Greyhound Has Left The Building

Not all that long ago Greyhound Bus Lines owned the Western Canadian market when it came to intercity ground transportation for us humans. Their buses went nearly everywhere and business seemed to be doing fine. If there was a town of any reasonable size, it was probably served. Passenger volumes were good with some routes running close to or at capacity. With no trains in this part of the world, it was the only game in town for those outside all but the biggest population centres.

Adding to their bottom line, these buses also carried express packages, either underfloor or where there was larger volumes in an oversized U-Haul looking trailer pulled behind. It was all a pretty rosy picture and outside Saskatchewan*(1) the firm had a literal monopoly. City to city you might have the option to fly, but anywhere else, it was either the bus or put thumb’s at the ready.

Then something happened and not all long ago either. Volumes dropped off in the last decade or so, and sometimes alarmingly. Services were cut back and some destinations eliminated. Yet it failed to stop the bleeding. While some routes, Calgary-Edmonton for example which seemed to often run full (peak service saw a bus leaving every couple hours), the rest were hemorrhaging money and saw fewer and fewer passengers with each run. It was viscous circle…less service, less passengers, rinse and repeat till there was nothing left*(2). And now a lot of communities have no public transportation. What’s a person to do? There ain’t no Westjet Dreamliner service to Lloyd!

What killed Greyhound? Cheap airlines tickets?*(3) Sure, for major centres. Greyhound was not always the budget option one might think. But what about for the small town? More people driving or ride sharing seems the most probable answer here. Or maybe with these places ever shrinking, the pool of potential passengers did so similarly. Who knows? One things for certain, the market changed, and fast, and they didn’t see it coming.

Comes an announcement in 2018 that Greyhound would quit the west altogether, save for one route south from Vancouver BC, down to the US. On October 31st came the last runs and with that the end to decades of service. As went the trains before, so goes the the bus. The usurper itself meets the same fate. Wonder how long before the airlines find their position challenged? Those much hyped hyperloops? Something Star Trek-ish? Then it’s watch out you smug devils at Air Canada.

Team BIGDoer had plans to document the last day at Calgary’s Greyhound Depot. We didn’t even get push back from Greyhound itself when we asked (and we always try and go in “officially”) which tells us by that point they were long past the point of caring. But they didn’t say yes either…it was more a “whatever” type thing. But a last minute paying gig had us elsewhere. Sad, but we have to keep the lights on.

We did hear from others who dropped by the depot and they spoke of a sad event. Not a big party send off, or wild celebrations in memory of what was and will be no more. No, it was an empty hall with a few lonely passengers milling about, a mostly disinterested and absent media, plus a single painfully bored customer service agent with nothing to do. That’s it. To cite something often said, it ended not with bang but a whimper. The last bus left and unceremoniously it was all over. Lock up the buildings boys…we’re done. Greyhound still serves the big markets in Ontario/Quebec and of course the US, but here it’s already a distant memory.

We did pay the building a visit soon after. To show our respects I suppose and to reminisce about our own Greyhound experiences. You author was no stranger to riding the bus back in the 1980s-1990s. Knew that depot well. Given the sombre mood, we shot it raw and gritty, B&W with lots of contrast. Seems fitting since even the nicest bus station (an oxymoron?) will exude an edgy vibe best captured in that honest style. No point polishing a turd.

All is still. The building sits on a street that post-Greyhound now sees little traffic at night. With no one about, it’s like some post apocalyptic movie…as we’re apt to say. Where there used to be rows of taxis, there’s nothing. The doors are locked up, the cavernous main waiting area silent. Nothing’s coming. Nothing’s going. The huge roll up doors where the buses came and went are sealed up tight. The huge cafe, a place for a quick coffee or a meal stop, and which was never empty, seems so eerie devoid of any signs of life.

In the back, a game’s room with pins and vids, a place to waste away some time while waiting to board. Then there was row after row of seating, some with those coin operated TVs giving an hour’s worth for maybe a loonie.

The interior is dated and little changed from when built in the mid-1980s. That’s when brown was IN! Before moving here, Greyhound’s depot was in downtown Calgary, the seedy side of it (back then) and not only could one get a ticket to ride, but other perks. Need something a little mind altering? Or perhaps an hour or two of companionship? You could have that too! The Regis is just over there. The old depot site is now a green space atop an underground parkade.

The firm also operated Greyhound Courier Express out of the building (upstairs). They did a good package business once, but I suspect better service and perhaps undercutting from Purolator, FedEx, UPS and others did them in. The death of each seemed to mirror the other and played out concurrent. I guess they were too attached at the hip to survive separated. It’s a crowded market and the little guys are no doubt targets for a collective beat-down from the big players. On some routes I suspect express made the difference between profit and loss.

The Greyhound Building, if we’ve done our homework proper, seems to owned by the city and has been for a while. Perhaps Greyhound rid themselves of it at some point knowing the writing was on the wall? We reached out to city hall to ask what might become of it, but no one seemed to know. That’s political speak for a “holding pattern”. It’s a rather unique structure that can’t really be adapted to many other uses. Unless a new bus firm moves in…but that seems unlikely. A few operators have cherry-picked some of the better Greyhound routes, but it’s a mixed bag and service seems hit or miss at best. None have use for a building such as this.

Then it comes to us…the 2010s have been a game changer for a lot of formerly successful businesses. Greyhound’s just a recent casualty.

We wander about freely. It’s a ghost town. Over there a whole rack of shiny new Mercedes and in contrast under the parkade ramp up to the second level, mere metres away, a home for the homeless. Talk about extremes – S Class here and shopping cart and refrigerator box there. Fresh snow and it’s only our footprints most of the time. Sounds of Bow Trail (bisecting the property), a passing LRT train, and another belonging to CP Rail over there. Standing there, motionless, we wait for a bus that’ll never come.

Since our visit all Greyhound signs have been removed from the property. Much as the King, they have left the building.

*(1)Connie rode the bus from Oyen Alberta to Calgary, account of something pressing business at home, during the production of Forgotten Prairie in 2017. It was gloried mini-van with but a handful of riders on board the entire way.

*(2)Saskatchewan had its own provincially funded bus service serving remote and outlying areas (with Greyhound on the trunk routes only). This all ended a couple years before the ‘Hound called it quits.

*(3) Greyhound experimented with a low cost airline briefly in the 1990s. That it came and went quickly suggests it was an unmitigated flop. No one can take on Westjet and win.

They’re saying…

”I enjoy your photographs and stories very much and appreciate the time and effort that goes into what you do…” Marsha Cochrane.

Places closed…
Super S Drugs – Once a Calgary Institution.
Mount Saint Francis – A BC Hospital empty & boarded up.
Rocky Mountain Raceway Park – The last race run.
Blackfoot Farmer’s Market – They just up & left!

If you wish more information on what you’ve seen here, by all means contact us!

Date of Adventure: Oct-Dec, 2018.
Location: Calgary, AB.
Article references and thanks: Greyhound Canada, City of Calgary Land Records.

Days after Greyhound called it quits.

Once busy with hungry customers…

They did a good package business.

Brand new at the dealer across the street.

It’s 7pm and dead still.

Games room = maybe a pinball.

A door to never open.

Stacks of Mercedes.

Our prints tells us we’re the first.

People just stopped taking the bus.

Purolator, Fedex, UPS et al stole away the parcel biz.

Waiting for a bus that’ll never come.

And soon Greyhound will be but a memory.