Student leader saddened by plan
Published Friday November 13th, 2009
Ryan Brideau is feeling doubly disappointed.
The vice-president external with the University of New Brunswick Student Union has made frequent use of the Acadian Coach Lines bus service to Miramichi over the years.
News the bus company wants to eliminate the route between Fredericton and his hometown came as a shock Thursday.
But the sting was even more poignant when he heard the bus company also wants to cut service between Saint John and Bangor, Maine.
"When I'm not travelling to Miramichi, I'm taking the bus to visit my brother who lives in Bangor. I almost feel like they're out to get me," he said with a smile.
But he said the news - particularly that of the cut to Miramichi - was difficult to understand.
"I'm completely shocked," Brideau said. "A lot of people take that bus."
He said travelling via Moncton isn't a solution.
"That's extremely inconvenient.''
Brideau isn't alone in panning the plan.
Harold Nicholson, president of Transport 2000 Atlantic, said he's against it.
"We would stand radically opposed to that," the Hartland resident said.
Word of a complete cut of the service running between Fredericton and Miramichi was unpalatable to him.
"That leaves all the communities along Highway 8 unserviced.''
Acadian's plan calls for more express runs between larger cities such as Halifax, Fredericton, Moncton and Saint John, while it reduces the number of kilometres travelled in New Brunswick's rural areas and moves to "better meet the needs of the urban versus rural clientele," said a document filed with the New Brunswick Energy and Utilities Board.
That doesn't sit well with Nicholson.
"In other words, we don't want to serve you unless you live in one of four big cities,'' he said.
"Basically, if they want to run the bus service in Atlantic Canada, they should be prepared to provide it adequately everywhere."
Lewis Morgan, a longtime member of Transport 2000 and former member of the board who lives in Nasonworth, said the increased travel between major centres could be a good thing if it fosters more bus travel.
"But I hate to see it come at the cost of losing other services," he said.
"They shouldn't be eliminated, especially when there is just one bus a day," he said. "I don't know what they're thinking."
Disabled
Search Articles
More CE Network Sites & Partners:
Comments (5)
All comments are subject to the site Terms of Use. For a full commenting tutorial click here.
Our editorial team relies on filtering technology and our visitor community to identify inappropriate comments. In the event that a site user has submitted offensive content that has evaded our filter, please select the option to Flag As Inappropriate presented within the comment. Thank you for helping to keep this site clean.
Some of the decisions AL makes just make no sense at all.