year.

The last time I used the bus to get to the ferry at Nanaimo, there were plenty of people on it.

When my family first moved to the Island in 1978, there were six buses leaving Nanaimo northbound, every day. If we check, the population of Vancouver Island is significantly greater now than it was then. Are there fewer people needing to get from A to B? Oh yes - let’s blame it on Covid. Have you noticed how it has become the go-to reason/excuse for anything and everything?

I think this is an obvious, blatant attempt to try to leverage money out of the provincial government in the form of a further operating subsidy (they already received one last year), and if Victoria falls for it, they’re stupid. This is the taxpayers’ money that this company is trying to get its hands on - and they are essentially using a form of extortion to do it.

It’s an absolute outrage that a private company can threaten to pull the plug on something like basic transportation. The operating licence should be immediately taken away from this company and then replace it with someone else.

In the meantime, this is one more good reason to bring back our train!

Terry Walker,

Buckley Bay

ALSO: Vancouver Island Connector bus service paused after ridership plummets