Acadian Lines shutting down

[scooby074]

I was trying to find the proper place to put this, but many rely on Acadian lines to get in and out of the Halifax area... So, here it is

Acadian Lines is Closing by November 30.

A bad day for public transportation. No Via, now no buses.

http://www.thechronicleherald.ca/nov...down-by-nov-30

[cormiermax]

It could be good for VIA.

[someone123]

Originally Posted by cormiermax

It could be good for VIA.

Even if there were a lot of demand for this sort of service I'm not sure VIA would take advantage of it.

I wonder how much of the problem here is that these are basically large Ontario/Quebec companies. Their core business is not in the Maritimes and there's not a lot of incentive for them to make things work there.

[teddifax]

It's too bad JD Irving sold it years ago, things may have been different under their local ownership!

[someone123]

I wonder if there should be some sort of public bus and possibly rail service established in the Maritimes that could be shared by all 3 provinces. There could be a main Halifax-Moncton-Saint John route and then some bus routes connecting up to that to serve nearby areas.

This is a pretty essential service in rural areas. There are the disabled, the elderly and people who can't afford a car for one reason or another. What happens when these people have to go in to the hospital for some non-emergency? Are they out of luck unless they can find somebody else to drive them? As far as provincial level government services go this wouldn't be very expensive, and it is something that is provided for in many provinces in Canada. The federal government recently invested money in a Vancouver Island passenger rail route and there are many other routes like Churchill that are probably not profitable and yet have been deemed essential and continue on regardless.

Along the major route like Moncton-Halifax I think there would be tons of demand for a good service. I have trouble believing that the route isn't viable. Are there other companies providing bus or shuttle service?

[q12]

Here's what's available for railway lines:

2004 maps:

Halifax Railway Map (Bayers Lake line is gone)

Nova Scotia Railway Map

New Brunswick Railway Map

http://www.proximityissues.ca/english/maps1.cfm

[scooby074]

Originally Posted by someone123

Along the major route like Moncton-Halifax I think there would be tons of demand for a good service. I have trouble believing that the route isn't viable. Are there other companies providing bus or shuttle service?

No other companies. Just Acadian.

Bad, bad day for those without a car.

The losses weren't "that" bad, they said they lost $12M since 2004. I know, no business run at a loss for long, but in this case it could have been much worse, frankly when I read the headline I assumed that it WAS worse than 12 million over 8 years.

But as mentioned, this is a Quebec company with no real ties here, so they have no qualms about pulling the plug.

Via due to their interest in central canada won't capitalize on this either. A shame, since even considering the fact that many railbeds have been turned into "trails", they still could reach a large percentage of the population. Plus it would give some badly needed traffic on the CBNS section from Truro to CB.

[MonctonRad]

Originally Posted by scooby074

I was trying to find the proper place to put this, but many rely on Acadian lines to get in and out of the Halifax area... So, here it is

Acadian Lines is Closing by November 30.

A bad day for public transportation. No Via, now no buses.

http://www.thechronicleherald.ca/nov...down-by-nov-30

Not to be picky, but as this is an issue that disproportionately affects rural Maritimers, perhaps the best place to post (and discuss) this is in the Atlantic Canada Regional Transportation Thread.

Halifax forumers are reminded that they are more than welcome to peruse and post in the threads in the general Atlantic Canada section.

I agree with the sentiments expressed here. I think it is time for the three provincial governments to step in and find a local Maritime operator for Acadian Lines or it's successor.

[Helladog]

May I also add that the ferry connecting Digby to Saint John is getting closer to becoming obsolete.

[resetcbu1]

Who was the new owner of Acadien Lines since Irving sold it?

I wonder if greyhound would be interested in giving it a go , although they have been makin cuts accross the board lately ..... but I'd imagine at least the Hfx-CB , Hfx - Mct - SJ -Que and route to valley would be profitable?

With all of the ecconomic boosts heading to the region seems like there must be opertunity for someone to operate a viable transit there , atleast in the near future .... and how much did mismanagement come into play of the demise of Acadien???

this company has been providing transport since the mid 30's .... what a shame

[MTLskyline]

This is surprising.

I used to take Via Rail to Moncton and then Acadian Lines to Charlottetown. The bus was always full. Although it really didn't need to stop in some of the small towns like Kensington, etc.

[scooby074]

Originally Posted by resetcbu1

Who was the new owner of Acadien Lines since Irving sold it?

I wonder if greyhound would be interested in giving it a go , although they have been makin cuts accross the board lately ..... but I'd imagine at least the Hfx-CB , Hfx - Mct - SJ -Que and route to valley would be profitable?

With all of the ecconomic boosts heading to the region seems like there must be opertunity for someone to operate a viable transit there , atleast in the near future .... and how much did mismanagement come into play of the demise of Acadien???

this company has been providing transport since the mid 30's .... what a shame

Orleans Express out of Quebec is the current owner of Acadian.

