A Maritime motorcoach business is operating in low gear these days, but the owner says he won’t let the ongoing pandemic put a stop to the business.
Mike Cassidy, who owns and operates Maritime Bus Coach Atlantic, said Prevost, the company that manufactures his motorcoach buses, has come up with a way to transport passengers in a safe way.
Prevost is in the process of installing Plexiglas on each of the seats to protect passengers from the transmission of droplets from the front and back and from the sides.
These motorcoach buses normally operate with 56 seats. The first two seats directly behind the driver are being removed to provide the required six feet of distance between the driver and the nearest passenger.
With the Plexiglas in place, the buses will be permitted to operate with between 27 and 54 passengers. The two motorcoach bus services operate group charters, cruise ship passenger tours, multi-day tours and 40 inner-city runs throughout the Maritimes, as well as municipal transit operations.
In an interview from his Charlottetown headquarters on Thursday, Cassidy said he will be able to put the minimum on a bus (27 passengers) if every single person is riding as an individual and not part of the same extended household.
However, because of the interiour change, the buses could operate at full capacity if, for example, 27 couples were to book a fare.
“They are very clear; visibility is not impaired. They are flexible so it’s not hard Plexiglas hitting your body and they protect people," Cassidy said of the partitions.
For a demonstration on what Coach Atlantic and Maritime Bus are doing to protect passengers in these COVID-19 times, watch video below:
Right now, inter-provincial travel is banned unless it is deemed essential, but Cassidy is optimistic that, by mid-July, people will be allowed to travel within Atlantic Canada.
“This is the staycation, down home, see Atlantic Canada (kind of summer). Can we bring some life back to the motorcoach (business)? Yes we can, but we have to be safe; we have to be comfortable and we have to have a set of protocols — and these partitions will do it. The motorcoach (business) lends itself to this type of (Plexiglas) engineering."
Since health restrictions began around mid-March, the company has scaled back operations from seven to three days a week, but the buses are still transporting passengers (approved travel only) and parcels.
Road trip
Following is some extra information involving the Maritime Bus, Coach Atlantic, T3 Transit services and transit across Canada:
- Plexiglass partitions should be installed in each motorcoach bus by June 15.
- It will cost $2,500 for materials and installation for each bus. None of the cost will be covered by users or taxpayers.
- The Toronto transit system is losing about $3 million per week, while Halifax has incurred about $20 million in losses so far.
- T3 Transit was averaging 3,000 passenger fares a day before health restrictions started around mid-March. By the end of March, that average was down to 450 per day.
- Over the last seven days, T3 Transit has rebounded to between 1,000 and 1,100 passenger fares a day
Cassidy said he will lose roughly $30 million in revenue this year. Group charter business has grounded to a halt. There are no cruise ships coming into Maritime ports this year, and all multi-day tours have been cancelled. But he is determined to push forward, not only for himself but for his employees. Last year, the business operated with 515 employees. Right now, it’s working with between 40 and 60 people. Cassidy hopes if an Atlantic Canadian bubble is created next month, he can call back another 50 to 75.
“It’s easier to ramp up your business from a slow idle than it is from a dead stop," Cassidy said.
As for the T3 Transit business he operates for the municipalities of Charlottetown, Stratford and Cornwall, Cassidy said those buses are manufactured by a different company and there is no plan to install partitions. He explained that, unlike the motorcoach buses, transit buses operate much day in, day out on a quick-on, quick-off method.
“That’s a different beast. We’re just doing (physical distancing) separation in those cases."