In the latest update to the story in the CH, there is some discussion that Ambassatours Gray Line might be interested in taking over some of the routes. Who knows where that will lead, but one has to imagine that the "main" runs, basically following the TCH From sydney (NFLD Ferry) to Halifax , Moncton, Fredericton etc. should be somewhat profitable?

[scooby074]

Originally Posted by MonctonRad

Atlantic Canada Regional Transportation Thread.

Ahh. Didnt see that.. I get scared when I go out of "Local Halifax" LOL.

Would a duplicate thread there be a good idea? Or perhaps an admin can move this one? I think its a great discussion and one that needs to happen for all Maritimers.

[isaidso]

Originally Posted by scooby074

Acadian Lines is Closing by November 30.

A bad day for public transportation. No Via, now no buses.

That's terrible, but there's no VIA rail? When did that happen?

[Nouvellecosse]

I never heard anything about VIA being stopped. But admittedly I never used VIA since it didn't offer the variety of departure times. The bus left toward NB 3 times/day while the train only made one trip.

That, and because the bus stopped in Dartmouth.

[isaidso]

Originally Posted by Nouvellecosse

I never heard anything about VIA being stopped. But admittedly I never used VIA since it didn't offer the variety of departure times. The bus left toward NB 3 times/day while the train only made one trip.

That, and because the bus stopped in Dartmouth.

I'm pretty sure the 'Ocean' still pulls into Halifax rail station from Montreal.

[MonctonRad]

Originally Posted by isaidso

I'm pretty sure the 'Ocean' still pulls into Halifax rail station from Montreal.

They are going to reduce the service frequency to three times per week. A final step towards cancelling the service completely.

Step 1 - reduce service frequency until the service is too irrelevant/inconvenient for passengers to use.
Step 2 - cancel the service while stating that the public no longer uses it and it is not profitable to continue.

I give VIA another 2-3 years.....

[MonctonRad]

Reposted from the Atlantic Canada Regional Transportation Thread:

In a perfect world, this would be the ideal time for the three provincial governments to join forces and develop a single coherent regional public transportation strategy for the entire region.

My preference would be for a transit strategy based on regional rail, supplemented by bus service from outside communities to railway "hubs".

These two maps show the remaining rail lines in the region:





The core of system would obviously be a rail service from Saint John to Moncton and on to Truro and Halifax. I suppose the service could be extended to Fredericton as well, but since the terminus would be in Fredericton Junction, (a considerable distance from the city), I'm not sure how well supported this would be. Perhaps one of the Fredericton forumers would be able to expound on this matter. Ideally, I would like this to be a twice daily service in order to build ridership. If you want to make a service popular, you have to make it convenient.

There might be the potential for a second passenger rail service from Sydney to Halifax via Truro. This probably would be no more than once daily, but this would give three times daily service from Truro to Halifax (four times on those days that VIA is running).

I am not sure about running another line along the eastern shore of NB from Campbellton to Moncton. For the time being, this corridor will still be served three times weekly with VIA. A thrice weekly service just doesn't cut it for passenger convenience, especially for people who just need to go down to Moncton for the day for medical appointmants etc. A daily service on this corridor would be preferrable.

There is obviousy an option for local commuter rail between Windsor NS and Halifax. This should be explored.

To supplement this, connecting bus routes should be established, for example from Charlottetown to Moncton, Fredericton to Saint John, Edmunston to Fredericton, Yarmouth to Halifax (both via the Annapolis Valley and the South Shore).

Just think about how lively our rail stations could become. There could be 5-6 passenger trains per day in Moncton, with interconnecting busses arriving at the station from Charlottetown etc. In Halifax there could be 6-7 trains per day (many more with regional commuter rail) as well as all the connecting busses.

Now is definitely the time to think about this!

[scooby074]

Originally Posted by isaidso

That's terrible, but there's no VIA rail? When did that happen?

No VIA intercity. Just the Ocean, and that's been cut way back.

Via intercity (rail liners) have been discontinued for years. 15 maybe?

[q12]

From this CBC story: http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-s...-reaction.html

"We've got runs that we're running two and three people on the road. You can't afford to keep a bus on the road when you've only go two or thee passengers."

Many of the runs that are sparsely populated are located in Northern New Brunswick, he said. Webber said he hopes government will step in.

It sounds like it would be viable if the Northern New Brunwswick routes were eliminated.

I find it hard to believe that bus service can't make money on Freddy, St.John, Moncton, Charlottetown along with the Nova Scotia routes.

There has been successful Commuter van service from the Annapolis Valley to Halifax for years. http://www.greenrider.ca/

Current Route Map: http://www.acadianbus.com/Images/int...nCarte2011.pdf


Potential New Route Map?